Badge and Lander Busse tromped into the forest behind their house on a snowy Sunday in March, their three hunting dogs in tow. It was in these woods, just outside Glacier National Park, that the teenage boys learned to hunt, fish, dress a deer and pick birdshot from Hungarian partridges.
It was also here that the Busse boys grew attuned to the signals of a rapidly warming planet — torrential rains that eroded their hiking trails, wildfires that scarred the land, smoke so thick it forced them indoors.
Watching their cherished wilderness succumb to the effects of climate change enraged the Busse boys, and three years ago, they decided to do something about it. Along with 14 other local youth, they joined with an environmental legal organization and sued the state.
In their complaint, filed in 2020, the young activists seized on language in the Montana state Constitution that guarantees residents “the right to a clean and healthful environment,” and stipulates that the state and individuals are responsible for maintaining and improving the environment “for present and future generations.”
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By virtue of those few words, they argue, Montana’s extensive support for fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is unconstitutional because the resulting pollution is dangerously heating the planet and has robbed them of a healthy environment.
It is a concise but untested legal challenge to a state government that has taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years, and is aggressively defending itself. The trial, which legal experts say is the first involving a constitutional climate case, begins on June 12 in the state capital of Helena.
“There have been almost no trials on climate change,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. “This is the first that will get into the merits of climate change and what needs to be done, and how the state may have to change its policies.”
The origins of the case stretch back nearly a decade. In 2011, a nonprofit called Our Children’s Trust petitioned the Montana Supreme Court to rule that the state has a duty to address climate change. The court declined to weigh in, effectively telling the group to start in the lower courts.
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So the lawyers at Our Children’s Trust began building their case. They worked with the environmental community to identify potential plaintiffs. They cataloged the ways in which the state was being impacted by climate change. And they documented the state’s extensive support for the fossil fuel industry, which includes permitting, subsidies and favorable regulations.
“We’re really trying to bring the youth generation to the courts, and do so through a human rights lens,” said Julia Olson, the attorney who founded Our Children’s Trust.
In 2020, Ms. Olson once again took aim at Montana, this time with a bigger legal team, a raft of experts and 16 diverse plaintiffs, including the Busse boys.
The oldest plaintiff, Rikki Held, was 18 at the time and grew up on a 7,000 acre ranch in Broadus, where increasingly unpredictable weather has made it difficult for her family to supply water to their property. The youngest plaintiff was Nathaniel K., a 2-year-old boy from Montana City with respiratory issues whose health is threatened by wildfires made worse by climate change, his parents say.
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Sariel Sandoval was 17 when the case was filed, and grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation, in northern Montana. She recalled how the huckleberries she once picked early in the summer are now harder to find, and how a lighter snowpack has lowered water levels in Flathead lake, impacting her tribe’s fishing.
“When you have this relationship to the land, it’s hard seeing the way climate change is affecting it, the harm that’s being done,” she said.
Image
For the Busse boys, bucking authority runs in the family. Their father, Ryan Busse, is a former firearms executive who grew disillusioned with the industry and challenged the National Rifle Association. And even though their eighth grade biology teacher questioned the science of climate change in the classroom, they came to understand that a planet being warmed by fossil fuels was bad news for their backyard.
“A lot of this is just rooted in how many Montanans, including us, live life on an everyday basis, and how ingrained the wildlife and the land and the nature is in who we are,” said Lander, who is now 18, lounging on a couch in his living room, surrounded by taxidermied game from the surrounding woods.
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Continue reading the main story
It was also here that the Busse boys grew attuned to the signals of a rapidly warming planet — torrential rains that eroded their hiking trails, wildfires that scarred the land, smoke so thick it forced them indoors.
Watching their cherished wilderness succumb to the effects of climate change enraged the Busse boys, and three years ago, they decided to do something about it. Along with 14 other local youth, they joined with an environmental legal organization and sued the state.
In their complaint, filed in 2020, the young activists seized on language in the Montana state Constitution that guarantees residents “the right to a clean and healthful environment,” and stipulates that the state and individuals are responsible for maintaining and improving the environment “for present and future generations.”
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
By virtue of those few words, they argue, Montana’s extensive support for fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is unconstitutional because the resulting pollution is dangerously heating the planet and has robbed them of a healthy environment.
It is a concise but untested legal challenge to a state government that has taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years, and is aggressively defending itself. The trial, which legal experts say is the first involving a constitutional climate case, begins on June 12 in the state capital of Helena.
“There have been almost no trials on climate change,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. “This is the first that will get into the merits of climate change and what needs to be done, and how the state may have to change its policies.”
The origins of the case stretch back nearly a decade. In 2011, a nonprofit called Our Children’s Trust petitioned the Montana Supreme Court to rule that the state has a duty to address climate change. The court declined to weigh in, effectively telling the group to start in the lower courts.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
So the lawyers at Our Children’s Trust began building their case. They worked with the environmental community to identify potential plaintiffs. They cataloged the ways in which the state was being impacted by climate change. And they documented the state’s extensive support for the fossil fuel industry, which includes permitting, subsidies and favorable regulations.
“We’re really trying to bring the youth generation to the courts, and do so through a human rights lens,” said Julia Olson, the attorney who founded Our Children’s Trust.
In 2020, Ms. Olson once again took aim at Montana, this time with a bigger legal team, a raft of experts and 16 diverse plaintiffs, including the Busse boys.
The oldest plaintiff, Rikki Held, was 18 at the time and grew up on a 7,000 acre ranch in Broadus, where increasingly unpredictable weather has made it difficult for her family to supply water to their property. The youngest plaintiff was Nathaniel K., a 2-year-old boy from Montana City with respiratory issues whose health is threatened by wildfires made worse by climate change, his parents say.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Sariel Sandoval was 17 when the case was filed, and grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation, in northern Montana. She recalled how the huckleberries she once picked early in the summer are now harder to find, and how a lighter snowpack has lowered water levels in Flathead lake, impacting her tribe’s fishing.
“When you have this relationship to the land, it’s hard seeing the way climate change is affecting it, the harm that’s being done,” she said.
Image
For the Busse boys, bucking authority runs in the family. Their father, Ryan Busse, is a former firearms executive who grew disillusioned with the industry and challenged the National Rifle Association. And even though their eighth grade biology teacher questioned the science of climate change in the classroom, they came to understand that a planet being warmed by fossil fuels was bad news for their backyard.
“A lot of this is just rooted in how many Montanans, including us, live life on an everyday basis, and how ingrained the wildlife and the land and the nature is in who we are,” said Lander, who is now 18, lounging on a couch in his living room, surrounded by taxidermied game from the surrounding woods.
Story continues below advertisement
Continue reading the main story
In Montana, It’s Youth vs. the State in a Landmark Climate Case
Sixteen young Montanans have sued their state, arguing that its support of fossil fuels violates the state Constitution.
www.nytimes.com