{"id":302,"date":"2025-05-31T01:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T21:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/young-people-sue-donald-trump-over-climate-change\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T01:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T21:46:15","slug":"young-people-sue-donald-trump-over-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/young-people-sue-donald-trump-over-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Young people sue Donald Trump over\u00a0climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of young people \u2014 as young as 7 and as old as 25 \u2014\u00a0are suing<\/a> the Trump administration to stop its assault on renewable energy<\/a> and climate action<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Executive orders President Donald Trump signed to promote fossil fuels amount to an \u201cunconstitutional\u201d overreach of power, they allege in a complaint<\/a> filed Thursday at a US District Court in Montana. The 22 plaintiffs also claim that by increasing pollution and denying climate science, the president\u2019s actions violate their Fifth Amendment rights to life and liberty.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest high-profile case brought against governments by youth concerned about how fossil fuel pollution and climate change poses risks to their health and ability to thrive as they grow up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Two brothers, aged 11 and 7, \u201cwere born into climate change-induced smoke seasons that did not exist for older generations\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Two brothers, aged 11 and 7 and named \u201cJ.K.\u201d and \u201cN.K.\u201d in the suit, \u201cwere born into climate change-induced smoke seasons that did not exist for older generations and which compromise their health,\u201d the complaint<\/a> says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They grew up mostly in Montana but now live in Southern California, and the suit says wildfire smoke has encroached on their lives from state to state. J.K. was born with an abnormal mass of lung tissue and \u201cexperienced nosebleeds, sore throats, headaches, tiredness, coughing, trouble breathing, and eye irritation from wildfire smoke,\u201d according to the suit. N.K. has \u201cfrequent\u201d upper respiratory infections that have led to emergency room visits. They\u2019ve both missed school days and camp because of feeling sick from smoke and soot in the air from wildfires, it says.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels trap heat, and rising temperatures have contributed to longer fire seasons<\/a> in the western US. With hotter, drier conditions,<\/a> the area burned by forest fires in the western US doubled between 1984 and 2015<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery additional ton of [greenhouse gas] pollution and increment of heat Defendants cause will cause J.K. and N.K. more days of poor air quality, more smoke, and thus, more harm to their lives, health, and safety,\u201d the complaint adds.<\/p>\n

In recent years, scientists have been trying to better understand the long-term health impact of wildfire smoke, which previously hadn\u2019t been studied as thoroughly as pollution from other sources thought to be more consistent problems, like factories and highways. Now, chronic exposure to wildfire smoke is a growing concern<\/a>. Wildfire smoke is considered a neurotoxin<\/a> estimated to be more harmful<\/a> than other common air pollutants<\/a>, but its effects on the body can vary depending on what kinds of materials burn and how chemicals released by the fire interact with other substances in the atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After campaigning on a promise to \u201cdrill, baby, drill<\/a>\u201d and accepting more than $75 million<\/a> in contributions from oil and gas interests, Trump signed executive orders on his first day<\/a> in office declaring a purported \u201cnational energy emergency<\/a>,\u201d directing federal agencies to \u201cunleash\u201d domestic fossil fuel production<\/a> and promote the use of gas-powered vehicles over EVs. He signed another executive order to \u201creinvigorat[e]\u201d the coal industry<\/a> in April. Coal releases more planet-heating pollution when burned<\/a> than other fossil fuels and has struggled to compete<\/a> with cheaper sources of electricity.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief to block implementation of those executive orders and to declare them unconstitutional. They also claim that Trump lacks the authority to erode environmental protections passed by Congress under the Clean Air Act<\/a>. The administration\u2019s efforts to impede scientific research<\/a> and remove climate information<\/a> from federal websites<\/a> amounts to \u201ccensorship\u201d and denies plaintiffs access to resources they might otherwise be able to use to minimize risks they face from climate change, the suit alleges.<\/p>\n

In response to the lawsuit, White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers said in an email to The Verge<\/em>, \u201cThe American people are more concerned with the future generations\u2019 economic and national security, which is why they elected President Trump in a landslide victory to restore America\u2019s energy dominance. Future generations should not have to foot the bill of the lefts\u2019 radical climate agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, who hail from Montana, Oregon, Hawai\u2018i, California, and Florida, are represented by the nonprofit law firm Our Children\u2019s Trust, which has also represented young people in similar climate cases. A federal appellate court dismissed another case<\/a> that youth filed against the Obama administration in 2015 over fossil fuel pollution causing climate change, and the US Supreme Court ended that legal battle this year when it declined to hear an appeal.<\/a><\/p>\n

But there have also been some wins. A group of youth reached a settlement last year<\/a> with the state of Hawai\u2018i and its Department of Transportation that commits them to a plan to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 2045. J.K. and N.K. were also plaintiffs in a climate suit filed against the state of Montana. Last year, Montana\u2019s Supreme Court upheld<\/a> a district judge ruling affirming their right to a clean and healthy environment<\/a> and rejecting policies that had barred officials from considering the consequences of climate change when permitting new energy projects.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of young people \u2014 as young as 7 and as old as 25 \u2014\u00a0are suing the Trump administration […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/STK438_CLIMATE_CHANGE_C-CaJxtc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}