Student leaders behind the movement calling on the UN to highlight key data on imminent global collapse. Our Future Uncompromised
24,500 students representing every country in the EU have added their names to the list of young people fighting for a future for themselves and the earth.
The students, who organize under the banner of Our Future Uncompromised and attend the prestigious Schola Europaea network of international schools, are calling on the United Nations (UN) to "stop withholding" crucial scientific information that they say could help avert the duel catastrophes of resources depletion and climate change, the students announced Thursday in an email sent to EcoWatch.
<p>"If this science isn't known by the public, governments won't act at the scale required and global collapse is certain," student representative Carolina Teixeira wrote in the email. </p><p>The students' demands come in the form of a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other key UN and EU leaders. The students want the UN to publicize four key facts that are currently deeply buried within UN data:</p><ol class="ee-ol"><li>The goals of the Sustainable Development Objective and Climate Stabilization Objective agreed to in 1987 and 1992 respectively.</li><li>The fact that nothing meaningful has been done to achieve either objective.</li><li>The per capita responsibility by nation for these failures.</li><li>The actions that need to be taken for the objectives to succeed. </li></ol><p>The students have asked the UN to "prominently publish" the facts in their letter, but the UN has so far refused their request.</p><p>"The UN has failed to reveal to the public the undisputed scientific realities that nothing meaningful has been, is, or is intended to be done to prevent unsustainable development including climate change from inevitably resulting in global social and economic collapse," the students wrote in their email.</p><p>The facts laid out by the students in the email are stark. In 1992, the UN Climate Stabilization Objective promised to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level which would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." But in the past 26 years, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has only increased, as a graph included by the students shows.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgzOTgzMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzQ5MzQ4N30.OGbCcf8e1arasu7dv8CcuArkqEQxCl110c0krwqTojo/img.png?width=980" id="73b14" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef205f89ef8ef4d083e21d684adc9ccc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A graphic illustration of the international community's failure to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the past 30 years</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Our Future Uncompromised</small></p><p>When it comes to resource extraction, the data highlighted by the students is equally grim. In 1987, the Sustainable Development Objective vowed to "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." But resource extraction has actually doubled in one generation, and in the past 30 years, the amount of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_blank">fossil fuels</a> dug up from the earth increased by 120 percent.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgzOTg0MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODUzNTM1MX0.raAs3StM4xI-IPPn5CFtMFPa1VNo990rqTrAi0Zg0-A/img.png?width=980" id="61095" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f32d19ea3675b0b4457cce38515a7e57" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The increase in resource extraction since the international community pledged itself to sustainability</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Our Future Uncompromised</small></p><p>Blame for these failures is not equal, the students pointed out. Very highly developed nations like the U.S. and EU member states produce 70 times the greenhouse gas emissions of the least developed countries. Meanwhile, the 1.2 billion poorest people consume only one percent of the earth's resources, while the wealthiest one billion people gobble up 72 percent.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgzOTg1NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODE1MDYwNX0.pxWe9-kI3Yyb9qq1sxp9OkHLw9iQOszqqU2MhuYmpq4/img.png?width=980" id="a7e34" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51e3df9b10042f25fc2cd4e9337f2ff7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A graphic showing that highly developed nations are more responsible for greenhouse gas emissions than less developed nations</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Our Future Uncompromised</small></p><p>The students say voluntary actions have not been enough to address this growing crisis and that political laws are necessary to prevent humans from stretching earth's laws past the breaking point. Those laws would, among other things:<br></p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Cut global extraction by two percent and greenhouse gas emissions by six percent starting now.</li><li>Limit resource extraction as much as possible.</li><li>Ensure only the best, reusable products are made.</li><li>Ban some harmful products, like fossil fuels, entirely.</li></ul><p>"As Albert Einstein warned, the political-economic-social laws of man must obey the physics-chemistry-biology laws of nature—'The laws of man must obey the laws of nature, or man will not survive,'" student Zoe Sleath wrote.</p>
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Supporters of the youth climate lawsuit rally outside the Supreme Court. Win McNamee / Getty Images
It was a good weekend for justice in America, which isn't something we get to say very often these days. That's because Friday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court kicked it off with a hopeful decision: The Trump administration can't stop the historic youth climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States from going to trial.
<p><a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/" target="_blank">Our Children's Trust</a>, the organization supporting the young people behind the case, summed up the mood with a tweet featuring a quote from 22-year-old plaintiff Kelsey Juliana: "Stay with us, in hope and in the pursuit of justice."</p>
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<p>The lawsuit was first filed back in 2015 on behalf of 21 young people who argue that their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property have been violated by the government's scandalous inaction on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>. In a year of historic <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_self">hurricanes</a>, it's pretty easy to see where they're coming from. It's also easy to see their argument had first the Obama administration and now the Trump administration spooked. Both administrations tried multiple times to stop the case from going to trial.<br></p><p>"We've been confident throughout this case that we would get to trial, and I believe we will get to trial," Our Children's Trust executive director and attorney in the case Julia Olson told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-refuses-to-block-kids-climate-lawsuit-against-us-government/2018/11/02/34bd7ee6-d7af-11e8-83a2-d1c3da28d6b6_story.html?utm_term=.2b7c584d0e89" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. "We have overcome everything the government has thrown at us. It is not luck. It is the strength of the case and the strength of the evidence and the strength of the legal arguments we are making." </p><p>This most recent attempt by the Trump administration to block the case was a nail-biter, though, because the Supreme Court actually delayed the start of the trial, which had been set for Oct. 29, while they considered it. </p><p>This was alarming because the Supreme Court had <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/supreme-court-youth-climate-case-2591440617.html?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&share_id=3811309&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=EcoWatch" target="_self">rejected</a> a similar bid by the administration to block the case in July. But between July and October one important thing had changed. Justice Anthony Roberts had retired and Justice Brett Kavanaugh had taken his place. </p><p>EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/youth-climate-lawsuit-supreme-court-2614235440.html" target="_blank">explained at the time</a> why this was troubling: </p><blockquote>Kennedy was a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kennedy-supreme-court-environmental-laws-2582036709.html" target="_self">swing voter</a> on environmental issues who sometimes ruled in favor of increased regulations despite his conservative credentials. Kavanaugh's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kavanaugh-supreme-court-environment-epa-2585783500.html" target="_self">record is much more consistently anti-regulation</a> when it comes to environmental cases. He also lied during the confirmation hearings, presenting his past rulings as more environmentally friendly than others familiar with the cases said they were. After Kennedy announced his retirement, Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus worried a more conservative court might make it harder for private citizens to sue the government over climate change.</blockquote><p>But for now it is unknown how Kavanaugh's presence on the court impacted its decision to let the case proceed. Justice Clarence Thomas and Trump's other appointee Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have sided with the administration and blocked the case, but the others kept mum on how they voted. </p><p>The Supreme Court isn't necessarily gung-ho about the legal arguments made in <em>Juliana v. United States</em>. It acknowledged that the case was "based on an assortment of unprecedented legal theories," but ultimately ruled that government should seek relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit first. </p><p>However, in good news for the young plaintiffs, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also denied the administration's attempt to stop the case on Friday. The plaintiffs immediately filed a request in the District Courts to begin the process of getting the trial back on schedule, and hopefully they will get their day in court soon.</p><p>In a full quote from the Our Children's Trust <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5bdd0596f950b72a53011c0c/1541211544365/2018.11.02+SCOTUS+Decision+x539.pdf" target="_blank">press release</a>, Kelsey Juliana expressed both the frustration and worry caused by the constant delays, as well as the admirable persistence she and the other plaintiffs demonstrate as the fight for a better future for all of us:</p><blockquote>Today we move forward. I want to trust that we are truly on track for trial without having further delays, but these defendants are treating this case, our democracy, and the security of mine and future generations like it's a game. I'm tired of playing this game. These petitions for stay and dismissal are exhausting. To everyone who has invested in this case, to those who've followed along our journey for the past three years and counting: stay with us, in hope and in the pursuit of justice.</blockquote><p>Fight on, Kelsey! We'll stay with you! </p>
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Teen Climate Activist to Crowd of Thousands: 'We Can't Save the World by Playing by the Rules'
22 October 2018
Climate
Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old activist from Sweden, addressed a crowd at what campaigners say was Finland's largest ever climate demonstration on Saturday. Svante Thunberg / Twitter
By Jessica Corbett
Addressing some 10,000 people in Helsinki on Saturday at what some campaigners are calling Finland's largest ever climate demonstration, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg urged marchers to fight for the major systemic changes that experts have said are necessary to limit greenhouse gas emissions and avert a looming climate catastrophe.
<p>"Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground, so we can't save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to change. Everything needs to change and it has to start today," declared the Swedish teenager, who traveled to the capital city of her nation's Nordic neighbor for Saturday's massive march.</p>
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<p>"A lot of people say that Sweden or Finland are just small countries and that it doesn't matter what we do," Thunberg added. "But I think that if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do together if we wanted to."<br></p><p>Thunberg garnered international media attention when, ahead of Sweden's September election, she <a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20180824/meet-the-15-year-old-swedish-girl-on-strike-from-school-for-the-climate" target="_blank">refused</a> to attend school and instead protested outside the Swedish parliament, handing out educational pamphlets to passersby. Now that the election has passed, the self-described "climate radical" and others who have joined the strike <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-fifteen-year-old-climate-activist-who-is-demanding-a-new-kind-of-politics" target="_blank">return</a> to school for four days each week but still protest on Fridays.</p><p>"We young people don't have the vote, but school is obligatory," she <a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20180824/meet-the-15-year-old-swedish-girl-on-strike-from-school-for-the-climate" target="_blank">told</a> The Local in August. "So this a way to get our voices heard."</p>
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<p>At her "now-famous" protest spot and in interviews with the press, Thunberg has stuck to the same message she delivered Saturday about the necessity of a rapid global shift away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy sources.<br></p><p>"I think the election didn't matter," she <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-fifteen-year-old-climate-activist-who-is-demanding-a-new-kind-of-politics" style="" target="_blank">said</a> to The New Yorker about Sweden's latest batch of political races. "The climate is not going to collapse because some party got the most votes. The politics that's needed to prevent the climate catastrophe—it doesn't exist today. We need to change the system, as if we were in crisis, as if there were a war going on."</p><p>Thunberg's recent actions have been celebrated by climate activists including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, who highlighted the march and thanked the teen for her leadership in a tweet on Saturday:</p>
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<p>The thousands of people who participated in Saturday's "<a href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/thousands_gather_in_helsinki_to_demand_swift_action_on_climate_change/10467382" target="_blank">The Time to Act is Now!</a>" demonstration are demanding that politicians from all of Finland's parties commit to cutting off subsidies for fossil fuels by 2020 and totally outlawing dirty energy by 2035, <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/finland/fi/Lauantain-ilmastomarssi-oli-kaikkien-aikojen-suurin-Suomessa/" target="_blank">according to</a> the local chapter of Greenpeace, which helped organize the event.<br></p>
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<p>Helsinki University researcher Tero Toivonen <a href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/thousands_gather_in_helsinki_to_demand_swift_action_on_climate_change/10467382" target="_blank">told</a> Yle News that the unexpectedly high turnout for demonstration—which featured a march from Helsinki's Senate Square to the parliament building—suggests that the public is starting to realize the urgency of the climate crisis.<br></p><p>"Everyone has joined in the demand that something needs to be done now. We are definitely seeing more <a href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finnish_prime_minister_calls_all-party_summit_on_climate_policy/10446518" target="_blank">talk like this</a> from the politicians," he said.</p><p>The demonstration comes on the heels of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/08/un-experts-warn-climate-catastrophe-2040-without-rapid-and-unprecedented-global" target="_blank">a recent report</a> from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—the United Nations' leading body for climate science—detailing what the world could look like if the global temperature rises to 1.5°C and underscoring the need for "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented" efforts worldwide to prevent "climate catastrophe."</p>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/20/teen-climate-activist-crowd-thousands-we-cant-save-world-playing-rules-because-rules" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br></p>
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