US youth climate activists to join Thunberg in protest at Supreme Court

Seven youth activists involved in a lawsuit against the U.S government arguing that Washington is not doing enough to stop climate change will join climate activist Greta Thunberg for a demonstration at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Reuters reported that the activists will join Thunberg on the steps of the courthouse for a demonstration where they will urge lawmakers and other policy leaders to act on cutting back carbon emissions.

{mosads}“What we’re pushing for … based on decades of climate science coming out is that we have to limit [the global temperature rise] to 1 degree Celsius,” Nathan Baring, one of the activists, told Reuters.

The seven are part of 21 plaintiffs represented in the case Juliana vs. the United States, which is currently under consideration in an Oregon federal appeals court, that accuses the U.S. of violating the plaintiffs’ rights to due process by failing to adequately address emissions and pollution.

The lawsuit was filed under the Obama administration, which tried unsuccessfully to have it dismissed, and continued under the Trump administration, which has tried to do the same, arguing that the courtroom was not an appropriate place to litigate climate policy.

Activists involved in the suit are demanding that a global rise in temperatures be limited to 1 degree Celsius, lower than the target set by the Paris climate agreement signed in 2016 that vowed to limit temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

Thunberg, 16, whose protests in Europe inspired massive demonstrations by fellow schoolchildren and adults alike, recently arrived in the U.S. after traversing the Atlantic in a sailboat.