Hansen’s granddaughter sues for life, liberty, and….
Dr. James Hansen, a leading climate scientist with his granddaughter Sophie Kivlehan, now suing for her rights to life, liberty, etc. (Photo credit: John Englander)
Sophie Kivlehan and twenty other young leaders are suing the Federal government, arguing that their rights to “life, liberty, and property” are being compromised by human-caused climate change. She explains her stance in a recent OpEd in Pennsylvania’s The Morning Call. “Why I Sued the Federal Government Over Harmful Air Pollution.”
Their case in Federal court in Oregon asserts their natural and inalienable rights, the very same rights argued for in the second sentence of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. For Americans this is very timely as the US celebrates those rights on the annual 4th of July holiday.
Sophie happens to be the granddaughter of leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen. Until his recent retirement, he was the chief scientist for NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and now continues as an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
I took the photo above of the two of them in New York City as part of the People’s Climate March – September 21, 2014. Given that there were more than three hundred thousand marchers, it was rather amazing that I just happened to join up with Hansen and his family. Jim and I were able to reconnect while we walked –– and I was able to meet his remarkable granddaughter.
For more than a decade, Hansen has been very articulate that his fierce fight to limit human-caused climate change largely gets its inspiration and clarity from his concern for Sophie and his other grandchildren. Let’s hope that legal actions like this, with public outcry, and sane leadership gets global warming under control, so that Sophie, and my own teenage daughter, as well as all of their generation will have a viable climate.
It will take a HUGE effort, not “business as usual”, but more like a full wartime priority. Even if the US stays committed to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, despite President Trump’s announced intent of withdrawal, we need to do even more. (See Paris Climate Agreement: the good, the bad, and the ugly.)
While we seek independence from authoritarianism and tyranny, for basic freedom and quality of life, we are very dependent on a stable climate to sustain life as we know it. Let us commit ourselves to the premise that all children and future generations deserve the right to a sustainable planet.
P.S. In the fall, Sophie will enter Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, which happens to be where I got my geology degree, giving me the foundation to understand changing sea level over geologic time.