Youth climate activist fires back at GOP candidate: ‘You’re the naive one’

A young environmental activist is firing back at a Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate after he called a fellow climate activist “young and naive.”

“You call us young, but we will be disproportionately affected by climate change,” activist Victoria Barrett wrote in an open letter to Pennsylvania state Sen. Scott Wagner (R) in The Guardian Thursday. “You will be gone, but your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren — we will pay for your mistakes.

“You are the naive one,” Barrett continued. “You ignore the information necessary for you to make the right choice.”

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Wagner during a town hall meeting last month was questioned about his views on climate change by Rose Strauss, an 18-year-old member of the Sunrise Movement, which encourages candidates to refuse donations from fossil fuel industries.

Wagner dismissed the question.

“You know what? I appreciate you being here. And you’re 18 years old. And, you know, you’re a little young and naive,” he said to Strauss.

Wagner added that while climate change was “important,” he was focused on other issues he thought were more pressing.

But Barrett in her letter said the world is “already headed towards climate disaster” and so young people have “no other option than to fight to protect this planet which you and your fellow politicians have willing put at risk with your apathy.”

Barrett is one of 21 young plaintiffs who are suing the Trump administration, alleging that it is failing to protect its citizens from the adverse effects of climate change.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined a request from the Trump administration to halt the suit, allowing it to move into the discovery phase.

But the court also offered criticism for the scope of the plaintiff’s claims.

“The breadth of respondents’ claims is striking, however, and the justiciability of those claims presents substantial grounds for difference of opinion,” the justices wrote.