Crime of the century

On 17 June 2017, wildfires ripped across Portugal. Sixty-six people died and 204 were injured. That October it happened again, claiming 49 more lives across Portugal and Spain.

Claudia Duarte Agostinho was there: "What I felt was fear. The wildfires made me really anxious about what sort of future I would have." She claims to have suffered from eco-anxiety since.

Her brother Martim's allergies have flared up, while their 11-year-old sister Mariana has started suffering from asthmaA common lung condition that can cause breathing difficulties.. 

Now the siblings have made a bold move. With three others, they have filed a lawsuit against 32 European governments.¹ They accuse them of violating their human rightsThe basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe or how you choose to live your life. Some have called for animals and even natural phenomena like rivers to have some form of human rights. by failing to fight climate change. If it succeeds, it could force the governments involved to take urgent climate action.

The youths can take heart from another lawsuit. In the USA this August, 16 young people won a case against MontanaA state in the northwest of the US known for its mountainous landscape.. They argued the state was violating their rights by allowing fossil fuel development.

The Montana verdict suggests that inaction on climate change may one day become criminal.

Some think this change is crucial. In 2015 journalists discovered that oil companies in the 1970s knew that burning fossil fuelsFuels made from decomposing plants and animals, including coal, natural gas and oil. These fuels release carbon dioxide, causing global warming. causes global warming. But they chose to cover their tracks. The world burned to protect their profits.

Choices like these have made everyone on Earth a victim, whether Londoners breathing polluted air, farmers in Bangladesh losing land to rising sea levels or Portuguese teenagers facing deadly fires. As environmental writer Mark Hertsgaard says: "Every person on Earth today is living in a crime scene."

Others argue that prosecuting climate inaction is near-impossible. It is difficult to decide who to blame. If we are to charge an oil company, do we arrest the bosses, the shareholdersPeople who own shares in a company. Owning a share means somebody owns a very small part of the company. , all employees, anyone who used the oil? Deciding where the buck stops will take decades - and we do not have the time.

Should inaction be a crime?

Yes: All those with the power to reduce climate change have a responsibility to do so. Failure to do so is a matter of life and death for all of us. It is only fair that they face the consequences.

No: Punishing those that all failed to act would take an enormous amount of effort, money and time. But the clock is ticking. We should stop looking back and focus all our resources on the future.

Or... Few of us are innocent. Every time we throw away a single-use plastic or use electricity generated from fossil fuels, we hurt the Earth. Where do we draw the line between victim and criminal?