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Filing Juliana v. United States in 2015
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Ten Years of Our Children's Trust
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Today marks the ten year anniversary of the founding of Our Children’s Trust.
This work you help lift up began with a vision for engaging young people and lawyers around the world in groundbreaking youth-led climate litigation. In 2010, our average global atmospheric carbon dioxide level was already at 389 parts per million...and swiftly rising above the 350 ppm threshold that would keep our planet’s climate system from spiraling out of balance. There was urgency to take bold action on behalf of our children. So with the guidance of revolutionary legal scholars like Mary Wood and leading climate scientists like Dr. James Hansen, I, alongside a few other lawyers, leapt into action to form our small but mighty legal nonprofit, Our Children’s Trust. A decade later, there is still no other public interest law firm of this kind on the planet. Representing only youth, from many different communities and cultures. Suing only governments to protect fundamental human rights and equal protection of the law. Seeking only science-based systemic remedies. We live by these principles and we are working together to do one thing: save our collective children’s only home planet from government-sanctioned climate destruction.
With your invaluable support, together we have accomplished so much over the course of the last decade. We have represented hundreds of young people and youth organizations in landmark climate litigation, and thousands more in other legal actions. We have led legal actions in all 50 U.S. states, as well as the federal lawsuit Juliana v. United States, which continues to make its way through our nation’s court system. We also have active legal actions moving forward in seven states - Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, North Carolina, and Florida - with more states in development. Every case has built upon the last, trailblazing the way to critical legal victories of undisputed evidence and new legal precedent in our courts. Then there is our global work where we’ve driven, supported, or inspired youth climate cases in 18 other countries, from Canada to Colombia.
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And yet, there is still so much to do. The urgency has not abated, in fact it has accelerated: as of June 2020, our global average CO2 levels are at 413 ppm. But we are not deterred and we are not discouraged. We know that we are on the right side of justice and we know from our experts that even though we won’t undo all of the harm our governments are causing, we still have time to minimize the harm, and protect a habitable planet for our young, and for Posterity. Our science is sound, our law is constitutional and rooted in centuries of judicial precedent, and the young people we represent are fierce, brave, and committed to fighting for a stable climate for themselves, their families, their communities, and for future generations. They deserve good lawyers and that’s what we are here to do.
So how should we celebrate how far we’ve come and where we’re going next? As much as we would love to gather with you all in-person, given the global pandemic, we hope to meet you online instead, over the course of the next year, as we host online events where you can learn more and ask questions about and of our youth-led climate litigation, the young people leading the way, our legal and constitutional foundations, and the science that guides us. We’ll also share updates on exciting Juliana v. United States storytelling projects coming out in our anniversary year; more details on these projects coming soon.
Until then, please join us for a first anniversary online event in early August to hear about the genesis of Our Children's Trust: how our groundbreaking litigation campaign came about, how our strategy – from 2010 to today - is coming to fruition, and a bit about where we will go next. Keep an eye out for your invitation to this conversation to arrive soon!
Many of you have enabled us, with your generous support, to make these advances over the last ten years. Now, as our work deepens and broadens and our goals become more and more urgent, we again ask for your support. In recognition that many are experiencing difficult challenges in these unprecedented times, one of our donors has pledged to match all donations to Our Children’s Trust, up to a total of $50,000, to encourage anyone who can to make a gift, in whatever amount you’re able, to help us continue our work with the resources necessary to do so. Please click here if you are able to make a donation in honor of our 10 year anniversary today.
Until we see you online in August, thank you, sincerely and with immense gratitude, for your support, your inspiration, your enthusiasm, and your fire. We are determined to spend the next decade fighting for and protecting our children’s rights to a stable climate with optimism and resolve. We are the law firm for our youth. And we could not represent them without your support.
Julia Olson
Executive Director & Chief Legal Counsel
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