Carrying the Legacy of Environmental Law and Protecting Children’s Rights to a Safe Climate
April 21, 2025
Andrea Rodgers speaking at a press conference after oral arguments in Navahine v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation. Photo by E. Butler; Earthjustice
This Earth Month, we celebrate the intergenerational bonds that fuel climate action. At Our Children’s Trust, youth plaintiffs fight for their rights for a safe, livable future, but they’re not in it alone. Behind them are parents, grandparents, lawyers, experts, and community members committed to helping them secure their fundamental rights.
To highlight this special intergenerational bond, we sat down with Andrea Rodgers, Our Children’s Trust Deputy Director of U.S. Strategy. Andrea shares how her father’s legacy shaped her path, what she’s learned from youth plaintiffs like Delaney Reynolds, and how intergenerational collaboration is key to a just, sustainable future.
1. Andrea, how has your father's work and the values he championed shaped you?
My dad, Professor William Rodgers, was one of the first people to practice environmental law. When he went to law school, there wasn't such a thing as environmental law, and then when he started to teach, there wasn't such a thing as environmental law, so he taught a course called Equitable Remedies, which sort of became environmental law.
Then he was involved in a lot of testimony when major federal environmental laws were enacted. So really what I got most from my dad was his favorite thing in environmental law, which was being creative. So, lawyers who thought outside of the box and were willing to bring creative legal theories to protect the environment, creatures, and the humans that depend upon a clean and healthy environment.
Litigators who took risks and thought outside of the box, and worked strategically and differently to figure out the best way to protect our environment — that has really inspired me. One of the reasons I love to work at Our Children's Trust is that we really foster creativity in how we practice and litigate under the law.
We're looking for every single tool we can find to protect the climate rights of children, and we have to be creative in doing that because the legal system changes, and the laws change, but what doesn't change is children's need for a safe and stable climate system.
2. How do you see your father’s legacy influencing the way you approach motherhood? In what ways have you passed down his values to your own children?
My dad was always present. We always used to joke that he was unemployed because he was at every basketball game. He was always home; he was always there for dinner. He was always around. So, as we got older and learned that he was the most prolific writer in environmental law, we thought, geez, when did he do this? Because he really was present and always there. I really took that lesson to heart and want to be there for my kids and also for our plaintiffs.
They're going through some challenges and hard times, and what they really need is adults showing up for them and being there as helpers and supporters. At Our Children’s Trust, we're so lucky to work with plaintiffs because we get to serve in that role — to be there, to support them and learn about them.
3. In what ways did you see your father learn from your kids? How did their perspectives or experiences influence him, especially in the context of the values he held?
My dad was never one for technology. He wrote all of his books and all of his articles by hand, literally on yellow legal paper. Spending so much time around my kids, we were able to live in an intergenerational home with him when he was alive, learning about technology and new ways of doing things.
I think he was always so fascinated by that because it wasn't his perspective at all, but I think the kids were able to show him cool and different things that you could do on a computer.
My dad was also a book person — we have so many books, and he loved to read and always read to us. And he did that with my kids as well. So, we really had a family of reading to each other in a variety of different ways, and we were able to do that to him as he got older and wasn't able to read as much on his own. So that was a really special part of having that intergenerational family and teaching each other things through the years.
Andrea Rodgers and her father, William Rodgers
4. How do you feel about carrying forward your father’s legacy in climate and environmental law? What parts of his work do you feel most connected to, and how do you hope to build upon it through cases like Reynolds v. Florida Public Service Commission?
He always really championed women in the field of environmental law. I remember being at our kitchen table, and he had gotten something in the mail from the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, which was founded by one of his former students, Rachel Osborne. And he just thought she was such a hero and such a champion, and she really was leading water rights. She was a lawyer in the state of Washington, who I had the pleasure of working with as an attorney, and she ended up being one of my mentors.
So, he really liked to champion that and highlight that for me as a way to show that there's such incredible opportunity there and women can be some of the most creative, independent, and free-thinking litigators out there.
For years, he represented the Puyallup Indian Tribe in their treaty fishing rights cases. He championed Indigenous peoples and their rights to a clean environment and their rights to access fish, so that really inspired me.
I've worked for many years in Indian Country as well, and I continue to represent Indigenous youth at Our Children's Trust. We have a number of clients who are Indigenous and have very strong connections to the places where they call home. That's a very important part of doing environmental law.
I've never thought of environmental law as being separate from people. It has never been about just the Earth or just about animals, it's really about the whole ecosystem and the people who need a clean and healthy environment. So, I think I really got that from him as well.
5. How have the challenges your father faced in environmental litigation influenced your approach to the complex legal issues youth plaintiffs like Delaney are bringing to court today?
My dad always famously said, he always lost his cases, which isn't true, but I think what he was trying to say is that it’s really hard. There are a lot of judges who don't understand environmental law. Most judges don't get a lot of training in environmental law and don't prioritize the protection of the environment.
And that's something I've never understood. You cannot live a healthy life in an environment that's not safe and healthy as well. So, that never really made sense to me. But that is one of the challenges that we face. It's the same in Indian Country as well. There are very few judges who understand tribal law and what self-governance actually means.
So, I think it's really important that we do our best. We have an uphill battle when we file these kinds of cases in terms of climate change because there is such a profound lack of education and understanding about these issues. And in the context of climate change, it goes further where you have decades of deception and false information about what climate change is.
So, it's really important that when we bring our cases, we are able to bring in the best science and the best facts so that courts can understand these very complex and nuanced cases in an understandable way. My dad was very good at making complicated issues seem simple and broke things down.
He would always just read the statute and say what it means. He said you don't have to make it so complicated. So, I really take a lot of inspiration with that. And a lot of my most successful cases at Our Children's Trust have been just reading the law and not making it more complicated than it needs to be.
And I think that really jives with our work with young people because oftentimes they're seeing it with a fresh look and they're not bringing a bunch of baggage of, oh, you have to interpret something in this, that, and the other way. They're reading it with fresh eyes, and a view that's, here's what justice requires, so how do we get there?
6. As an attorney working with young people, what have you learned from these plaintiffs? How has working with youth like Delaney over the years influenced your view on the role of youth in driving systemic change?
Working with these youth plaintiffs is why we do this work, and we learn something from them every day, and that was probably one of the best parts of doing the Montana trial, was working so closely with the plaintiffs to get their testimony ready.
I remember a time with Delaney because I've been able to work with Delaney since about 2018 or even 2017, so over eight years. And just to see how she has grown up and how she views the climate crisis through different lenses as she grows up, advocating for policy and being an incredibly accomplished scientist in her own right.
So, seeing it through that lens, through the advocacy work that she has done, and now as she's getting her PhD and going through law school and all of these different perspectives that she brings, while she still is so committed to protecting the place that she loves is so refreshing.
She has a deep, deep love for her home, and I think that's what I've seen is so universal for a lot of these kids. They really love their home and the places where they grew up. The places where they recreate define them and are very special to them. And you see that with Delaney with respect to the Florida Keys and Miami because she is a Miami girl, she’s a South Florida girl. She loves that place, and she’ll do anything to protect it.
Delaney Reynolds speaking at a press conference. Photo by Robin Loznak
She's a fourth generation Floridian and she wants her own family to live like she lived and to see the creatures under the sea that she has grown up swimming with and studying. So, it's such a pleasure working with them and their commitment to the places that they love and their childhood experiences is really inspiring.
I think that sometimes we forget how special these places are to us, and I think young people bring us back to that because if you go to Miami, you want to see Miami through Delaney's eyes — you’ll see all the special treasures and attributes of the place that you just wouldn't understand if you were there on your own.
It's been such a pleasure to watch her and to see what an accomplished speaker she is. When we met her, she had just written an ordinance to get solar panels required on certain homes in South Miami at the age of 16.
To see how she has grown in communicating her message and the work that she does, is really, really incredible. Also, that commitment. For a young person to work on something for such a large part of their lives is very special and many kids don’t do that.
7. You and Delaney have spent years advocating for the next generation. How do you think this long-term collaboration between generations creates a stronger, more sustainable movement for climate justice?
One of the things I think Delaney and I have in common is we're very close to our families.
Oftentimes, when I've gotten to spend time with Delaney, I've gotten to spend time with her family as well, and just to see that circle of support that she has is incredible. It’s important because I think that's what gives Delaney the appetite and the ability to weather these very difficult circumstances. It's hard to be a young person working on climate change in South Florida. The politics are against you. The rhetoric is against you.
It's a very challenging circumstance, but I think her family lifts her up. Her community of peers lifts her up, and gives her the strength that she needs and the confidence that she needs to continue this work. Delaney takes great pride that her family has been from South Florida for so many generations and that's where she wants to be. She really wants to carry on that legacy.
The places that her family took her growing up in the keys, and other places in South Florida, Delaney wants to be able to take her own kids too someday. That's part of why she does this work. She really wants other young people and future generations to be able to enjoy the environment and everything that South Florida has to offer because it's such a unique place.
8. How do you see your work alongside Delaney's activism as bridging the gap between generations and how do you ensure that the youth voices in these cases are heard while also utilizing the experience and strategy that comes from decades of legal work?
I'm really Delaney's helper, you know, I help her access her courts, but she's going to law school, so she's not going to need that help much longer. I've been really able to serve as a vehicle to help her try to secure protection of her rights in the judicial system, and she wouldn't be able to do that without the support of folks at Our Children's Trust and the folks who support her in all of her public speaking engagements and events that she does.
We really see ourselves as helpers and try to uplift the work that she sees as so important and she inspires us to do an excellent job. She's connected us with many scientists that she's worked with, as well as other youth, and other advocates that she's working with on renewable energy.
She has been able to bring so much to the table and we have been able to take that and build it into a case and then provide her with access to the courts to secure protection of her rights. She's a remarkable person in terms of the connections and the work that she has done and the bridges that she has built.
She's very solution-oriented. She is focused on finding solutions and finding allies that will help build those solutions. She's a builder. She's not someone who breaks things down. She builds things up and makes them better. If there's someone who comes from an aura of abundance, it's Delaney Reynolds because she really has a vision for how life can exist on this planet in a sustainable and long-lasting way. And she sees the law as a critical and important tool that supports that process and protects her rights.
9. How do you encourage youth to see their rights and voices as powerful tools for change?
It's really about giving young people the opportunity to do that and to be able to express themselves. I think that's the best part. It's really exciting to see them take ownership of that.
One moment I remember is when we were getting ready to file the case in Canada, LA Rose v. His Majesty the King, and we had some plaintiffs who were young, in their early teens. They really hadn't done much media work before and at the beginning they were like, I just don't think I really want to do that, you know, I'm not sure. And we were like, well, it's totally up to you. And then they saw some of the older plaintiffs doing some media interviews like Albert and Cecilia, who had been doing that work before they became plaintiffs and then watching them in their eyes like, hey, maybe this is something I want to try.
And then they sort of leaned in because we were there to provide support as were the other plaintiffs. And they really enjoyed it. They were like, gosh, this is something that I can do, I can do this, I want to be able to speak about this. So, it's really giving them the opportunity to do that.
I think that's why our work is so unique. We're giving them the opportunity to do that in courts, but we also work with them and our communications team, enabling them to do that on a public platform because a huge part of this work is people understanding why they want to be plaintiffs.
For them to be able to think about that and express that, I think it brings their level of understanding about who they are and what they want in this world into a strong perspective because they're able to say, I'm doing this work because I love this place and this is where I want to stay, or it's because I love this species of animal, and they mean a lot to me and I want them to continue to remain on this planet.
10. How do you see your role as a mentor to young people like Delaney and how can older generations help foster the leadership of younger people in the fight for climate justice?
My job is to interpret the law and explain the law so that they can understand what their rights are, how the judicial system works, and how they can access the judicial system. So, there are very clear things that I do as a lawyer representing young people so that they can understand and access the judicial system.
Many young people don't realize that they have the ability to do that, so we're sort of liaisons. Representing them and opening those doors so they can experience that and have the ability to protect their rights in that context.
We're also there to support them. Growing up in a climate crisis is very hard. Many of our plaintiffs have experienced tremendous loss because of climate change, whether it's a home, whether it's a place, whether it's animals — many have experienced deep loss. So, we need to provide them with a safe space so that they can process that loss, and translate that loss into taking action that can help them heal in a way. We do that by spending time with our plaintiffs.
We're a trauma-informed care organization, so we provide that level of support to our plaintiffs as well. They oftentimes lean upon one another because many of the plaintiffs have experienced some similar activities engaging with the judicial system.
So, we play a number of different roles and want to support our plaintiffs in every way. We've written letters of recommendation for them and have even co-written articles with some of our plaintiffs. Being able to work with them now in a professional capacity is really exciting as they start to get older.
But again, I'll come back to, we really see ourselves as helpers, trying to support this generation of young people who are growing up in climate crisis and doing what they need to secure their climate rights and making sure that the courts are open and willing to protect those rights on behalf of these young people.
11. How do you see the climate movement evolving over the next few decades, and how can the lessons learned from intergenerational partnerships like yours be passed down to continue the momentum for climate action?
I feel lucky because I am working directly with the younger generation who are going to be our policymakers, our scientists, and our political officials.
I have tremendous hope because I think this younger generation is incredibly empathetic and they're deeply understanding of climate science and civics and really want to address this crisis and have a strong vision for what the future will look like in terms of a sustainable future dominated by renewable energy, not fossil fuels.
Many young people don't get what's the big deal with fossil fuels. They smell, they pollute, and they cost more money. Why is that something we would pursue? So I think seeing young people and their vision for a sustainable world that doesn't hurt people is really exciting to see. Many of our plaintiffs are studying various aspects of climate change or working in the policy realm as well.
So, I'm very hopeful that we will continue to see climate justice, and we're starting to see that in the courts. We're starting to see young people's stories out there, influencing and shaping the public perception of what's needed in terms of getting off of fossil fuels as soon as possible.
I have tremendous hope given the plaintiffs that I represent and the young people that I see who will be leading the charge going forward.