Denver International Airport Alaska
terminal they head off to Eugene Oregon
there's no time to really just suit the
American government I mean like 200
years overdue for suing the United
States they've done a lot of terrible
in last 20 years
my name is Judas cotton Athene I'm a 15
year-old climate warrior spokesperson
for my generation and I'm suing the
United States government for violating
my constitutional right to health the
atmosphere when you see a headline of a
newspaper that says you suing Obama or
kids suing Obama or teenagers rallying
to sue the president for climate change
like that'll get a lot of attention
hello my name is your best couple
Matthew I'm six year old boy my name is
Jessica and I'm an 11 year old earth
guardian
they'll have to listen to us they'll
have to make change I guess one of the
differences you could say between me and
her average trips in your own case that
I've put every ounce of my existence and
to pursuing that message I stand before
you today representing my entire
generation climate change is a human
rights issue we need you to take action
at cop21 before it's too late who will
stand with me now he was telling me that
basically he is from the generation that
has the most at stake in climate change
the attention I'm getting around this
movement is I mean the greatest thing
that could happen 'shit Eska has
definitely been unusual since he was
young when he was six in he saw the
Leonardo DiCaprio movie the 11th hour he
literally like cried all night and he
said I need to talk to people and that
was at six years old but I guess I'd
never thought it would probably get to
this level one of the most important
things that has kind of influenced my
life and my work is just connection to
indigenous culture in my father's
culture in Aztec Mexico City the
indigenous people in Mexico City the
traditional language now walk
my name's shoot this cut means turquoise
mirror and now watch well since I could
walk I was learning the traditional
dances since I could speak us learning
the language of our people and with that
just a lot of teachings of understanding
that every little thing around us is
alive and it's vibrant and that is worth
fighting for
we are the stewards of this land we were
put here on earth to protect and
preserve and live in balance with nature
and those kind of teachings is where the
deepest of my roots lie as far as what
influenced me to become an activist and
a spokesperson and a change agent for
sure
basically the whole environmental thing
it's just a part of our family and our
lifestyle it's definitely different I
think been the way a lot of kids are
raised it's just natural it's not like
anything like for me it's not anything
unusual or out of the ordinary it's like
who wouldn't want to you know protect
and take care of the earth my mom
started earth Guardians in 1982
throughout the generations of her six
kids we've all picked up the torch in a
different way I'm the youth director of
Earth Guardians I decided to kind of
keep the momentum going that's just one
small local crew of 15 kids the met that
pesticides out of our parks all in
Boulder Colorado got fracking banned for
his last six years here in Boulder
County we are working to empower young
people to give them the voice being
excited and inspired and doing what
we're passionate about whether that's
film whether that's hip-hop know that
sport are using those things to change
the world around us the thing that sucks
is that the United States we have
contributed to climate change we were
one of the biggest polluting countries
in the world and we are suffering at
least there's so much power and there's
so much profit to be made out of digging
dead decomposed plant and animal matter
out of the ground
we look around in my backyard we are the
front of a war zone for fossil fuel
extraction what happens is when they
frack
they shoot millions of gallons of water
toxic chemicals and sand mixed together
to the fraction the shale beneath the
ground and then when it comes all back
up they got a separated they take the
oil in the gas and they take it off the
ship Internet age energy but the
contaminated water that comes back up is
considered dead wat there's a well pad
right there off to the left that tan
cylinder that's in the ground that's
holding toxic waste water it's not like
huge it's not like the tar sands it's
not like a huge oil refinery it's it's
almost it's very hidden they're really
good at hiding it a lot of it is
underground everything that happens with
fracking has happens on the ground there
was a fracking well pad here this water
would surely be contaminated by all
different types of benzene ethyl benzene
toluene xylenes what we need to do is
love water not oil that's the motto love
water not oil because water is life
right
terima over Kenny's processing yes we
did a direct action against the County
Courthouse and we held the courthouse
for about 34 minutes all the kids so the
earth Guardian crew we started an
open-mic chant and everybody in the
audience was chanting messages about
renewable energy and about banning
fracking the County Commission is that
we're all in their seats talking about
fracking they actually left they were
escorted out by the police and then the
youth the earth Guardian crew went up on
there actually took all of their seat
which was a really powerful
demonstration and we were up there until
the police kicked us off obviously was
very informal but it worked we have five
communities all along this side of the
Continental Divide that we ban fracking
more to come
this fracking wellhead right here this
is a recreational area right and off of
these tanks is every single year
tons of hydrocarbon vapors toxic
volatile organic compounds everybody
that makes a profit off of this industry
is afraid of what we have to say is
afraid of this being on camera is afraid
of this getting out to the public is
afraid of the power that we have I mean
in Colorado the movement that's built up
around fracking is amazing as it is you
know putting bands in different cities
and counties moratoria they know how
powerful we are that's why they're
afraid of us honestly does not look very
good more forces does it the color of
the tortilla should tough cutter
yeah it looks like it's a mix of yellow
and blue corn so it's like green corn
tortilla it's just definitely gives a
kind of like a green you know yellow and
blue eggs right right
so have you got what you need for the
courtroom clothes-wise
I don't know I'm watching everything
right now do you still fit your nice
shoes no you never even wore them one
time so they've never been more I think
I tried them on they're so they're so
hard yeah look at this thing still
inside like is there paper inside of it
no God well easily fit me more we should
definitely give these to somebody who
will appreciate them
it's 5:22 a.m. and route to Eugene
Oregon we're gonna go be a part of this
federal lawsuit it's pretty historic you
don't hear about kids still in the
government every day these these moments
are when we remember it for sure and
when we're successful whole world's
gonna realize how much power that a
group of youth have the demanding action
with demanding solutions and we're
demanding them to honor our rights so
far they failed so we gotta get them to
go gonna do the right thing
the problems that kind of pushed me to
engage in this federal lawsuit looking
everywhere and hearing these stories
from other young people and just looking
around the world that there's so much
that's falling apart because of the
climate disaster that we see but I also
got involved with this lawsuit because I
saw hope and I saw optimism that really
excited me and even just being here
amongst these incredible young people
that's you know that's you know feeding
the fire that you know feeds this
movement might you test I saw this idea
there's so much hoping in the idea that
we can actually make change like in the
civil rights movement when young people
like us decided they were gonna take a
stand of that made so much of the
difference in that movement and I
decided that all of us together can make
the same impact in the same change these
21 kids her awesome it's it's really
amazing they're all different ages that
come from very different backgrounds
some of them are just meeting each other
in person for the first time but they
feel such a tight bond with one another
it's an incredible group of young people
so Teske has such an enormous weight on
his shoulders because he's a visionary I
think he's just this incredibly aware
inspired wise young person and it is a
great weight that he carries at the age
of 15
this is the most important case I've
ever argued about core questions of
survival and whether our Constitution
will endure for these kids we sued the
United States of America and our claim
is that since the late 60s the federal
government knew that climate change was
causing serious harm and that that harm
wouldn't manifest itself until the
second or third decade of the 2000s well
that's where we are right now and lo and
behold it is manifesting itself the
federal defendants have known for
decades that the harm is going to be
inflicted on future generations well
some of those generations are now alive
they're the plaintiffs in this case it's
great to see that there's hundreds of
people on their way already here to
support us and we want this to reach the
world you want everybody to see this and
everyone to then take action to be
inspired to take accident
we're fighting we've worked really hard
to do here
in sessions odds or keys you know in
what world is the government partner up
with the oil companies to fight the
children like that doesn't happen
every source of enormous pollution in
our country is operating under a permit
issued by the US government they are
doing everything to cause the
infringement of these plaintiffs
constitutional rights to personal
security to life what better time to be
alive and now because we are the
generation that will get to change
everything
generations rewrite history the pen is
in our hands and we are writing history
today we will stand up to the industry
but will stand up to our government
remind them that our future mattered
more than profits thank you the
defendants primary approach was to
mischaracterize with the plaintiffs are
seeking and then try to attack that
mischaracterization and it's you see
this with the fossil fuel industry all
the time and i think i think the court
understood that today i think that we
presented really strong arguments you're
15 and I have 30 years on you
so if I can take any of this burden off
of your plate if I can help you I've
seen a lot of young people fall into
apathy and hopelessness because the
problem is so enormous this threatens
every living person on the planet like
the thought of that really freaks a lot
of people out and you know I don't blame
them it'll be up to our generation my
generation not to save the planet but to
lead the movement but we need every
single generation to help tell these
stories to help offer the wisdom of the
elders
it's all about ground the movement we
got to do everything that we can you
know it's not really a choice anymore
because if we want human race to
continue we need to be active and we
need to fight for what we believe