MARCH 2024
Each month, we invite you to learn about the people, the progress, the precedent, and the history-making protection of children’s right to a safe climate powered by Our Children’s Trust.
March promises to be another exciting and fulfilling month for the Our Children’s Trust team and community, highlighted by oral arguments being held in Richmond, Virginia, on March 12 to get constitutional climate case Layla H. v. Commonwealth of Virginia back to where it belongs — in the courtroom.
Stand in solidarity with these brave young Virginians as they demand climate justice by attending the hearing in Richmond or help us spread the word on social media! Learn more here.
Meanwhile, last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit DENIED the Department of Justice's latest stonewalling in Juliana — a welcome but temporary victory for the 21 youth plaintiffs. However, the DOJ is still grasping at extreme legal tactics to block the youth plaintiffs from telling their stories in open court.
We were given just 21 days to make our case for why Juliana needs to be allowed to go to trial. That is why we are asking for your continued support. So far, you’ve helped us send more than 35,000 letters to the Biden Administration and the DOJ and we thank you! In addition, 70+ organizations have joined the #SaveJuliana coalition. Now is the time to keep powering forward, and we need you to keep it LOUD. Let’s make it impossible for President Biden and the DOJ to ignore us.
YOUTH-POWERED JUSTICE
Meet Layla! As the lead plaintiff in Layla H. v. Commonwealth of Virginia, Layla has experienced intense climate anxiety and witnessed storm-caused destruction to her family’s home and property over the years, which prompted her to join the lawsuit. Hear her story, and why she remains hopeful for the future. Read more.
1. How have you been affected by climate change?
Climate change affects me physically and emotionally; it strikes fear in me and makes my future uncertain. In the past decade, my family has faced frequent extreme weather events such as increased flooding and severe thunderstorms. Our home has been damaged many times, leading to profound financial burdens. We’ve had to cut down dozens of trees to prevent them from falling on our roof during storms and install an expensive outdoor drainage system to combat flooding. Summer temperatures have steadily increased, causing us intense heat exhaustion and painful heat rashes.
The uncertainty of my future has led to chronic climate anxiety – I’m unsure whether life will be as we know it in 20, even 10 years from now. Questions regarding how bad things will get, whether I could ever potentially have a family, and whether my state and/or national government will step in before it’s too late are almost constantly swirling in my head. I don’t know what my quality of life will be. I’m unsure whether the flora and fauna in my area I’ve grown to love will still be there or whether the air I breathe will be as fresh as it is now. I don’t know if growing up in a safe and healthy environment is even a guarantee, at this point, and that scares me deeply – not just for myself, but for future generations.
2. What do you hope to accomplish with your lawsuit?
To hold my state accountable for its active role in worsening climate change through its encouragement of and ties to the fossil fuel industry. We have known about the harmful impacts of fossil fuel combustion for decades, yet there has not been a consistent and wholehearted effort made by Virginia’s government to mitigate these impacts by lessening our dependence and preventing the proliferation of the fossil fuel industry. Dozens of unnecessary fossil fuel plants are being developed annually, all with our state’s approval.
I am tired of this issue being swept under the rug, as my fellow plaintiffs and I are already experiencing the consequences of such willful negligence daily, and it’s only going to get worse from here. My secondary goal is to raise awareness of climate change and our state’s role in allowing it to worsen. So many children and teens across the nation are feeling empowered to take a stand against their state and even national governments, and I can see a domino effect already taking place. It’s inspiring, and that kind of bravery is infectious. Showing children that we do have a voice, whether or not we can vote, is incredibly important to me.
3. How has working with OCT impacted you?
I feel hope for the first time in years. Seeing so many people across the nation united, fighting for a common cause, is really beautiful. I’ve met people from all walks of life through my involvement with this lawsuit, and I’m learning more and more about our current climate crisis every day. I feel a burgeoning confidence in our ability to make a change, knowing that there are so many amazing individuals willing to dedicate their careers to advocating for children and fighting for our rights. I love all of the attorneys and staff I’ve worked with at OCT, as they have inspired me to speak up for what is right and have instilled a sense of unwavering optimism.
PEOPLE-POWERED JUSTICE
Meet Joanna Zeigler! She’s a Staff Attorney at Our Children’s Trust, litigating youth-led constitutional climate cases like Layla H. v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Navahine F. v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation. Joanna knows climate change is too important of an issue to ignore, and is passionate about using her skills as an attorney to protect youth’s rights to a safe climate.
1. What do you do here at Our Children’s Trust?
I am a staff attorney, working on our Hawaiʻi and Virginia cases, and I am also developing cases we will soon be filing in other states.
2. How did you get involved in climate action and find your way here?
I joined Our Children’s Trust because climate change is too important of an issue to ignore. I want to know I am using my law degree to make our world a better place for youth and future generations. I hope, looking back at my life, I can say that I did the best I could with the skills I have to contribute to protecting youth’s rights to a safe climate.
3. What has been one of your favorite memories or experiences since you joined the team?
Getting to know each of the plaintiffs in all of my cases is such a privilege and joy. In Hawaiʻi, the defendants have been taking plaintiff depositions and this has allowed me to spend time with each of our young clients and learn about all the amazing activities they are involved in, and the interesting perspectives they each bring to the case. In Virginia, we will be arguing at the Court of Appeals on March 12, 2024, to get the plaintiffs’ case back on track for trial. I look forward to seeing the plaintiffs gathered together for the oral argument, and I know the judges at the Court of Appeals will notice the young plaintiffs in attendance standing up for their rights.
4. What gives you hope?
The plaintiffs. Each one of these young people in Hawaiʻi and Virginia is standing up for their rights and doing something brave. They are telling the Court to listen to how they are being impacted by climate change and requesting the Court recognize their right to a safe climate and that their constitutional rights are being violated.
5. What is one thing you’d want everyone to know about Our Children’s Trust?
Our Children’s Trust is a family of dedicated and hard workers. We all support each other through sometimes long workdays because we have a common goal of uplifting the plaintiffs and making sure their voices are heard. It is a privilege and an honor to be a part of this team.
DEMOCRacy-POWERED trust
We cannot do the work we do without a strong network of amazing supporters, so meet Dr. Samantha Ahdoot, of Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action. As a pediatrician, Dr. Ahdoot cares deeply about preserving a healthy world for children, and proudly uses her professional voice to cut through entrenched partisan barriers by focusing on the health benefits of climate solutions and the dangers of inaction.
1. How does Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action protect climate rights?
VCCA educates and mobilizes clinicians in support of climate solutions in Virginia. We know that doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and trainees have the knowledge and the mission to play a vital role in preserving a climate that protects the health, safety, and prosperity of people. Our clinician voice can cut through entrenched partisan barriers by focusing on the health benefits of climate solutions and the dangers of inaction.
2. How and why do you partner with Our Children’s Trust and the young people we represent?
VCCA was proud to submit two Amicus Briefs, with support from the University of Virginia Environmental Law Clinic, in support of the Our Children's Trust plaintiffs in August 2022 and March 2023. We also featured the plaintiffs in a VCCA webinar in June 2022. I have been proud to share their story at presentations across the country for several years.
3. What personally inspires you to take climate action?
As a pediatrician, I care deeply about preserving a healthy world for children. I am very proud of my professional society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and my pediatric colleagues across the country who are physician leaders in support of climate solutions for children. That children and future generations have a legal right to a safe climate, and that the law should require climate policies to protect them, seems an irrefutable truth to me. I am so thankful to Our Children's Trust for their relentless work to make this truth a reality.
SCIENCE-POWERED EVIDENCE
Sea-Level Rise: A Foregone Conclusion?
One the most common terms sports announcers use is “foregone conclusion.” In the world of climate science, some amount of sea-level rise in the face of global warming is a true foregone conclusion. The real question is how much?
At the current level of global warming of about 2.2º Fahrenheit (1.2º Celsius) above 1800s temperatures, we are committed to more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) of sea-level rise as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and global glaciers melt along with expansion of warmer oceans. At the even worse for the planet global warming level of 1.5º Celsius set out in the Paris Agreement, we are committed to 10 to 16 feet (3-5 meters) of sea-level rise.
The states of the eastern United States seaboard, such as Virginia, are under heightened risk of sea-level rise and could experience more than the global average. For example, the full melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet would raise global sea level on average by roughly 10 feet (3 meters), but sea level would rise 12.5 feet (3.8 meters) in Virginia.
This heightened risk for Virginia also extends to the ability of its coastal ecosystem to adjust to rising sea level. In a recent study, Saintilan and co-authors (2023, Nature) determined from the geologic record the range in rates of sea-level rise to which certain coastal ecosystems (salt marshes, mangroves, corals) can adjust versus become overwhelmed and drown. These ecosystems can adjust to sea-level rise at rates of <4 mm per year, struggle at 4-7 mm per year, and drown at >7 mm per year. If we let the global temperature increase to 1.5º Celsius, Virginia will experience sea-level rise of >7 mm per year, dooming its coastal salt marsh ecosystem (see Figure).
Figure. Rates of coastal sea-level rise at 1.5º Celsius. Regions in red will have rates too fast for coastal ecosystems to adjust and these ecosystems will drown. From Saintilan et al. (2023, Nature).
But are these dire projections really foregone conclusions that we are calling close to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? In short, no. If we stop burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the near future, then the warming stops. The heating ends because existing carbon dioxide sinks (oceans, plants, rock weathering) cease to be choked by human emissions and start to suck up the carbon dioxide we’ve already emitted. Climate models project that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration can fall 80-115 parts per million (ppm) in a century after emissions stop. When atmospheric carbon dioxide falls back below 350 ppm, then Earth’s energy balance will begin to be restored and the planet will cool. A cooling planet stops ice sheet and glacier melting and can lead to them regrowing. Like the plucky underdog team, we still have the power to overcome this “foregone conclusion.”