A stable climate system is quite literally the foundation of society, “without which there would be neither civilization nor progress.”

What’s the Constitution got to do with climate? Current legal cases are now addressing that question. They are using the U.S. Constitution to bring climate protection into the courthouse. These cases range from youth demanding their constitutional right to a stable climate to activists who block fossil fuel pipeline construction and justify their action as necessary to protect constitutional rights.

While legal action has contributed to social change in the past, it also is notoriously slow and uncertain. But action in the streets can accelerate the legal process and pressure the courts to act. Conversely, courts can establish legal principles that encourage action in the streets. Can we combine the two to jumpstart climate protection?

A constitutional right

Early in the 21^stcentury environmental University of Oregon law professor Mary Christina Wood concluded that existing environmental law had become an enabler of the world’s wild rush to environmental catastrophe. The greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions that cause catastrophic climate change were actually authorized by thousands of permits issued annually by the government agencies that are supposed to protect the environment.