Community member gather October 29, 2018 in Golden Heart Plaza for a rally to support Juliana v. United States. By Duncan Baumgarten Part 1 of 3 "What will you leave behind?" "Think of the little children" "Honor the Earth" The plaza was cast in a pale blue. Breath condensed inches in front of faces. Arms held handmade signs aloft, bright white knuckles against deep pink hands. The First Families statues, the fountain long since run dry, watched the forming crowd.
On October 29, a group of approximately thirty community members rallied in support for the revolutionary Juliana v. the United States, at the Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks. A crowd of “young, old, and somewhere in between” came together to support the landmark environmental case. Juliana v. the United States, also known as Youth v. Gov, is a lawsuit originally filed in 2015. A group of twenty-one plaintiffs brought charges against the US government for, according to Tom Baring, father of one of the plaintiffs, having “knowingly exacerbated” pollution and climate change. The plaintiffs are represented by Our Children’s Trust, who intend to “elevate the voices of youth” and “to secure the right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere” according to their website. Environmentalist and activist Tristan Glowa held the role of master of ceremonies as the event coalesced. He proclaimed the need to show the youth “that we’ve got their back”. He stressed the importance of humanity’s respectful relationship with the environment, and with the land. “People power helps moves us to justice,” said Glowa. Among the twenty-one plaintiffs is nineteen-year-old Nathan Baring, a recent West Valley graduate. His father, Tom Baring, spoke at the rally. He found the youth activism as well as his son’s work to help hold the government accountable “incredibly inspiring”. He avowed the Trump Administration’s attempts to “circumvent” the proper legal procedure, as the case had been repeatedly halted by attempts to dismiss, specifically the ninth circuit court. “The Trump administration is trying to silence our youth,” he said. Baring cited various cases of environmental endangerment, with a recent Hawaiian island “disappearing” following a typhoon, and the current state of the Barrier Reef being very near elimination. He also spoke of struggles related to climate change in Barrow, and condemned the Federal Government for ignoring it for so long. “How many disasters do we need?” he asked, but stressed that there was still time to cause more damage. “This is a moral and spiritual issue,” he said, “and we’re making it a legal issue, too.” Baring declared happily that out of all the speakers for the rally, he was “the only one over the age of nineteen”.
0 Comments
|
EditorCategories
All
Archives
January 2023
|