Does the U.S. Have a Legal Responsibility to Stop Climate Change? Seven Teenagers Think So - And They’re Taking the Federal Government to Court

       US Supreme Court - Image via Wikipediaby Lindsay Kucera, Yes! magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.org

Seven teenagers set a new precedent for environmental action in May 2011 by suing the federal government for not taking measures against climate change. They claim that the government’s policies regarding climate change are squandering natural resources.

The young plaintiffs, led by 17-year-old Alec Loorz, filed a total of 10 suits against the federal government and individual states under the public trust doctrine, a legal principle derived from English Common Law which holds that the government is responsible for protecting resources - like water and wilderness - in trust for the public and future generations.

The legal action is supported by a coalition of groups called the iMatter Youth Council, which is petitioning the government for a 6 percent reduction in global CO2 each year, an emissions cap at 2011 levels, and the reforestation of compromised ecosystems.

The preliminary injunction hearing was originally slated to be held in December 2011, but has been moved from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., at the request of the federal government. A new date for the hearing has yet to be announced.

To read further, go to: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/why-im-suing-the-federal-government?utm_source=wkly20120224&utm_medium=yesemail&utm_campaign=titleKucera

INTERVIEW: Bill McKibben: “The Biggest Fight of Our Time” In Which One of the World’s Best-Known Climate Activists Gets Personal About the Enormous Task of Saving Our Planet

                 Cover via Amazonby Madeline Ostrander, YES! magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/bill-mckibben-the-biggest-fight-of-our-time?utm_source=wkly20120217&utm_medium=yesemail&utm_campaign=mrOstrander

As one of the best-known writers on the world’s most dire environmental problem, climate change, Bill McKibben has long walked the razor’s edge between hope and fear.

In 2010, he published Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, a sobering account of what climate change has already unleashed - the ways in which the places we live, the water, weather, seasons, ecosystems, and oceans are changing irrevocably.

McKibben also founded 350.org, one of history’s largest and most ambitious political movements, uniting people around the world to fight climate change.

In this interview, YES! got personal with McKibben: Where does he find hope? What role does faith play for McKibben, a longtime Methodist Sunday school teacher? How does small-town Vermont, where the writer now lives, shape his ideas and activism? And what’s the best advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of what McKibben calls “the biggest fight of our time” - the fight to save the planet?

Editor's Note: This interview was filmed June 1, 2011 as part of YES! Magazine's 15th Anniversary Celebration. For the latest in the Keystone XL Pipeline fight, click here.