Youth Activists Are Suing the Government Over Climate Change

16-year-old Jamie Margolin is suing the government over climate change.

“One of my friends is like, yeah, we’re gonna go skiing because there’s probably not gonna be any more snow left,” she explained. “It’s so strange my generation is just growing up with, like, impending apocalypse just, like, right there and we’ve strangely accepted it. And for me, it’s always been so weird.”

Margolin and 12 other young people filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington. In their suit, they argued that the governor and state propped up fossil fuel industries which has contributed to climate change and threatened their futures.”

“Right now, Governor Inslee and the government of Washington is going out of their way to approve new fossil fuel projects,” she said. “They’re building a liquid natural gas terminal on Indigenous land without the Puyallup Tribe’s consent. And it’s gonna poison and lock in decades more of fossil fuel infrastructure and climate change.”

The judge rejected their lawsuit and told them they should pursue legislative action on climate change, but Margolin and the other plaintiffs are appealing.

“It’s such an emergency that we’re literally waving the flag, like, blazing the alarms in every way we can,” Margolin said.

There are currently nine state-level climate lawsuits involving teen activists.

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