Juliana on my mind
the cat
rubbing his whiskers
against my notebook
wobbling my attempts
to write
I don’t struggle and he stops.
If only life was always like this:
obstacles yielding to patience—
solutions rising with the sun
no changes or compromise needed
everything falling into place
love, family, jobs, vacations
If only charters of rights were enforced
If only good health was equally attainable by all
If only the talk of carbon taxes would disappear
Juliana says otherwise
(evolution takes effort sometimes)
~
©️2018 Ontheland
Juliana, et al. v. United States of America, et al., sometimes branded as #youthvgov by its plaintiffs and youth globally, is a lawsuit being brought by 21 youth plaintiffs….and on behalf of future generations (represented by James Hansen) against the United States and several of its executive branch positions including President Donald Trump and formerly president Barack Obama…The plaintiffs allege that, through the United States government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.
quoted from Wikipedia
Ontheland 
While it may very well be true that big businesses contributes (from every country) to the lacking of fair health, in regards to clean air, safety and the right to live. Climate change, if all other human activity were to cease – even be non-existent, would still occur. Though perhaps not as quickly. Climate change is a natural earth cycle.
I went to the link and while I am not good at interpreting legal babble I am glad to see that the Judges seem to at least want to listen to the youth. If I have read that correctly. Each generation seems to suffer from the mistakes of the previous ones. It would be nice to see everyone work together to build systems that work.
I was just watching a show about Christopher Columbus. Interestingly enough (side bar) that any portrait of the man is inaccurate and is only an artistic representation. When people go to conquer the unknown, … to claim it for another country – they ended up disregarding and even destroying those who were there to begin with just because the indigenous peoples are/were different. How can we respect people when individuals seek the best for themselves? Working together is a tall order, but one that must be enforced for the benefit of all.
Thank you for sharing the Juliana story.
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Our societies in the United States and Canada are built on the ideas of rights and freedoms and laws intended to keep them in place. We have the right to live free of harassment and discrimination based on race, gender, disability and so on. We have freedom of speech, rights to hold property, women even finally gained the right to vote and slavery was finally made illegal. We also have property rights. Should we not have rights to clean air, clean water, a liveable natural world?What if there was a preponderance of scientific evidence (and there is) that since the early 20th century since the burning of coal and industrialization our air quality has been compromised and that emissions have been blanketing the atmosphere creating a greenhouse effect…holding heat in earth’s atmosphere. This process accelerated throughout the century and picked up more speed in the 80’s and into the 21st century. Global trade, huge trucks on the highways, business and vacation air travel, booming industrial production led to burning of more and more oil and gas, polluting the atmosphere, leading to global warming, melting of polar ice caps, acidification of the oceans (carbon in the water cycle) and so on. The preponderance of respected scientists inform us (see the recent IPCC 5th assessment report published by the United Nations) that our carbon emissions are causing catastrophic climate changes worldwide already and this process will continue. So given the scientific evidence of a major threat to our natural world where we and generations to come want to shelter, grow food, breathe clean air,drink clean water, without life threatening tropical diseases, windstorms, flooding, over 100 degrees heat waves and so on…given the evidence that we can still make changes, should not governments have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to protect our natural environment by slowing or reversing this process?. In the Juliana legal case they are proposing a ‘public trust doctrine’ that says governments have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect natural resources and natural systems when there is clear scientific evidence to indicate problem and solution.
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Partly inspired by your post:
Duality
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I was so heartened when I read about the lawsuit. They are absolutely correct. (K)
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