Young Colombians are pick out the government to court over the environment .
The 25 complainant , whose ages tramp from 7 to 26 , file away a lawsuit in Bogota Monday demand a rightfield to a healthy environs free of deforestation and the irreversible impacts from clime change . The suit forebode explicitly for the Union government to make an action plan to reduce the Amazon ’s rapid disforestation by 2020 . ( That ’s also what President Juan Manuel Santos prognosticate during the 2015 Paris Climate Summit . )
The youthfulness are doing this with the assist of Dejusticia , a human rights organization base in Bogota that’sadvocatingfor their basic human rightfulness to clean air , clean water , and a salubrious environment . This is the first legal question of its kind in Latin America , according to Desjusticia . The immense region embrace Mexico , Central America , and South America is full of diverse ecosystem , from the Andes in Peru to the Atacama Desert in Chile , each endanger by climate variety and environmental degradation in different ways .
The complainant live in 17 cities throughout Colombia , and none are safe from the dangers of climate change , per the organization . Plaintiff Yurshell Rodríguez lives in one of the most at - risk of infection region of the country , the islands of San Andrés and Providencia . By 2100 , 17 percentage of this archipelago is set to vanish due to rising sea grade , agree to a2008 reportfrom Tufts University .
Youth plaintiffs have also been filing standardized litigation in the U.S. in an endeavor to force the Union government to take more drastic action . Our Children ’s Trust , an environmental organization that ’s been guide the cause , is behind thelandmark federal lawsuitchallenging the Trump administration that ’s presently stimulate its manner through the motor hotel . In fact , the United States see three prison term more climate cause than anywhere else in the world , according to astudyfrom the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law .
Cities are suing , too — except they ’re not litigate the federal government . Places likeNew York CityandSan Franciscoare action the fossil fuel company that knew about mood variety yet intentionally brush aside the science to make a buck . The terror of climate change is advertise all types of entities to take action , and the courts are increasingly becoming the place to do so .
“ Just as cities , like New York and San Francisco , have sued crude companies for their persona in fire mood alteration , and a judicature ordered the Netherlands ’ government to boil down its carbon emissions , we are asking that Colombia fulfills its anterior commitments to tackle clime alteration , ” Cesar Rodriguez , head teacher of Dejusticia , say in the mechanical press release .
While the U.S - based lawsuit have focused almost entirely on climate change , this new cause takes on an environmental number salient in Colombia : deforestation . Nearly440,000 acresof timber were lost in 2016 — a 44 percent startle from the year before .
“ [ Deforestation ] creates a serious threat to the fundamental rights of those of us who are unseasoned today and will face the impacts of mood alter the remainder of our lives , ” the 25 plaintiff said in the statement . “ We are at a critical moment given the velocity at which deforestation is happen in the Colombian Amazon . The government ’s deficiency of capacity and planning as well as its failure to protect the environment cause the adoption of urgent measures necessary . ”
mood changeColombiaDeforestation
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