Youths have right to livable climate

Young people are increasingly anxious about the state of the climate. They are tired of being told that their generation will have to solve this problem in the future — they know from their own experience of heat, fires and supercharged storms that we are running out of time.

So they have every right to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider their lawsuit about their constitutional right to a livable climate. How can “life and liberty” be possible without it?

In the meantime, it’s up to us adults to hear their plea when we go to the ballot box. Will we elect Donald Trump, who has offered to trade a livable climate for a billion-dollar donation from the fossil fuel industry? Or will we elect Kamala Harris, who takes climate change, and the Constitution, seriously?

We can’t elect Supreme Court justices, but we can elect a government that will make climate a priority over stoking division and selling T-shirts.