“This ruling is absurd, but not surprising for a judge who ordered plaintiffs’ lawyers to carry out a taxpayer-funded publicity stunt for a week instead of a trial.” So said Emily Flower, the bewildered spokesperson for Montana’s attorney, the US state that lost last Monday in a lawsuit filed against the state. The accusing party consisted of 16 youths, ages 5 to 22, who allege that Montana violates their right to a clean and healthy environment by granting illegal permits to fossil energy projects. After a battle of about three years, the judge ruled in favor of these young people.
It is a laughable statement from that spokesman. A well-known reflex, moreover: after a loss, give it a go at the judge and shout that it has all been one big show trial. While here it has simply been legally shown that Montana is acting unconstitutionally and thus contributes to the deterioration of the climate. Still, after seeing the photos I understand why Flower would say this. The young people simply have the image with them, that’s all it is. And at the same time, of course, that’s all, including a stick to hit afterwards.
Preliminary note: The footage accompanying this piece is from June, when the lawsuit was underway and both sides argued their case in court in Helena, Montana’s capital. The news reports of the past week were almost all accompanied by these ‘old’ images, from the photo press agency Getty. They turned out to be very useful after the judge’s ruling.
After all, there is hardly a photo to be found on which those young people do not laugh or at least look friendly and serious. They move through the streets in groups, like a lump of cheerful intransigence. They make protest signs with brightly colored letters and yellow suns. They’ve rounded up their parents and grandparents, a loyal following of equally lovable smiling people, and their lawyer – purple tie, pink shirt – walks the streets grinning permanently. One of those young people has purple curls and a green dress, which has clearly been thought about.
And here they haven’t even won yet.
God dammit.
Take a look at it, at least from a media point of view. You can almost hear the photographers thinking: ‘Smiling youngsters or grumpy old men? Tough choice, you know.’ Because that’s how the defense of the state of Montana appeared in June: as the stereotypical Hollywood version of the ‘bad guys’. Gray bespectacled men in suits with steel-blue ties, bending over their laptops and binders full of papers in court. There are only two photos of it at Getty, not too flattering either, compared to many more of those young people, very strange.
While those difficult-looking men could of course also have just smiled and driven through the streets in fat cars, throwing hundred-dollar bills out the window and pointing at a banner that read: ‘Made possible in part by the fossil industry.’ Media attention guaranteed. At least that sour spokesman Flower would have had a nicer job.
Anyway, this kind of publicity stunts were not the point of this process. It was about which party was legally entitled. And according to the judge, that turned out to be the party of the climate youth, representatives of a generation that has every right to walk around grumpy all day long, but more often chooses to take up the fight positively. That costs less energy and yields more. Case closed.
