James Gustave Speth - They Knew: The US Federal Governments Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis

James Gustave Speth

An Our Childrens Trust Book

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2021 Our Childrens Trust

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was set in Adobe Garamond Pro by New Best-set Typesetters Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Speth, James Gustave, author.

Title: They knew : the federal governments fifty-year role in causing the climate crisis / James Gustave Speth.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020050507 | ISBN 9780262542982 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policyUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Environmental policyUnited StatesHistory21st century. | Climatic changesGovernment policyUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Climatic changesGovernment policyUnited StatesHistory21st century.

Classification: LCC GE180 .S638 2021 | DDC 363.738/74560973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050507

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For the 21 Youth Plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States

Nathan Baring

Vic Barrett

Zealand Bell

Jaime Butler

Levi Draheim

Jayden Foytlin

Tia Hatton

Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana

Sophie Kivlehan

Jacob Lebel

Alexander Loznak

Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez

Avery McRae

Kiran Oommen

Aji Piper

Hazel Van Ummersen

Sahara Valentine

Nick Venner

Isaac Vergun

Miko Vergun

Journey Zephier

Julia Olson and Philip Gregory

Julia Olson and Philip Gregory

Julia Olson and Philip Gregory

Since 2018, we have been blessed to work with Gus Speth, who did a remarkable job in developing his expert report for our constitutional climate lawsuit, Juliana v. United States. As you will see, Juliana is no ordinary lawsuit. This introduction describes the story behind Juliana and explains the invaluable historical importance of this book to the overall strategy of the litigation. We also portray how Juliana came to be filed.

The original expert report was prepared by Gus as an expert witness in the Juliana litigation. His report (and now this book) is the most compelling indictment yet written of the federal governments role in the climate crisis. His book achieves its impact, in part, by a detailed presentation of original source material drawing on extensive research of the record over the past fifty years, mainly, but not entirely, government documents stretching from Presidents Johnson through Trump. As explained in the Reader Access to Exhibits Section, the associated exhibits can be digitally accessed by those interested. His book updates the original expert report with new insights about the Trump administration, such as various aspects of the extremely aggressive agenda in favoring fossil fuel energy over energy production that would halt climate change, and its unparalleled harm to children and their health. Yet while the Trump administrations record has been deplorable, this historical analysis points out that, in many respects, the Trump administrations record is not much worse on energy or exacerbating the climate crisis than some prior administrations, and generally continues forward the stamp of approval for fossil energy that every president before Trump has likewise backed. In urging its publication, we believe Guss expert report deserves a wide audience, now more than ever, as a historical lesson and a warning: even with a new Democratic administration, it will take much more than undoing President Trumps anti-climate-action policies to redress the long-standing federal government support of fossil energy that has led to the climate crisis.

The climate issue continues to be front and center politically and in the courts. This book is a compelling telling of the fifty-year history that is the backdrop to todays unfolding disaster. As we await the day Gus will take the stand and swear to tell the truth of this report before a trial judge in Eugene, Oregon, we hope this book and international interest in Juliana will catch the wave of rising public concern and political momentum. Moreover, looking further down the road, possibly for decades, people will be asking how the climate tragedy happened. What did the federal government know and when did it know it? In the face of this information, what did the federal government do and what did it not do? This book addresses these questions. The public should have this material readily available. Among other things, it documents convincingly that the federal government knew enough in the 1970s and 1980s to begin addressing the climate issue in energy policy and elsewhere. Hopefully, after reading this book, you will understand why people such as Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein call Juliana the most important lawsuit on the planet.

This book was prepared in conjunction with Our Childrens Trust (OCT). Julia Olson founded OCT in 2010 after becoming a mother. She quickly grew frustrated at the limitations of environmental law, and of her own public interest legal practice, in addressing the growing climate crisis. Her young children were born into an increasingly hotter planet and she was determined to use a rights-based legal approach to advocate more holistically and strategically for the system change needed to thwart the crisis- to give them, and all children, a shot at a safe and livable world.

Julias bible in those early days of creating the legal strategy that would lead to Juliana was Storms of My Grandchildren, a book published in December 2009 by Dr. James Hansen, one of the worlds most respected climate scientists. (Dr. Hansens granddaughter, Sophie, is now one of the plaintiffs in Juliana, and Dr. Hansen serves as a plaintiff Guardian for Future Generations.) At the heart of any case about climate crisis is the science, and Julia devoured the literature. The legal theory would come next, inspired by the synchronous scholarship of Professor Mary Wood, author of Natures Trust.

Thus, in 2010, OCT was formed. At that point, our average global atmospheric CO2 level was already at 389 parts per million and swiftly rising well beyond the 350 parts per million threshold that would keep our planets climate system from spiraling out of balance. There was urgency to take bold action on behalf of children and future generations. With the guidance of revolutionary legal scholars like Mary Wood and leading climate scientists like Dr. Hansen, Julia, alongside a few other lawyers, such as Phil Gregory and Andrea Rodgers, leapt into action to launch Our Childrens Trusts legal strategy.

By Mothers Day 2011, OCT had prepared to file climate lawsuits or regulatory legal actions in fifty statesas well as a federal caseall on behalf of young people.

As of 2020, there is still no other public interest law firm of this kind on our planet. Representing only youth, from many different communities and cultures. Suing only governments to protect fundamental human rights and equal protection of the law. Seeking only science-based systemic remedies. We at OCT live by these principles and we work together to do one thing: save our childrens only planet from government-sanctioned climate destruction.