A Montana judge handed down what promises to be a life-altering ruling–telling the state’s youth that they have a right to a future in which there is a livable environment. The court found their state failed to protect the environment they rely on now and will need in the future. It is a beginning, a glimmer of hope in an increasingly dark situation, and absolutely one potential answer to the complex problem of holding those disproportionately responsible for climate change accountable.
It is just common sense that those refusing to act now are harming the future of the nation’s young people. But at this point, it should be clear to everyone involved in fighting climate change that waiting around for either governments or, especially, the private sector, to do anything on their own won’t produce any kind of positive result. Especially here in the United States, there are too many people who either outright deny the science of climate change or–being in a worse state of denial–think we can afford to do nothing about it. This case provides a potential roadmap for change in a society still unwilling to consider the future of its own citizens. And most importantly, it represents the ability of the young to stand up and be counted, because it is they that will ultimately have to solve the problem of climate change.
The problem with climate change has long been that it is hard to pin down. Unlike other forms of pollution it is hard to say this particular plant emitted this particular substance at this particular time in this particular way and now needs to be held responsible–stop polluting and clean up. This model will never work for holding emitters responsible for climate change. Creative ways of holding people responsible must be explored if any headway in getting emissions down is going to be made. One of the most straightforward, and potentially most effective, ways, is to make anyone who emits responsible for a part of the results of all emissions. This may be a very hard legal road to go down. However, the Montana case shows us a way forward for challenging the inevitable claim on the part of polluters that they personally cannot be held responsible for such an overarching problem–despite the reality of their complicity in the greatest existential threat of this generation and perhaps many generations to come.
Of course, the Montana case is just one small step in the right direction, and it is hard to know what a Supreme Court stocked with partisans appointed by a president with no respect for the rule of law will in the end say. Still, it represents hope that those responsible can be held responsible before it’s too late. This ruling has the potential to be a catalyst for the idea that all of us have a role to play, and have a responsibility to protect the future not only in Montana but in the world.
Progressive Without Apology 