Long Beach teen Genesis experienced symptoms of heat exhaustion when temperatures spiked in July, and she’s dealt with headaches and allergies due to wildfire smoke multiple times in her 17 years.
Emma, 16 of La Jolla, was diagnosed with asthma this summer and regularly suffers from climate-related anxiety.
Maryam of Santa Monica sometimes struggles to wear her hijab due to increasingly common heat waves and had to cancel her 13th birthday party this summer when Southern California experienced its first tropical storm warning in several decades.
These three are among 18 young people, ranging in age from 8 to 17, who are suing the Environmental Protection Agency for violating their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection by failing to safeguard them from the impacts of climate change. (Their last names are being withheld because they’re minors.) Half of the plaintiffs in Genesis B. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency are from Southern California, including three from Los Angeles, one from Garden Grove, one from Fullerton and one from Santa Clarita.
The goal is to get the EPA to stop permitting any new fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States, the team behind the case said. They argue that burning those fuels is causing climate change that’s disproportionately impacting young people who have limited options for fighting back.
“I hope we win for my generation as well as for all future generations because we all deserve a thriving planet to live on,” Genesis said in an emailed comment. “I hope the EPA will be held accountable and as a result, will begin to hold all polluters accountable so we can start to heal the planet and slow down the climate crisis.”
The lawsuit is the latest example of young people suing state and federal governments over climate change issues, with many cases — including this one — spearheaded by the Oregon-based nonprofit law firm Our Children’s Trust.
The group was behind…
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