Teens File Lawsuit Over Climate Change

And the defendant? The US Government.

From LiveScience: NASA Scientist Helps Teens Sue Government Over Climate Change by Wynne Parry

By failing to take action against global warming, the federal government has violated its legal obligation to protect the atmosphere as a resource that belongs to everyone, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court last week.

Five of the plaintiffs are teenagers, who have a "profound interest in ensuring our climate remains stable enough to ensure their right to a livable future," according to the suit filed May 4, which names a number of federal officials — from Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to Robert Gates of the Defense Department — as defendants.

The suit cites climate calculations, and is supported by NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who has a history of speaking out forcefully on the hazards of human-caused global warming. Hansen told LiveScience he had been interested in going to court over the topic in recent years.

Climate change - children hardest hit.

This story proves the point that when liberals can't get what they want either through legislation or by winning in the arena of ideas, they resort to litigation.

But why sue the US Government? I guess we're responsible for the whole world's atmosphere now.

The suit is based on the Public Trust Doctrine, a long-standing legal doctrine that states it is the government's duty to protect the resources that are essential for our collective survival and prosperity, such as rivers, groundwater, or in this case, atmosphere, according to Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit advocacy organization behind the litigation.

"So far politics have governed what governments are doing about the climate crisis, and the Public Trust Doctrine is about putting the science back into climate protection," said Julia Olson, director of Our Children's Trust. "And that is what we are asking courts to do."

"Putting science back into climate protection"? How about including science in the first place?

The group is behind a number of other lawsuits filed against state governments, including Alaska and Arizona, based on the same legal reasoning and with other young plaintiffs, according to Olson.

"We have kids in Alaska who are seeing their glaciers melting and their homes becoming unstable because of the melting permafrost, and kids in Arizona where it is becoming hotter and drier. … They are already experiencing drought and less ability to grow their own food," she said.

Appealing to emotions by having kids included in the lawsuit. Par for the course.

The federal lawsuit discusses how the individual teenage plaintiffs have been or will be affected by climate change. For example, if no change is made to our current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, within 16-year-old plaintiff Alec L's lifetime, sea level is expected to cover the waste water treatment center, the power generating station, the freeway, beaches and hundreds of homes in his hometown, Ventura, Calif.

Oh really? That's all speculation and prophecy, rather than facts. Scare tactics.

The sad thing is, they'll probably find a sympathetic judge to hear the case.

Okay, so here's my question. Say they win their suit, aaaaaaannnd in 30 years time nothing changes in terms of Co2 levels, or temperature, or anything like that, and Alec's hometown is still hunky-dory (provided California hasn't fallen in the ocean by then). Can my teenage kids countersue these idiots for filing a frivolous lawsuit?