Supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The john d. And catherine t. Mcarthur foundation. Committing to a more just, peaceful world. Park foundation dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The Colbert Foundation and by our sole corporate sponsor mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Welcome. This is our final broadcast but you havent seen the last of us. Well continue to report and comment at our website. I hope youll join me there for a web chat later this month. We end our broadcast here with an encouraging word from the generation. She is 18 years old and coplaintiff in a lawsuit spear headed by the organization our Childrens Trust which claims that oregon isnt doing all it can to slow down Global Warming and protect the future. Its one of several suits based on the doctrine of public trust. It states the government is a trustee to protect air, water, land, you know to protect them for this generation and for many generations down the line. The law professor who has developed this theory says its because the Government Agency that were supposed to protect our Natural Resources were captured and that these agencies treat these industries as their clients instead of the public. Do you think thats right . Unfortunately we have a lot of corruption and greed that influences our governmental decisions and i think thats right. Thats why were going to the courts to hold the legislator accountable. In the oregon case theyre expected in a couple of months. The idea which has come to be called Atmospheric Trust Litigation is catching on thanks to this very influential book Natures Trust by the afore mentioned legal scholar Mary Christina wood. She teaches law at the university of oregon. Welcome. Thank you. Lets talk ability those cases. Every administrative petition filed in every state of the country want the same. Thats the state of tennessee and state of oregon and federal government to bring down Carbon Emissions in compliance with what Scientists Say is necessary to overt catastrophic Climate Change. So the remedy in the suit pend pending is for the court to order a plan. To figure out how to lower Carbon Emissions. The courts wouldnt actually figure out how to do that. Thats the other branchs job. Theyre not doing it and they probably wont without pressure before we pass crucial tipping points. A plaintiff in one of the area suits 16 years old at the time sued the federal government, quote, for making decisions that threaten our right to a safe and healthy planet. Where does it say that the government serves as trustee of the atmosphere and that its violating its most compelling duties by failing in the words of this young man to protect the atmosphere from Climate Change . Where do you find that . You find that in case law going back to the beginning year of this country. U. S. Supreme Court Announced the doctrine over the years. And this is not statutory law. People are so acustom to our statutory system they always say where can i find it written down in a statute. This is actually the foundation of all laws. Theres a wonderful quote that says this is the slate upon which all conty substitutions and laws are written. They take in describing the public trust. Its clear that you consider the courts the alternative to the streets. That this is the way that people and 16yearolds and 7yearolds are seek to redress their concerns about the climate and survival through the democratic process as opposed to taking to the streets. No i would never say the two are mutually exclusive. The court is just one its an Important Branch of government. Its the third branch of government crucial to our checks and balances so of course you would think that the courts have a role to play but street democracy is so powerful. I dont know of any Major Movement that has succeeded without street democracy. When hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets as they did in new york city and exercise their Constitutional Rights of Free Assembly and then when you see also 100000 people signing up and pledging to risk arrest if the Keystone Pipeline would transport them from canada, those people are pledging to risk arrest if obama or Congress Approves the Keystone Pipeline. When you see this kind of uprising, that only reinforces the more formal legal approaches that are put forth in the atmosphere of trust litigation. The two go very much hand in hand. Because what is very important for judges is to sense the moral authority of the people. Judges have a finger on the pulse of the American People in a way that i think we dont really understand that well. Judges can if they sense the need move very rapidly and order swift injunctions to force the legislatures or both to create a carbon Reduction Plan and as that awareness becomes more acute as demonstrated in the streets it will become more receptive to coming in and ordering the legislatures to do their job. Whats the one thing you want the reader to take away from Natures Trust. Most important thing is for citizens to understand that they are needed to promote environmental democracy at this crucial moment in time. That environmental law has a lot of promise and its not working and agencies have used it to allow destruction of our Natural Resources. What agencies are you talking about . Agencies that span the full realm of Natural Resources. Usepa. The forest surervice, the core of engineers, u. S. Fish and wildlife service, National Marine and fishery service. Theres dozens at the federal and state levels that control Environmental Resources and theyre supposed to represent the Public Interest and not corporations or many interests in making those decisions and we assume that the agencies are doing the right thing when implementing environmental laws when nothing could be farther from the truth. Agencies have become points higher lit political figures that serve industry. Local state and federal level across all Natural Resource regulatory areas. I would never say that environmental law has done nothing. It has stopped a few things. Lead was taken out of gasoline and pcbs were banned but we would like a free for all across all resource systems. We are in a very dangerous situation in this country where the very life systems that support us are now in jeopardy. What has happened to all the great laws passed in the 1970s. I mean i was around for the first earth day in 1970 and then there came all of the promising laws out of control which even president nixon supported. There was so much optimism. So much promise its a huge disappointment. There was a lot of promise. The americans thought they solved the problems by getting these laws passed. They didnt realize that industries got inside the agencies with various Campaign Contributions through pressure on the system over and over again so one thing we have to keep in mind is were nearing the end of our resources and there are laws of nature that we have to comply with and those laws are supreme and they determine whether we will survive on this planet and determine the future conditions for our children. Right now our environmental laws are out of whack with the laws of nature. Theyre allowing destruction and they should be structuring society to create a balance with a Natural Systems that support our lives. This photograph im quoting directly, it matters little what new laws emerge for they will develop the same bureaucratic sinkholes that consumed the 1970s laws. Whats the heart of this transformational approach . Well the heart of approach says the Government Supports the resources. They manage certain wealth and endowment for the benefit of it. And the beneficiaries have future generations of citizens. So its a statement of public rights that have been known for roman times. In a landmark public trust decision last year and the decision basically overturned a statute that the Pennsylvania Legislature passed to promote fracking and the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court chief Justice Castille said this violates the public trust and he began his opinion by saying that citizens hole inalienable inhabitable rights to ensure their community. These are in the social contracts that citizens make with government. They cannot be alienated. They are inherent and reserved. They are of a constitutional nature. The point of the public trust is that the citizens hold these Constitutional Rights in an enduring natural endowment that is supposed to support all future generations of citizens in this country its so basic to democracy. In fact the trust distinguishes a society of citizens. That will strike some people as socialist. Its democracy. If they believe thats socialism we have quite a conversation to have. This has been part of our legal system since the earliest years of our country. The Supreme Court of the United States in a landmark case called Illinois Central Railroad said that the Illinois Legislature couldnt just give away the shoreline of chicago. The shoreline along Lake Michigan to a private Railroad Company because the citizens needed that shoreline for fishing and navigation and commerce. This is really nothing new. Its certainly not socialism. Its the heart of popular sovereignty to expect that the citizens have rights to the resources that support their very survival. This is a political question. But you are taking it to court. It is a political question for the legislatures to respond to. The fact is theyre not. If this nation relies on a stable climate system and the very habitability of the nation and all the liberties of young people and their survival interests are at stake the courts need to force the agencies and legislatures to simply do their job. But havent most of the lower courts dismissed these suits on procedural grounds . That dealing with climate is a political question that the courts must avoid. Well its interesting. This really sets an important principle in place. The court seemed to realize that the public trust is an area of law that the legislature and agencies must abide by. The young people of this country have public trust rights. Theyre recognizing era and atmosphere as a Public Trust Resource either implicitly or explicitly. Theyre recognizing the urgency of Climate Change and the latest cases have even dismissed the political question doctrine as a defense. They have been saying you do have to deal with this. Its not this is a public trust right. Its not just a matter for the other branches of government. You have to figure out the nature of the right and give relief if you find there is a right there. So theyre preparing judicial challenges in this case. So this is not an environmental case. Not an environmental case. What is it . Climate is not just an environmental system. This is a civilizational issue. This is the what courts would get in terms of the potential home in front of them. The population and in terms of the urgency. Climate is mind blowing. And yet were about to have a congress controlled by party, the Republican Party that boasts of denying Climate Change brought on by human behavior. Do you expect anything positive coming out of the political process to reinforce your efforts over the next few years . I absolutely do. But not at the federal congressional level. So the federal congress has essentially been purchased through millions and millions of dollars of Campaign Contributions. The whole purpose is to prevent one branch of government from that type of corruption. It holds that these legislators are trustees with constitutional obligations to the citizens so just to put it out there the public trust is designed for precisely the situation we have today. Now whether or not i expect political reinforcement i would say absolutely at the local level at least cases are finding reinforcement at the local level. In fact in oregon our Childrens Church organized a group of youth and they went before city Council Month after month after month and testified asking the city counsel to really take action on climate and to make eugene oregon a Carbon Neutral place and after months after month after month when the city council counselors looked those children in the eyes and saw what i described as the moral authority of these youth they passed at the most aggressive climate ordinance in the country. And i think that is the power of the youth. The youth have to know step up, come before their legislators, pack the courtrooms and these atmospheric trust cases. Meet with the Agency People that have to come forward because they have no Voting Rights but they have got something that no one else has and that is the moral authority. That is the future and the obligation we naturally feel toward our own children they all come to the surface when we actually speak to you about the future they face. Excuse me for being tedious on this but as you probably know theres so much pressure now many state Supreme Courts from judicial elections deeply influenced, since Citizens United in particular with huge rivers of money overflowing in every election. So what youre doing is presenting a political reality and youre absolutely right. Theres no arguing with that at all. But im a lawyer. The task ahead is to figure out where the pressure points may lie in the legal system that we have today. It would be great if we had democracy thriving. We wouldnt have a climate problem if that were the case. When you structure a legal response to a problem as grave as Climate Change you dont have false hope that a branch that is coopted will act. You have some hope that some courts in some states that are less points higherlitical will act and those states will set a presence and domino effect and will set the economic equation in those states. Its not perfect. With very we have the structure we have. We go back to 5th grade civics we have to work with the constitutional structure here. So you just try to find the mechanisms to make progress and to use litigation also as a tool for refining the issue in the americans minds because the court of Public Opinion is ever so important to this Climate Crisis right now. So is this whole year ends and the new year begins youre not the pessimist i thought you might be faced against the legal and administrative and executive system that youre up against. If we love our children and nieces and nephews and grand children, we cannot be pessimistic. We have to do Everything Possible at this moment in time. And we have to forge ahead with courage and optimism and ultimately we have to be guided by moral principles that were responsible for the founding of this nation. So no im not a pessimist. The book is Natures Trust. Environmental law for a new ecological age. Thank you for being with me. Thank you so much. She we minds us that democracy is a public trust of agreements between generations to keep it in good repair and pass it along. Our countrys dna carries an inherent promise for every citizen of an equal opportunity at life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our history resinates with the hallowed idea, hallowed by blood of government of by, and for the people. Our great progressive struggles have been weighed to make sure ordinary citizens and not just the rich and privileged share in the benefits of a free society. In the words of one of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices we may have democracy or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we cant have both. Yet look at just a few recent headlines. This one from the New York Times u. S. Wealth gap is widest in decades. From the website, just 40 americans own as much wealth as the United States. From slate. Com. The great wealth meltdown. Middleclass families are worth less today than 1969. From the economist wealth without workers, workers without wealth. Pointing to the reality that for all but an elite few work no longer guarentees a rising income. So as the next generation steps forward im tempting to think that the only thing my generation can say to them is were sorry. Sorry for the mess youre inheriting. Sorry we broke the trust. But i know in my heart thats not what they ask or expect. So instead i recommend to them the example of the senator of wisconsin. Another of my heros from the past. He battled the excesses of the first guilded age a century ago so boldly and proudly he went down in history as fighting bob. He told us democracy is a life. It involves continual struggle. I keep asking myself, what if that struggle is the palpable reality without which this world would be truly barren. So to this new generation i say over to you. Welcome to the fight. And to all of you loyal to these broadcasts and my colleagues that produce them and my funders that kept on giving despite my flaws i say thank you. The series ends but not our website. Ill see you there and ill see you around. Dont wait a week to get more moyers. Visit billmoyers. Com for exclusive blogs essays and video features. Funding is provided a ann gumowitz. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting the advancement of International Peace and security. The Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. Supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The john d. And catherine t. Mcarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. The coldberg foundation and by our sole corporate sponsor mutual of america. Designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Coming up our annual look ahead at the stories we expect to be the top religion and ethics news of 2015. Major funding for religion and ethics is provided by the foundations dedicated to its founders interest in religion, community development, and education. Additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized individual, and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company