Kelsey Juliana: Millennials will make a difference

When it comes to stand­ing up to cli­mate change Kelsey Juliana is relent­less, and expects you to be, too.

“If you’re won­der­ing if you’re doing enough, then the answer is prob­a­bly not,” said Juliana, 20, a col­lege stu­dent cur­rent­ly work­ing with Part­ners for Sus­tain­able Schools to teach chil­dren about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and the envi­ron­ment.

“If you’re not uncom­fort­able, you’re not being hon­est about what we’re up against.”

Grow­ing up in Eugene, Juliana said her pas­sion for the envi­ron­ment was instilled in her by her par­ents from a young age, and from a young age she’s quick­ly ratch­eted up her activism, from writ­ing reports in mid­dle school to tak­ing part in protest march­es, to now being part of a fed­er­al law­suit to force the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment to act to pre­vent the con­se­quences of cli­mate change.

For her TED talk, Juliana will share her expe­ri­ence being part of the land­mark US Fed­er­al cli­mate law­suit, and how it has rein­forced her belief in mil­len­ni­als to change the world.

Being a part of the pro­ceed­ings, being in the court­room to attend the hear­ings has been a “huge hon­or, and a huge priv­i­lege,” she said.

On Novem­ber 10 of last year in a momen­tous deci­sion, a fed­er­al court in Eugene ruled against the government’s motion to dis­miss, paving the way for Juliana and 20 oth­er youth plain­tiffs ages 9 to 20 to sue the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to take deci­sive actions to lim­it car­bon emis­sions. The core argu­ment – Allow­ing cli­mate change to hap­pen is in fact depriv­ing the youngest gen­er­a­tion of its con­sti­tu­tion­al right to life, lib­er­ty and the pur­suit of hap­pi­ness, and is there­fore fun­da­men­tal­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

“It’s beau­ti­ful… that [lit­i­ga­tion has] been the way to seek jus­tice for any mar­gin­al group,” she said.

“We are per­son­al­ly affect­ed by cli­mate change,” Juliana said. “We are not okay with the fact that peo­ple allow­ing this and caus­ing this are elect­ed to pro­tect us from harm.”

It feels fair to say that fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion is not the kind of child­hood mem­o­ry most peo­ple have. But that’s pre­cise­ly the point, accord­ing to Juliana. Mil­len­ni­als are not the dis­tract­ed slack­ers of media por­tray­al, but are, like her, active and aware. They need to be tak­en seri­ous­ly as agents of change, she said.

“Young peo­ple don’t just have cute pic­tures of polar bears,” she said, “they have real ideas and inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and they need them to be tak­en seri­ous­ly.”

And they don’t need your sym­pa­thy.

“Applaud us but join us.”

At a per­son­al lev­el, it’s her pas­sion for chil­dren that moti­vates Kelsey Juliana. Teach­ing school chil­dren about the envi­ron­ment and sus­tain­abil­i­ty is her way of being true to her­self, which is the key to empow­er­ing each of us to make a dif­fer­ence, she said.

“Every­one always asks, ‘What can I do?’ But instead of just call­ing con­gress­men, reflect on your­self,” she said.

“Who are you, what makes you hap­py? Then tran­si­tion that to: What do you love, what do you care about? What kind of world do you want to see in 20 years?”

“Peo­ple con­tribute very dif­fer­ent things,” she said. “Each of us has a unique gift that we can offer.” 

 - Learn more about the case and the plain­tiff’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, Our Chil­dren’s Trust, here.

 

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