Above: Aji Piper, 17, spoke at the
South Sound Climate Action Convention held in Lacey on Saturday. Piper is one
of 21 youth suing the United States government in a landmark federal climate
lawsuit, Juliana v. United States.
By Janine Gates
Little Hollywood
“What are
you going to do? You should know or at least figure it out. What are you going
to do now to protect future generations?” Aji Piper, 17, Seattle, asked the audience.
As the keynote
speaker at the day-long South Sound Climate Action Convention held in Lacey on
Saturday, Piper posed the question to over 200 participants,
including local officials and state legislators, but he wasn’t waiting around for
an answer.
Piper is one
of 21 youth suing the United States government in a landmark federal climate change related lawsuit, Juliana v. United States.
Following
multiple rulings issued in favor of the youth plaintiffs and the organization
supporting them, Our Children’s Trust, the U.S. District Court for the District
of Oregon earlier this week set October 29 as the first day of the trial.
The trial will be held in Eugene and is being billed as the “trial of the century.”
The trial will be held in Eugene and is being billed as the “trial of the century.”
Piper learned
about climate change, ocean acidification, wildfires, deadly public health
outbreaks and coal trains when he moved from Port
Orchard, Washington to Seattle.
He wanted to
do something about it all so he started planting trees and getting active in
local protests. He co-founded Future Voters
for 350 ppm.
“I should be able to be a kid…I needed to feel a stronger impact from my actions. I needed a solid course of action...so, I took them to court,” he said, as he explained his journey as a young climate activist.
In 2011, Piper
was also a plaintiff in another youth-driven lawsuit demanding that the Washington
State Department of Ecology update its emission regulations based on the latest
climate science, saying the agency was required to do so through the Public
Trust Doctrine, which says the government has a duty to protect natural
resources for future generations.
Technically,
he is the future, and while a strong ruling favored his case, nothing has
happened to enforce it and the case has been refiled.
The difference
between the state and federal cases, he said, is that the federal government
has known about the dangers of fossil
fuel use and the destructive forces of climate change for about fifty years.
“By acting
against that information, they have violated our rights and the Public Trust
Doctrine.”
According to
a press release from Our Children’s Trust, Juliana
v. United States is not about the government’s failure to act on climate.
Instead, the 21 young plaintiffs assert that the U.S. government, through its
affirmative actions in creating a national energy system that causes climate
change, has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and
property, and has failed to protect essential public trust resources.
The case is
one of many related legal actions brought by youth seeking science-based action
by governments to stabilize the climate system.
Above: Averi Azar, a student in the Masters of Environmental Science program at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, staffs a table about the program during the South Sound Climate Action Convention. She is pursuing her masters thesis about sea star wasting disease.
Engaging Youth in Climate Change Conversations
The South
Sound Climate Action Convention was held at the Lacey branch of South Puget
Sound Community College and was organized by the Thurston Climate Action Team.
It featured
a wide variety of speakers and presenters who geared their talks and workshops
around climate change issues such as youth engagement, food sustainability,
waste reduction, renewable energy technologies and options, carbon pricing
initiatives and other legislative issues.
Aji Piper
co-facilitated a morning workshop on how to engage youth in climate change
conversations and related what actions and strategies work for him.
“Don’t make
it boring, youth don’t want to sit in meetings…we sit enough at school. I
didn’t get involved in climate change to stand outside of official buildings
and shout....While those are tried and true approaches, and not to
discredit those, but we’ve been doing those for years.”
Piper
related a 2009 campaign he liked which encouraged the Royal Bank of Canada to
divest from the Alberta tar sands projects. The strategy of banners and bumper
sticker messages with the one ultimately unfurled on the side of the bank that
said, “Please help us Mrs. Nixon.com,” created buzz.
His comment encouraged
workshop participants to generate a range of actions and ideas that included
die-ins, music, the creative arts, light projections on buildings, and the
creation of large puppetry.
Olympia musician Holly Gwinn Graham strongly encouraged early childhood arts education in the school
system.
“They are
ready to be involved, to hear the truth. They’re ready to be creative and be
part of something beautiful. It teaches kids to be politically active and use different
forms of expression, encourages conversation, communication and
intergenerational and non-familial connections with people,” she said.
Piper acknowledged
that there is room for all kinds of artistic expression.
“I grew up playing outside in the forest with my little brother and there's a difference...it's why I don’t do social media....I sing a
lot. I get a song stuck in my head and start humming it, or my brother does.
Singing and performing is different than speaking, just like poetry is different than an essay,”
he said.
Above: Aji Piper received a standing ovation for his keynote speech addressing his involvement with climate change issues at the South Sound Climate Action Convention in Lacey on Saturday.
For more information about the South Sound Climate Action Convention and a list of participating organizations, go to southsoundclimateconvention.org
To learn more about the Thurston Climate Action Team, go to https:/janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2018/02/carbon-free-thurston-efforts-underway.html
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