Between The Lines - Julia Olson: In Children's Climate Change Lawsuit, Judge Affirms States' Obligation to Protect Future Generations (Week Ending Dec. 11, 2015)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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In Children's Climate Change Lawsuit, Judge Affirms States' Obligation to Protect Future Generations

Posted Dec. 2, 2015

Interview with Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children's Trust, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Over the past several years, lawsuits have been filed in several states against the U.S. government demanding that officials take action specifically to protect children from the impacts of climate change, as they and their descendants will be the ones affected most. James Hanson, perhaps the best-known climate scientist in the U.S. who first testified before Congress on the issue back in 1988, has provided expert testimony in some of these cases.

On Nov. 19, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis R. Hill in Seattle issued a groundbreaking ruling in the case of eight youth petitioners, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, who requested that the Washington Department of Ecology write a carbon emissions rule that protects the atmosphere for their generation and those to come. While the judge denied the children's petition to force the state to adopt stricter regulations, she wrote, "[the youths'] very survival depends upon the will of their elders to act now, decisively and unequivocally, to stem the tide of global warming ... before doing so becomes first too costly, and then too late." Judge Hill ruled the public trust doctrine mandates that the state act through its designated agency "to protect what it holds in trust." In its decision, the court validated the youths' claim that the "scientific evidence is clear that the current rates of [greenhouse gas] reduction mandated by Washington state law cannot ensure the survival of an environment in which [youth] can grow to adulthood safely."

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children's Trust, the group which brought this lawsuit, along with claims in several other states. The children the Trust represented in Washington state are members of a global environmental youth organization called Plant for the Planet. Here, Olson describes the significance of the ruling for these children and for similar cases pending across the country.

JULIA OLSON: So, one reason why the decision is slightly confusing is because of the procedural posture of the case. So, basically, if you look at what the young people were trying to achieve from the beginning, they wanted their state to engage in a rule-making to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions, and they wanted their legal rights to be protected: their rights to healthy public trust resources and their constitutional right to live in a healthful environment, and what they got at the end of the day are both of those things. But the way it came about is a little bit nuanced. So basically, because the governor, during the course of the litigation, ordered the Department of Ecology to start the rule-making. That took part of that remedy away from the court, so the court at that point didn’t need to order a rule-making, because the department had already agreed to start one. So that’s the first thing. But what the kids still needed was they needed the court to tell the Department of Ecology that they had the law wrong, because the Department of Ecology was saying that they didn’t have to protect the environment for these kids; that they didn’t have a constitutional obligation to act; that they weren’t public trustees that had to help address climate change. They were denying all the legal arguments that the youth had brought to the court. So the court gave the kids the second piece that they needed. So basically she said, I can’t order them to do a rule-making; they’re not acting illegally any more on that piece, because they’re doing the rule-making. But I can tell them what the law requires them to do, and I’m going to clarify for them that they are public trustees; they need to address climate change and ocean acidification in the state of Washington; they have a constitutional obligation to act and protect these kids’ rights, and when they act, they need to consider science. So that piece of it is an enormous win for these youth, and for everybody in the state of Washington.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Climate change is obviously a global problem, so how will this ruling impact climate change and how will it help to protect these children?

JULIA OLSON: Climate change is absolutely a global problem, but the solutions lie at the level of the state or the nation state. We don’t have a global government that can order something to happen around the world. We have our process where every country and every state is responsible for what happens within its jurisdiction. So we need every state and every nation around the world to do its part to reduce emissions in order to stabilize the climate system. And Washington is one piece of that. It’s why youth are going after other states in the U.S. and why they have a lawsuit against the federal government and why kids are starting to sue other governments around the world as well, because every government

BETWEEN THE LINES: This is the first successful lawsuit around this issue, right?

JULIA OLSON: Yes, that’s right. So this is the first time the young people have actually gotten the remedy they were seeking, which is the rule-making to set limits on carbon emissions and the definition of their legal rights

BETWEEN THE LINES: Can this ruling be used as precedent in these other cases?

JULIA OLSON: Yeah, so, when a district court or a lower court makes a decision, it’s not binding precedent on other courts or on other states, but it is really persuasive to other judges to see how a court in a particular jurisdiction has addressed the issues. And the fact that this court has been really clear that the young people’s survival is at stake; that you can’t protect navigable waters of a state if you’re not also looking at the connectivity between the atmosphere and carbon pollution and its impact on those waters. She’s made some very powerful rulings in her decision, and that will be persuasive to other courts around the country, and the world.

For more information, visit Our Children's Trust at ourchildrenstrust.org and the Washington state chapter at ourchildrenstrust.org/state/washington.