Anthropocentric warming, the greatest threat to human health and survival, disproportionately threatens children. Children pay the greatest climate penalty. Per the World Health Organization, children suffer more than 80% of climate crisis-related injuries, illnesses & deaths being more vulnerable to carbon-polluted air, extreme heat, drought and innumerable other climate-charged disasters and diseases. Nevertheless, the US healthcare accounts for an ever-increasing amount of carbon pollution and refuses to divest in fossil fuels. As for federal policymakers, the White House and Congressional Republicans remain intent on committing ecocide. To the surprise of no one, in late May Our Children’s Trust, on behalf of 22 plaintiffs age 7 to 25, sued President Trump and five administrative offices and departments arguing in part several White House Executive Orders will increase fossil fuel use and dismantle climate research, warnings and response infrastructure. The lead plaintiff in Lighthiser v Trump stated White House policy amounts to a “death sentence for my generation.”
The WCC handbook available at: https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-publishes-resource-on-legal-tools-for-climate-justice.
The Lighthiser v Trump complaint is at: https://climatecasechart.com/case/lighthiser-v-trump/.
Among related discussions, I interviewed the Michael Burger at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law in May 2020 and again in June 2024 and Andrea Rodgers with Our Children’s Trust this past January.
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