The Children’s Climate lawsuit has taken years of fighting to find its day in court. Fighting through the Obama administration and more recently winning a victory against the Trump administration, these kids are doing their very best to save us from ourselves. Their lawsuit, handled by Our Children’s Trust, charges the government with not doing enough to address the serious problems of climate change that will wreak havoc on the world these children are inheriting. In choosing the interests of the fossil fuel industry over science, the kids charge that the government has broken the “public trust.” Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel-winning economist who has been very vocal on the dangers of income inequality in our country and the needs for more radical, progressive economic policies to insure the health of not only our country but our planet.
He has also written extensively on climate change and environmental economics; and has lent his expertise and his reputation to the children’s cause, writing an economic expert’s court report. According to Inside Climate News, in the brief Siglitz says that "there is a point at which, once this harm occurs, it cannot be undone at any reasonable cost or in any reasonable period of time. Based on the best available science, our country is close to approaching that point." But even more poignantly, to the economics of the matter, the trajectory our country is taking isn’t simply a terrible immoral one, it’s a terrible economic one.
But, he says, acting on climate change now—by imposing a carbon tax and cutting fossil fuel subsidies, among other steps—is still manageable and would have net-negative costs. He argues that if the government were to pursue clean energy sources and energy-smart technologies, "the net benefits of a policy change outweigh the net costs of such a policy change."
"Defendants must act with all deliberate speed and immediately cease the subsidization of fossil fuels and any new fossil fuel projects, and implement policies to rapidly transition the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels," Stiglitz writes. "This urgent action is not only feasible, the relief requested will benefit the economy."
Stiglitz normally charges $2,000 an hour for legal advice and consulting but waived his fee for the kids, submitting a 50-page report to the court in support. The kids are really our best hope for a better future as what passes for leadership in our government these days is something Rod Serling would have considered lazy writing.
