Youth of Montana demand action on climate change - Morganton News Herald

Youth of Montana demand action on climate change

It may have gone unnoticed in mainstream news, but on June 12, 2023, Held v. Montana became the first constitutional climate-related lawsuit to go to trial in the U.S. After reading up on the background of the legislation, not only is the introduction of it vitally important to address climate abnormalities faced today, but the fact that Generation Alphas felt so strongly about the problem that they were determined to be heard warms my heart.

The case was filed in March 2020 by 16 young residents of Montana, then aged 2 through 18. What I didn’t realize was that over the last decade, youth-led legal actions relating to climate change have been filed in every American state.

The case was heard in a courtroom in Helena, Montana, before the First Judicial District Court. No jury will decide the outcome because judges decide constitutional issues and the plaintiffs are holding their breath until Judge Kathy Seeley makes a final decision.

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The lawsuit asks the state of Montana to act on curbing fossil fuels that not only destroy pristine environments but robs young residents of a healthy future. Thinking into the future, plaintiffs are also hopeful that, if passed, the judge could order the state to consider climate impacts when approving new projects.

The lawsuit bears the name of Rikki Held, the oldest of the plaintiffs, and she was 18 when it began. She’s now a graduate from college. Historically, on Aug. 20, 2022, there were 25 fires within 50 miles of Held’s home that summer and 2,000 were recorded across Montana. Spurred by the ever-increasing number of fires and other impacts of global warming on the state, she and 15 other young people were so angry they decided to sue the state of Montana for failing to protect them against climate change.

The first lawsuit brought by young people to go to court hinges on Montana’s Constitution, which guarantees its citizens the right to a clean and healthful environment. Held and the other plaintiffs claim that Montana’s state energy policy (which was recently repealed, likely due to the lawsuit) and the state’s methods of environmental review are unconstitutional. The state, they claim, by prioritizing the extraction and use of fossil fuels despite the warnings of decades of science, is breaking its own laws.

Held is a fifth-generation rancher in Powder River County, one of the most conservative counties in the state. Forty-seven percent of county residents believe that climate change is caused by humans, 10% less than the national average and 5% less than the rest of the state, according to Yale’s 2021 Climate Opinion survey. Despite skepticism about humans causing climate change, wildfires and floods increasingly continue to threaten the Held family’s 7,000 acres.

Held believes that if she shares her story effectively, she could change Montana’s energy policy, and through this, maybe the world. It’s her name on the lawsuit and her identity as a young rancher that helps keep the case from looking partisan. There are over 250,000 young people under the age of 20 living in Montana, more than a fifth of all state residents. The 16 young plaintiffs in this lawsuit see themselves as representing the fears and anxieties of a generation.

Humans have always co-existed with looming threats, but climate change is different. Nothing else has posed such an all-consuming threat to the world nor caused such a pattern of disasters, i.e., surging wildfires, deadly heat waves, rising seas, intensifying storms and persistent drought. In the face of these threats, many young Montanans are frightened, angry and anxious, and are learning to use their voices to protect the homes and the state they love.

In 2010, Julia Olsen founded the nonprofit law firm, Our Children’s Trust (OCT), based in Portland, Oregon, to help climate-concerned youth sue governments for not fulfilling their obligations to their citizens. According to Nate Bellinger, OCT’s lead attorney for the Held v. Montana suit, OCT works to identify effective legal strategies and to represent young people who want to participate as plaintiffs. They partner with local youth organizations, give presentations in schools, and assemble legal teams.

Climate change presents a range of psychological challenges, from people’s willingness to accept it as real to the ways it changes how they feel about the present and future. Mental healthcare professionals have begun recognizing these emotional impacts, but there’s varied guidance about how to respond.

Young people are specifically vulnerable to mental health issues driven by climate, says Rebecca Weston, a clinical therapist and copresident of the Climate Psychology Alliance, which supports mental healthcare providers whose clients struggle with climate change. She works with young clients and finds few who aren’t concerned about it. Weston notes that anticipatory trauma can be hard to voice, but “the loss of your future, an apocalyptic future, this is a real loss. It counts.”

Over 60% of Americans are worried about climate change, but only a third of Americans discuss it with family or friends, according to a 2022 report released by Yale. Rebecca Weston worries that this silence perpetuates inaccuracies both about climate change and how someone’s neighbors and friends feel.

The plaintiffs are represented by Bellinger of Our Children’s Trust, Melissa Hornbein of the Western Environmental Law Center, and Roger Sullivan and Dustin Leftridge of McGarvey Law. In court, Held and others testified before her lawyers, those defending the state of Montana, and Judge Seeley. She wanted everyone to see that she’s not just a story on a piece of paper but represents both the young people of Montana and the home she just left, including the rivers, the foothills, the cattle, the grasslands, even the fires.

Held insists that no matter how the trial ends, the lawsuit has helped her see her role in the climate story and taught her that she has a voice.

And so, everyone waits with anticipation.

Peg DeMarco is a Morganton resident who writes a weekly features column for The News Herald. Contact her at pegdemarco@earthlink.net.