Focus Area
Climate Change
Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge that humanity—and the planet—has ever faced. Earthjustice fights for a livable future by pushing for strong national and international limits on carbon pollution (including black carbon emissions), pushing for a shift from dirty to clean energy, and building the resilience of natural systems in the face of climate change.
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CLIMATE CHANGE COULD MAKE THE PLANET UNLIVABLE.
If the causes of warming global temperatures are not addressed, we will render the planet unlivable. Already, great shifts are occurring. Polar ice is melting at alarming rates. Superstorms like Hurricane Sandy are bearing down with greater regularity. Droughts and wildfires are intensifying and the oceans are acidifying as they soak up excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
EARTHJUSTICE FIGHTS FOR A VIBRANT, LIVABLE FUTURE BY:
- SECURING NATIONAL AND GLOBAL RULES TO CUT CARBON through work in the courts, Congress and via international negotiations to secure real, enforceable cuts in climate pollution.
- CREATING PATHWAYS FOR CLEAN POWER through litigation that challenges reliance on fossil fuels, which imperil our climate and pollute our air and water, and opens the door to clean, renewable sources of power.
- REDUCING BLACK CARBON—one of the best things we can do right now to slow warming and protect ecosystems.
- BUILDING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE by taking a proactive approach to promote ecologically rich, resilient refuges that can sustain healthy fish and wildlife populations on land and at sea.
AND WE’RE GETTING CLOSER EVERY DAY.
Years of Earthjustice litigation alongside partner groups paid off, securing a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2014 that upheld the EPA’s authority to limit carbon pollution.
"Climate-related disasters are now impacting every region of the country. We simply can’t afford not to address this problem.” – Trip Van Noppen, Earthjustice President
