Why these children are suing Wisconsin over climate change

Last summer, Madison and the surrounding area experienced some of the worst air quality on record thanks to smoke traveling south from wildfires in Canada. 

Two months later, southeast Wisconsin was deluged by record-breaking rainfall and ensuing floods that wreaked havoc and destroyed hundreds of homes. 

In the weeks that followed, 15 young people from across Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the state’s Legislature and the Public Service Commission alleging their leaders failed to adequately protect them from climate change.  

Some children told stories of having to move homes because of freeze-thaw cycles. One says she has stopped cross-country ski racing, a sport dear to her family, because of historically low annual snowfalls. Others spoke of days they couldn’t leave their homes or spend time outside because of asthma attacks triggered by poor air quality. 

The 15 plaintiffs, ages 8 to 17, argue the state is violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty by not overturning laws that ban Wisconsin from considering climate change when assessing fossil fuel projects. The children live in counties stretching across Wisconsin, each bringing their own concerns over the effects of climate change.  

Lead plaintiff Kaarina Dunn, 17, lives in Onalaska. She’s one of two plaintiffs from La Crosse County. Dunn joined the lawsuit after she and her family moved from their home on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River because erosion from mid-winter warming cycles made it unsafe to stay. Four other plaintiffs live in Milwaukee, four live in Dane County, and the others live in Lincoln, Marathon, Oneida, Portage and Rock counties.  

Caroline Elfstrom, one of the youngest plaintiffs at age 8, lives in Beloit where in 2024 an international report found the city in southern Wisconsin had the worst air pollution in the United States. The pollution was linked to manufacturing, power plants and tailpipe emissions from nearby highways. In 2022, Rock County, which includes Beloit, reported 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the EPA. By comparison, Cook County in Illinois, which includes Chicago, reported less than 2 million. In Beloit, 8-year-old Elfstrom says she joined the lawsuit because she is worried about how the air pollution affects her and her classmates’ lungs. 

Madison-based law firm Midwest Environmental Advocates and national law group Our Children’s Trust represent the plaintiffs and filed the lawsuit on their behalf in Dane County Circuit Court last fall.  

The lawsuit followed a landmark ruling in Montana in which a judge sided with a group of teenagers suing over climate change. In December 2024, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the ruling, which establishes that the youth plaintiffs in the case were being harmed by their state’s continual use and support of fossil fuels over renewable energy sources. 

The Wisconsin lawsuit also cites precedent in Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, a case in which 13 young people reached a settlement with the state of Hawaii over what a judge confirmed are the children’s constitutional rights to a clean environment. 

Since its initial filing in August, the Wisconsin case has gone through a series of procedural motions from each side. 

Now, as the case progresses beyond the latest filings in December, these Wisconsin children are defending their argument that lawmakers and the state’s energy regulatory agency have an obligation to protect their futures. 

Lucy Wright is 17 years old. A senior in high school, the Wausau teen is excited for new chapters to come. She plans to attend college next year and hopes to major in English.   

But at the same time, she says the threats of climate change feel like “impending doom.”  

Wright spent her life cross-country skiing, an activity that’s deeply rooted in her family’s Norwegian heritage.  

“This is the sport that I’ve been doing, and my mother has been doing it, and my grandpa has been doing it. It’s generational,” Wright said. 

This year, for the first time since fifth grade, she decided not to ski competitively. Despite a snowier season this year, Wausau and much of central Wisconsin has continuously experienced warmer winters and lighter cumulative snowfall.  

“It’s really tragic,” Wright said. “I feel that it’s a lot to deal with at once.” 

She talks about the threats of climate change with her friends often.  

“You can’t always 100% focus on it, because it gets very overwhelming,” she said. “And you feel kind of helpless.” 

Being part of this lawsuit helps her feel less helpless, Wright said.  

About 150 miles south, two students at West High School in Madison have also joined the case.  

Indy Gresch, 16, hasn’t always called Madison home. Before moving to Wisconsin’s capital, Gresch and his family spent time living in San Francisco, then in Peru. He says he’s seen the effects of climate change in different ways depending on where he and his family lived.  

In California, there were brutal wildfires. When he and his family moved to Madison about a year and a half ago to be closer to his aunt, he had hoped his days of inhaling air pollution from wildfire smoke would be over.  

Then, last summer Madison experienced some of its worst days of air quality on record as smoke drifted south from Canada. There were days when Gresch couldn’t go outside. The teenager has asthma and when the air is filled with smoke, it feels like he can’t breathe, he said. “It’s a huge problem,” Gresch said. “I had to stay inside.” 

At West High School, Gresch is part of the Green Club, a student organization dedicated to protecting the environment. As a club member, he’s used to surrounding himself with likeminded peers. But this lawsuit allowed him to meet and work alongside children from across the state. It feels good to try to effect change, he said, especially when it’s as a team. 

“They’re all around Wisconsin, and all have their own experiences,” he said. “It’s just kind of eye-opening to see just how this has affected people all over.” 

Gresch is joined in the lawsuit by fellow West High School Green Club member Madeleine Bohn.  

Bohn, 17, also has asthma and struggled in many of the same ways Gresch did last summer. 

“I really love spending time outside. That’s how I connect with friends and family, usually, but I haven’t been able to spend as much time outdoors or like at the lake, because it’s dangerous for my lungs to be breathing in that air,” she said. 

Bohn was raised in a house where the topic of climate change was readily discussed, and her desire to fight against its harms was encouraged.  

“I think since I was pretty little, my parents have kind of raised me to be conscientious of our impact on the world,” she said.  

But the uncertain future her generation faces when it comes to the environment and extreme weather patterns and increased disasters has affected her mental health.  

“I wanted to sort of stand up for youth who are in a similar position to me,” she said. 

The lawsuit challenges two laws on the books in Wisconsin. The first bars the Public Service Commission from accounting for pollution — including greenhouse gasses — when considering whether to approve new fossil fuel-based energy projects such as coal-fired power plants. The second law keeps the same agency from requiring energy companies to boost the amount of electricity they get from renewable sources. 

Under current state guidance, utilities must meet a 10% renewable source threshold for such projects. But beyond that threshold, the Public Service Commission is not allowed to require companies to increase the percentage of renewable sources used for energy projects. The lawsuit argues that forbidding the Public Service Commission from increasing that threshold effectively caps renewable energy use in Wisconsin. 

Youth plaintiffs in the case also argue that by not challenging these laws, the commission and state lawmakers are violating their legal protections, including the right to life and liberty outlined in the state constitution, as well as the right to use and enjoy Wisconsin’s waters as outlined in the state’s Public Trust Doctrine. The lawsuit argues the two challenged laws increase pollution and damage to the environment and constitute government-facilitated harm. 

“The plaintiffs here are alleging that those fossil fuel resources harm their health, their lives, their safety and their ability to grow and develop as kids living here in the state,” said Skylar Harris, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, one of two law firms representing the children. 

The plaintiffs learned of the case in a variety of ways, according to Midwest Environmental Advocates. Our Children’s Trust, the law firm partnering with MEA, posted a client interest form on its website that some plaintiffs completed. Others contacted MEA after Harris presented at their school, and others were recommended by board members and others associated with the Madison-based law firm. 

The ultimate goal of the suit is to have those laws overturned and increase the amount of renewable energy used in Wisconsin. About 75% of electricity in Wisconsin comes from natural gas and coal.  

In 2019, Gov. Tony Evers set a goal to reach 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. That’s an impossible goal without overturning these limits on the Public Service Commission, the lawsuit argues. 

The lawsuit in Wisconsin is leaning on the case outcomes in Montana and Hawaii for precedent, using similar legal arguments throughout. But the plaintiffs here have a steeper hill to climb because, unlike Montana and Hawaii, Wisconsin doesn’t have explicit language in its constitution pertaining to a right to a stable environment. 

“We argue that the right to a stable climate system is inherent in the right to life and liberty,” Harris said. 

In November, the Public Service Commission and the Legislature each filed motions to dismiss the case, arguing that the youth plaintiffs didn’t have standing and couldn’t exhibit concrete harm from the laws they seek to overturn.  

“Plaintiffs’ complaint unquestionably raises issues of utmost importance, issues our society will need to confront and collectively address,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and other state attorneys wrote in a dismissal motion in support of the Public Service Commission. “The fix for those issues, however, is not for this Court to declare. Plaintiffs, asserting previously unrecognized constitutional ‘rights,’ effectively ask this Court to do the work of lawmaking, and, in the process, to disregard fundamental principles about how the government may be sued and by whom.” 

In late December, Midwest Environmental Advocates and Our Children’s Trust filed a response with the Dane County Circuit Court, rejecting the motion to dismiss and defending the youths’ right to sue.  

“As children, Plaintiffs are suffering disproportionately grave injuries to their physical health, safety, and well-being from air pollution and fossil fuel caused climate change,” the response reads. “These fifteen children are entitled to the protections of Wisconsin’s Constitution, as enforced by Wisconsin’s independent judiciary, when they allege that state laws are violating their constitutional rights.” 

The two state organizations are expected to respond early this year. 

Harris said it’s been an inspiration to see the children she represents speak up for their rights to a healthy environment into the future. 

“These kids are incredible, and their stories are incredibly harrowing,” she said. “I think for them, this lawsuit really represents a chance to fight for their future and the future of their peers.” 

The Cap Times contacted the Public Service Commission asking for comment on why they argue the youths have no standing and what the agency hopes to achieve in the lawsuit. The Public Service Commission shared its already publicly available court filing with the Cap Times but declined to comment further on the case.