Twenty-one “youth plaintiffs” – ages 8 to 19 – sued the federal government on Wednesday, walking a first-of-its-kind constitutional claim up the courthouse steps in Eugene, Ore.
The youngsters’ lawsuit argues that inaction on climate change is a violation of their right to life, liberty and property. And they demand that President Obama, seven federal departments and the Environmental Protection Agency act immediately to preserve the climate for “future generations.”
Meanwhile, NASA has launched an urgent, five-year, $30 million study to help scientists test out the accuracy of an alarming new study released last month concluding the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous estimates. If that happens, ocean levels could rise 10 feet in as little as a half century.
NASA’s new mission, known as Oceans Melting Greenland – yes, Operation OMG – is designed to help scientists determine the melt-rate with unprecedented accuracy.
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., in water colored from a mine waste spill after an EPA cleanup team accidentally released 3 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP)“I barely got that name by the censors,” acknowledged Joshua Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the project’s principal investigator. “But OMG is kind of the perfect expression for this line of research.”