Whackadoodle Heroes: Sixteen Kids from Montana

Plus, the Non-Profit who helped them, the volunteers who did the work, and the doners that helped finance the whole thing.

Image from an Our Children’s Trust Rally

I read a lot of stuff telling me how bad things are in America; it’s enough to make you want to give up. Sometimes, I want to yell at the top of my lungs, “Stop telling me what I already know, and tell me what I can do about it.”

Well, let me tell you about sixteen kids who did something about it. (As well as the Non-Profit who helped them, the volunteers who did the work, and the doners that helped finance them.)

I suppose it all began in 1972, when Montana added the following article to its State Constitution:

Article IX: Environment and Natural Resources

1. The State and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.

Source: Montana State Constitution

This provision was ignored until March 13, 2020, when sixteen kids—with the help of the Non-Profit, Our Children’s Trust—brought a lawsuit against the State of Montana in Held v. State of Montana. Their suit claimed that the State was ignoring their Constitutional Right to a protected environment, specifically that the State’s fossil fuel-based energy system was contributing to Climate Change.

The case was finally settled in the kid’s favor on August 14, 2023. In a 103-page decision, Judge Seeley’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order set forth critical evidentiary and legal precedent for the right of youth to a safe climate, including these highlights:

• "Each additional ton of GHGs [greenhouse gases] emitted into the atmosphere exacerbates impacts to the climate."

• “Every additional ton of GHG emissions exacerbates Plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries.”

• “Plaintiffs’ injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.”

• “Plaintiffs have proven that as children and youth, they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts.”

• “The State authorizes fossil fuel activities without analyzing GHGs or climate impacts, which result in GHG emissions in Montana and abroad that have caused and continue to exacerbate anthropogenic climate change.”

• The order provides meaningful redress to plaintiffs’ injuries because “the amount of additional GHG emissions emitted into the climate system today and in the coming decade will impact the long-term severity of the heating and the severity of Plaintiffs’ injuries.”

• “The Defendants have the authority under the statutes by which they operate to protect Montana's environment and natural resources, protect the health and safety of Montana's youth, and alleviate and avoid climate impacts by limiting fossil fuel activities that occur in Montana when the MEPA analysis shows that those activities are resulting in degradation or other harms which violate the Montana Constitution.”

• “Montana's contributions to GHG emissions can be measured incrementally and cumulatively both in terms of immediate local effects and by mixing in the atmosphere and contributing to global climate change and an already destabilized climate system.”

• “Montana's GHG contributions are not de minimis but are nationally and globally significant. Montana's GHG emissions cause and contribute to climate change and Plaintiffs' injuries and reduce the opportunity to alleviate Plaintiffs' injuries.”

• Court finds that Earth Energy Imbalance is the most critical scientific metric in determining climate stability and includes a graphic showing that 350 ppm was the level of CO2 where the Earth was last within energy balance. Allowing consideration of climate change “would provide the clear information needed to conform their decision making to the best science and their constitutional duties and constraints and give them the necessary information to deny permits for fossil fuel activities when inconsistent with protecting Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”

So, what does that all mean in English?

It means that the State of Montana can no longer authorize new fossil fuel development and ignore climate change. They must acknowledge that every ton of greenhouse gas emissions worsens the physical lives of the plaintiffs.

It also means that sixteen kids found their voices, learned a lot about the justice system, and realized how important it is to find allies who will stand with you.

On days when I just want to scream, “Stop telling me what I already know, and tell me what I can do about it,” these kids—as well as the Non-Profit who helped them, the volunteers who did the work, and the doners that helped finance them—seem to have found at least one answer.

To learn more about Our Children’s Trust and their upcoming cases, including Juliana v. The United States, as well as how you can add your voice, click here.

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