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A district court in Montana is deciding a case brought by 16 youth plaintiffs who are arguing that, by enacting pro fossil-fuel policies, state officials have violated their constitutional rights to a healthy environment. The trial has featured testimony of experts from around the world as well as from the youth themselves.
One 19-year-old plaintiff, Grace Gibson-Snyder, says thinking about Montana’s future fills her with fear. She told the court the rivers she grew up rafting are getting lower amid frequent dry spells. The air she breathes in during soccer practice more frequently fills with wildfire smoke. And in Glacier national park in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, the glaciers are melting.
I have hopefully 80 years left of living in Montana and living on this earth,” she said on the stand. “Knowing that my health will be in danger for those 80 years, my livelihood, my home? That’s a long time to live with that.
While many cases have been brought on the basis of a constitutional right to a stable and healthy climate, this is the first constitutional climate in US history to reach trial. Four cases are pending in four other states and a major federal case, Juliana vs. U.S., was put on track for trial June 1 after eight years of delay.