Alaskan youth sue state government for lack of action against climate change
Nowhere in the United States has been experiencing the impacts of climate change in a more rapid fashion than Alaska where a steep rise in temperatures has been melting permafrost and causing sea levels to rise.
Last fall, a group of 16 Alaska youth decided to sue their home state through a non profit called Our Children’s Trust, claiming their fundamental human rights are being threatened by climate change.
“There is language in the [Alaskan] Constitution that suggests that everyone in the state has a right to life, liberty, property, and that has been interpreted by the Alaska Supreme Court to include a healthy environment,” says Pat Parenteau. “The Constitution doesn't use those words, but they've been implied as unenumerated rights. The court in Alaska hasn't fleshed out exactly what that means and what obligations it might impose on, for example, the government.”
Ian D. Keating