Securing Children’s Constitutional Right to a Safe, Healthy Climate

Monday, August 19, 2024 – 4-5 p.m. PT; 6-7 p.m. CT; 7-8 p.m. ET
Invited Speakers: Andrew Welle, Our Children’s Trust, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney and a Youth Plaintiff from Sagoonick v. State of Alaska II. 
To be moderated by: Eve C. Shapiro, MD, MPH and Joanna D. Brown, MD, MPH
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Description: Our Children’s Trust elevates the voices of youth in court to secure their fundamental rights to a safe and livable future. Without a stable climate system that is judicially recognized and protected as a fundamental human right, every natural resource we rely upon to exercise our basic rights to home, health, ancestral and family traditions, and life itself is under threat. Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, Andrew Welle will explain their innovative legal strategy rooted in civil rights movements, how they are supported by and work in partnership with health professionals, and why the climate crisis is the single greatest driver of health for children born today.  A Youth Plaintiff from the case will share how the climate crisis impacts her and her community as well as why it’s important for young people to protect their right to a safe, healthy climate.

Sagoonick v. State of Alaska II
On May 22, 2024, 8 young people from across the state of Alaska, ranging in age from 11 to 22, filed their constitutional climate lawsuit, Sagoonick v. State of Alaska II. The eight youth plaintiffs, many of whom are Alaska Natives, are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and already experiencing serious harms to their health, safety, and access to natural resources they depend on, including for subsistence and cultural traditions. Much of Alaska is warming four times faster than the global average, causing massive wildlife population declines, melting sea ice, permafrost, and glaciers, altering precipitation patterns, increasing severe storms, and leading to more intense wildfires and ocean acidification. The youth plaintiffs are already experiencing flooding, land subsidence, and accelerating erosion that threatens their homes and communities, increasing smoke from wildfires, food and water insecurity, and other profound harms from the climate crisis. In this legal action, they’re asserting their due process and public trust doctrine rights under Alaska’s constitution to stop the Alaska LNG Project, a massive fossil fuel megaproject that would roughly triple Alaska greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. Learn more about this case.