would you be willing to change places
with me in life
I mean I’m 17 fit have my whole life
ahead of me I’m a super fast reader I’m
crazy about vanilla bean ice cream I
recently fell in love with snowboarding
I play a little cuckoo lily and I sing
all the usual stuff oh and I sued the
Washington state government for a
cleaner climate in one
[Applause]
on the downside however I’m a little
disorganized I don’t clean my room as
much as I should my mom says I worry too
much I can’t vote and though I sued the
government nothing’s changing so I have
my whole life ahead of me but it’s
filled with melting ice shelves monster
storms and air that’s not breathable you
still want to change places with me
no well that’s understandable after all
who would no one wants to be in that
position my friends and I don’t want to
be in that position but because we don’t
really have a voice in our future we had
to take things to the next level so
seven of my peers and I sued the
Washington State Department of Ecology
granted we made a pretty big ask but
it’s a reasonable one we asked them to
guarantee a stable climate for the
future one that we can live in it
started in 2011 when we brought a
petition to the doorstep of the
Department of Ecology asking them to
update their emissions regulations
recommendations to the Washington State
Legislature based on the newest climate
science however they blatantly denied my
request claiming and this is my favorite
part that they were not legally
obligated to use science in their
recommendations it’s ridiculous right so
that same year we filed the lawsuit our
argument being that under the public
trust auction our government has a
constitutionally mandated responsibility
to protect those natural resources to
preserve and enhance them for future
generations if you’re not familiar with
the public trust auction it’s a legal
principle that simply states the
government has a duty to protect certain
natural resources for future generations
and among those are the air the land
running water the scene consequently the
shores of the sea that they need to hold
those for posterity posterity is a fancy
word for future generations so I’m gonna
roll with that for a moment everybody in
this room imagine that you can talk to
somebody from the future let’s say 2050
and you can ask them all about how your
actions now affect their lives get that
image in your mind now stop because you
don’t actually have to imagine I’m
standing on this stage
and it’s true I’m not from 2050 but I’ll
definitely be alive then so technically
I’m the future King County Superior
Court Judge Hollis Hill agreed we won
our lawsuit against the Department of
Ecology she applied the public trust
auction and counted us as part of the
public in her ruling said that the
survival of our generation depends upon
the will of our elders to stem the tide
of global warming before doing so
becomes first too costly and then too
late but and there’s always a but we got
a super strong ruling from our judge and
nothing happened we we got a rule from
the Department of Ecology but it was so
weak that those that don’t believe in
climate change would still probably
approve of it and climate change in us
run ahead head-on collision with
earth-shattering consequences don’t use
our horses docking grounds we don’t want
the aid in the South keep that or you’re
in the ground there’s a danger up ahead
drillin octa-core means disaster for
human beings do is right revolt the
least there’s a danger up ahead there’s
a danger danger now I’ve never been what
some people would call a normal kid
whatever that means between the ages of
seven and ten I had a morning ritual I
woke up every morning at 6:30 I got
ready for school and then I listened to
NPR while I ate my breakfast and
listening to those NPR reporters talk
about melting IceCaps and disappearing
polar bears was sad but it was so far
removed from me that I never felt I
could do anything about it
and that feeling actually changed when I
moved to Seattle in the spring of 2011
and I got involved with a group that a
youth-led group that plants trees to try
and mitigate the effects of global
warming I went to one of their day-long
workshops at the colic ad amis and there
I learned about the effects of climate
change on everything not just the polar
bears and being there with all those
kids that were all in the same place to
do something about climate change left
me feeling inspired and planting trees
became my first step into activism but
my future is at stake and I knew that I
knew planting trees wasn’t enough I felt
like I needed to take stronger action
but I was stuck I didn’t really know
where to start and I needed something to
kind of give me that jumpstart that came
when I was asked to write and give a
speech at a protest against exploding
trains coming through Seattle
we call them exploding trains because
they literally explode in case you
didn’t know oil trains carry about
30,000 gallons of crude oil every 77
seconds in the US that’s 39 million
gallons a year and the oil is volatile
under the right conditions
explodes to this day they pass under
downtown Seattle and speeches were not
my forte I’d never given a speech and I
had literally touched in Ocala way three
days before I was asked to give the
speech and and I decided to write a song
it’s a simple song mind you I was 12 at
the time and yeah please don’t send
exploding dreams to our cities we don’t
think the people dying is pretty think
about the future generations think about
the lives who live think about your
children’s children’s children’s
children’s children’s children think
about your children’s children’s
children’s children’s children’s
[Applause]
the warnings of impending doom aren’t
always as obvious as an exploding train
sometimes they’re really small and
easily overlooked a temperature change
of only a few degrees in ocean water is
enough to upset the balance of the whole
world’s ecosystem a nice example of this
is coastal Grizzlies from northern
Washington up to Alaska you usually see
like some stock photographs of them with
these huge salmon in their mouth that
they just caught like fresh from the
river or something and that’s pretty
great
but recently we’ve seen those same
grizzly bears catching Humboldt squid
yeah squid in Alaska and the problem
with this it may not seem like a big one
at first is that when Grizzlies catch
salmon and then they take them inland
and eat them and they don’t finish all
of the salmon they leave their leftovers
there
it feeds other small scavenger animals
and then decomposes and feeds the soil
and the forest and and the reason it can
do that is because salmon have really
fatty rich rich fatty nutrient reserves
but the squid don’t have that same kind
of nutrient rich fatty reserve so the
soil isn’t is fed and other animals
aren’t is fed the problem with this is
that over time eventually with more and
more nutrients leaking out of the soil
and especially with the rest of climate
change going on the forests being taxed
your forests start to die you lose your
habitat you lose your small prey animals
and predators so on and so forth our
atmosphere is kind of in the same
situation our temperature is at a 1
degree average of warming above what it
was before the Industrial Revolution
approximately and our atmospheric carbon
levels are about 410 parts per million
you don’t have to worry if you don’t
know what that means just know the
number is far too high and the small
effect part comes when we start talking
about our tipping points you know at
about 2 degrees is what scientists call
a tipping point where we really can’t go
back
so one more tiny degree and the thing is
that without any regulation we’re
definitely on track to hit that number
definitely by 50 50 everyone I won’t be
alive then like I said we’ll be on track
to hit that number by 2050 causing
irreversible climate damage things like
the total papa thawing of permafrost
causing erosion in the land destruction
of the tundra and further warming of the
planet or the because of the increased
heat in the atmosphere the loss of our
glaciers and snowpack meaning you’ll get
increased flooding in the winters but
droughts in the summers and it poses a
threat to human lives I’m not an
activist because I have a passion for
standing in front of official buildings
and shouting for change I’m an activist
because I recognized the danger to the
air I breathe the water I drink and the
land that grows the food which I eat
when I started this work I thought it
was about saving the planet and what
I’ve realized is it’s really about
saving us the idea is that I’m not
fighting against climate change I’m
fighting for human change the ability of
our species to change places with
another see their plight hear their
voice adapt and make better choices I
think I believe that we need to change
our ideas of home to kind of get out of
the boxes we call houses and into the
real world when we step outside we need
to see each other and remember who the
future is for because right now we seem
to have forgotten my generation is not
heard in a political sense and because
of that I’m willing to use the courts to
amplify my voice in 2015 I filed the
lawsuit against the federal government
with 20 other youth from around the
country it’s very similar to the state
lawsuit but it’s much bigger and there’s
a key difference in the state lawsuit we
were
asking the court to affirm that the
public trust doctrine existed at all and
that the government did have an
obligation to protect our rights because
we got that affirmation we’re able to
step up our argument in federal court
now we’re arguing that the federal
government has known about climate
change for over 50 years and they’ve
known about the dangers that fossil fuel
you send the destruction climate change
would bring but they’ve acted against
that information in doing so they’ve
violated our rights the public trust so
the first thing that happened when we
filed this lawsuit was the motion to
dismiss the government claiming that
just because of the public trust auction
wasn’t enough to bring a lawsuit and we
didn’t have standing and our Judge
Thomas coffin disagreed he recommended
that we go on to trial then there was
the appeal to the motion to dismiss and
also denied our judge and Aiken she said
in her ruling exercising my recent
judgment I have no doubt that the right
to a climate system capable of
sustaining human life is fundamental to
a free and ordered society I agree I
now that leaves us with two questions
what if we win well if we win that day
that a ruling is handed down from the
courts it’ll create a feeling of relief
and hope that is palpable you will
literally feel it like emanating off of
me and the reason for that is that I
will finally have been heard and my
generation will have been heard and it
and that change will start to happen but
I want to remind everyone here that the
battle for change at that point is not
going to be easy it’s still gonna be
hard because we’ve waited too long
without action and the second question
is what if we lose I don’t believe that
a single person in here not for a minute
I don’t believe that anybody here wants
us to lose and I know that it’s hard to
agree on policy implementation
regulations all of that stuff but you
can’t turn a blind eye to the future
anymore like I said I’m standing on this
stage you don’t have to change places
with me just hear my voice support it
believe it thank you [Applause]
with me in life
I mean I’m 17 fit have my whole life
ahead of me I’m a super fast reader I’m
crazy about vanilla bean ice cream I
recently fell in love with snowboarding
I play a little cuckoo lily and I sing
all the usual stuff oh and I sued the
Washington state government for a
cleaner climate in one
[Applause]
on the downside however I’m a little
disorganized I don’t clean my room as
much as I should my mom says I worry too
much I can’t vote and though I sued the
government nothing’s changing so I have
my whole life ahead of me but it’s
filled with melting ice shelves monster
storms and air that’s not breathable you
still want to change places with me
no well that’s understandable after all
who would no one wants to be in that
position my friends and I don’t want to
be in that position but because we don’t
really have a voice in our future we had
to take things to the next level so
seven of my peers and I sued the
Washington State Department of Ecology
granted we made a pretty big ask but
it’s a reasonable one we asked them to
guarantee a stable climate for the
future one that we can live in it
started in 2011 when we brought a
petition to the doorstep of the
Department of Ecology asking them to
update their emissions regulations
recommendations to the Washington State
Legislature based on the newest climate
science however they blatantly denied my
request claiming and this is my favorite
part that they were not legally
obligated to use science in their
recommendations it’s ridiculous right so
that same year we filed the lawsuit our
argument being that under the public
trust auction our government has a
constitutionally mandated responsibility
to protect those natural resources to
preserve and enhance them for future
generations if you’re not familiar with
the public trust auction it’s a legal
principle that simply states the
government has a duty to protect certain
natural resources for future generations
and among those are the air the land
running water the scene consequently the
shores of the sea that they need to hold
those for posterity posterity is a fancy
word for future generations so I’m gonna
roll with that for a moment everybody in
this room imagine that you can talk to
somebody from the future let’s say 2050
and you can ask them all about how your
actions now affect their lives get that
image in your mind now stop because you
don’t actually have to imagine I’m
standing on this stage
and it’s true I’m not from 2050 but I’ll
definitely be alive then so technically
I’m the future King County Superior
Court Judge Hollis Hill agreed we won
our lawsuit against the Department of
Ecology she applied the public trust
auction and counted us as part of the
public in her ruling said that the
survival of our generation depends upon
the will of our elders to stem the tide
of global warming before doing so
becomes first too costly and then too
late but and there’s always a but we got
a super strong ruling from our judge and
nothing happened we we got a rule from
the Department of Ecology but it was so
weak that those that don’t believe in
climate change would still probably
approve of it and climate change in us
run ahead head-on collision with
earth-shattering consequences don’t use
our horses docking grounds we don’t want
the aid in the South keep that or you’re
in the ground there’s a danger up ahead
drillin octa-core means disaster for
human beings do is right revolt the
least there’s a danger up ahead there’s
a danger danger now I’ve never been what
some people would call a normal kid
whatever that means between the ages of
seven and ten I had a morning ritual I
woke up every morning at 6:30 I got
ready for school and then I listened to
NPR while I ate my breakfast and
listening to those NPR reporters talk
about melting IceCaps and disappearing
polar bears was sad but it was so far
removed from me that I never felt I
could do anything about it
and that feeling actually changed when I
moved to Seattle in the spring of 2011
and I got involved with a group that a
youth-led group that plants trees to try
and mitigate the effects of global
warming I went to one of their day-long
workshops at the colic ad amis and there
I learned about the effects of climate
change on everything not just the polar
bears and being there with all those
kids that were all in the same place to
do something about climate change left
me feeling inspired and planting trees
became my first step into activism but
my future is at stake and I knew that I
knew planting trees wasn’t enough I felt
like I needed to take stronger action
but I was stuck I didn’t really know
where to start and I needed something to
kind of give me that jumpstart that came
when I was asked to write and give a
speech at a protest against exploding
trains coming through Seattle
we call them exploding trains because
they literally explode in case you
didn’t know oil trains carry about
30,000 gallons of crude oil every 77
seconds in the US that’s 39 million
gallons a year and the oil is volatile
under the right conditions
explodes to this day they pass under
downtown Seattle and speeches were not
my forte I’d never given a speech and I
had literally touched in Ocala way three
days before I was asked to give the
speech and and I decided to write a song
it’s a simple song mind you I was 12 at
the time and yeah please don’t send
exploding dreams to our cities we don’t
think the people dying is pretty think
about the future generations think about
the lives who live think about your
children’s children’s children’s
children’s children’s children think
about your children’s children’s
children’s children’s children’s
[Applause]
the warnings of impending doom aren’t
always as obvious as an exploding train
sometimes they’re really small and
easily overlooked a temperature change
of only a few degrees in ocean water is
enough to upset the balance of the whole
world’s ecosystem a nice example of this
is coastal Grizzlies from northern
Washington up to Alaska you usually see
like some stock photographs of them with
these huge salmon in their mouth that
they just caught like fresh from the
river or something and that’s pretty
great
but recently we’ve seen those same
grizzly bears catching Humboldt squid
yeah squid in Alaska and the problem
with this it may not seem like a big one
at first is that when Grizzlies catch
salmon and then they take them inland
and eat them and they don’t finish all
of the salmon they leave their leftovers
there
it feeds other small scavenger animals
and then decomposes and feeds the soil
and the forest and and the reason it can
do that is because salmon have really
fatty rich rich fatty nutrient reserves
but the squid don’t have that same kind
of nutrient rich fatty reserve so the
soil isn’t is fed and other animals
aren’t is fed the problem with this is
that over time eventually with more and
more nutrients leaking out of the soil
and especially with the rest of climate
change going on the forests being taxed
your forests start to die you lose your
habitat you lose your small prey animals
and predators so on and so forth our
atmosphere is kind of in the same
situation our temperature is at a 1
degree average of warming above what it
was before the Industrial Revolution
approximately and our atmospheric carbon
levels are about 410 parts per million
you don’t have to worry if you don’t
know what that means just know the
number is far too high and the small
effect part comes when we start talking
about our tipping points you know at
about 2 degrees is what scientists call
a tipping point where we really can’t go
back
so one more tiny degree and the thing is
that without any regulation we’re
definitely on track to hit that number
definitely by 50 50 everyone I won’t be
alive then like I said we’ll be on track
to hit that number by 2050 causing
irreversible climate damage things like
the total papa thawing of permafrost
causing erosion in the land destruction
of the tundra and further warming of the
planet or the because of the increased
heat in the atmosphere the loss of our
glaciers and snowpack meaning you’ll get
increased flooding in the winters but
droughts in the summers and it poses a
threat to human lives I’m not an
activist because I have a passion for
standing in front of official buildings
and shouting for change I’m an activist
because I recognized the danger to the
air I breathe the water I drink and the
land that grows the food which I eat
when I started this work I thought it
was about saving the planet and what
I’ve realized is it’s really about
saving us the idea is that I’m not
fighting against climate change I’m
fighting for human change the ability of
our species to change places with
another see their plight hear their
voice adapt and make better choices I
think I believe that we need to change
our ideas of home to kind of get out of
the boxes we call houses and into the
real world when we step outside we need
to see each other and remember who the
future is for because right now we seem
to have forgotten my generation is not
heard in a political sense and because
of that I’m willing to use the courts to
amplify my voice in 2015 I filed the
lawsuit against the federal government
with 20 other youth from around the
country it’s very similar to the state
lawsuit but it’s much bigger and there’s
a key difference in the state lawsuit we
were
asking the court to affirm that the
public trust doctrine existed at all and
that the government did have an
obligation to protect our rights because
we got that affirmation we’re able to
step up our argument in federal court
now we’re arguing that the federal
government has known about climate
change for over 50 years and they’ve
known about the dangers that fossil fuel
you send the destruction climate change
would bring but they’ve acted against
that information in doing so they’ve
violated our rights the public trust so
the first thing that happened when we
filed this lawsuit was the motion to
dismiss the government claiming that
just because of the public trust auction
wasn’t enough to bring a lawsuit and we
didn’t have standing and our Judge
Thomas coffin disagreed he recommended
that we go on to trial then there was
the appeal to the motion to dismiss and
also denied our judge and Aiken she said
in her ruling exercising my recent
judgment I have no doubt that the right
to a climate system capable of
sustaining human life is fundamental to
a free and ordered society I agree I
now that leaves us with two questions
what if we win well if we win that day
that a ruling is handed down from the
courts it’ll create a feeling of relief
and hope that is palpable you will
literally feel it like emanating off of
me and the reason for that is that I
will finally have been heard and my
generation will have been heard and it
and that change will start to happen but
I want to remind everyone here that the
battle for change at that point is not
going to be easy it’s still gonna be
hard because we’ve waited too long
without action and the second question
is what if we lose I don’t believe that
a single person in here not for a minute
I don’t believe that anybody here wants
us to lose and I know that it’s hard to
agree on policy implementation
regulations all of that stuff but you
can’t turn a blind eye to the future
anymore like I said I’m standing on this
stage you don’t have to change places
with me just hear my voice support it
believe it thank you [Applause]
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