ThinkPint2

Five years and what have I done.

The cli-fi novel got no further. The fictional Greta, born in 2036 and displaced from Illinois because of climate chaos in the story, has been replaced by a real-life climate heroine named Greta from Stockholm. More about that later.

I worked on climate issues for the last five years by supporting others and doing things myself. The way I supported others was first and foremost Our Children’s Trust and the local 350.org. 

The things I did myself were install solar panels, got rid of the natural gas furnace, used less water, did not fly, mostly divested from all fossil fuel funds, changed diet, supported and cajoled politicians at all levels of government to be involved in climate issues, and tried to educate friends and family to the threat of climate catastrophe. I continued to educate myself on climate issues through many means. Of course I could do more, but for this five-year period I was trying to see if I could do something to walk the talk.

Past blogs explained why I saw the judiciary was a way to break the log jam of climate inaction in the U.S. That does not mean I was not involved in advocating through other pillars of government, but I was betting on the judiciary to have a major effect on the needed change. 

To that end probably stories and pictures of my young she/heroes is probably the best summary of the last five years. 

They are the future. I support them.

Here is the first time I saw them all together, March 2016, Federal Courthouse Eugene. I have made many trips back to the Courthouse since then as the case is winding its way to victory. 

I have accumulated some knowledge of these young people and the people who nurture them, including their parents, lawyers, and the entire staff at Our Children’s Trust.

The youngest plaintiff lives on a barrier island off of Florida. In the short time I have known him he has been evacuated once for a hurricane and sat a second one out at home. His schooling has been disrupted by these events and his fear has increased. He made me this t-shirt. It is way cool. 

I have watched the next youngest plaintiff go from a little girl to a young person who raises chickens and loves horses and the outdoors. She spoke eloquently at age 10 at the Courthouse and has only gotten better over the ensuing years. She lives in Eugene.

Two lads living south of me are involved with farming, in one case a very long time in their families’ history. They have seen their farms go from a climate they knew to one which is drier and with more smoke.  Again, I have seen both of these now young men come into their own as speakers and tellers of their story and the impact climate has on their lives and their future.

Five other plaintiffs live or have lived in Eugene, my town. The lead plaintiff, Kelsey, has been at this since she was either 14 or 15. Prior to the Federal Lawsuit I supported her with the suit filed in the State of Oregon. She is committed, authentic, and she takes good pictures with Scholar Duck. This one taken in my back yard. 

I have watched Kiran, another Eugene youth plaintiff, do an exchange program in Sweden, where I once had a Fulbright and we kept in contact during his experience. He writes well…very, very well. His passion comes through in writing and his actions with community organizations. He, too, takes good pictures with Scholar Duck, seen here with Jacob, a farmer to the south, and Tia from Bend, Oregon.

And Native American youth plaintiffs have touched my life through this lawsuit, and I have learned much from each of them. One is now a well known hip hop artist, another a great budding artist working in many medium, and the last in private exchanges called me auntie, I found in his culture that means a respect to an elder. In reality, he was the one teaching me. 

Plaintiffs from different parts of the country also taught me much.

Jayden, in the time I have known her, has been flooded out of her home twice in Louisiana and she does not live in a flood plain. Nathan, from Alaska, is seeing his state change as a result of climate events before his very young, now 19-year-old eyes; and Vic knows his home state of New York and how it was affected after Hurricane Sandy and now schooling in Wisconsin sees how climate change is changing farm life there. Miko was born in the Marshall Islands and now has a megaphone to describe how climate change is poised to change the life of her relatives there forever as the seas rise in her native born country. 

One plaintiff is the granddaughter of climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, but now she speaks and writes for her generation which will live under the projections made by her grandfather a long time ago when we should have listened harder and done more. 

These are not all the stories I have witnessed with these young people, nor have I touched on the staff spearheading this effort or their parents. Their reward is how far the case has gone when few thought it would go much of anywhere. They were wrong.

Thus, I will keep watching and supporting them.

And Greta Thunberg will come to the U.S. in September via a sailing boat, forgoing airplanes. I shall be watching and supporting. 

The fictional Greta I imagined would expect no less of me on both of these fronts. It is the least I can do.