'It's my future': Montana youth undertake one of the world's most high-profile climate trials

MISSOULA, Mont. — Grace Gibson-Snyder can remember when, at the ripe old age of 16, she asked her parents if she could join a lawsuit, along with 15 other young Montanans, that argues the state’s dependence on fossil fuels is directly tied to “dangerous climate disruption,” which directly harms them and violates their constitutional rights.

A little more than three years later, she appeared at the Clark County Courthouse in Helena, Montana, for the start of a trial that legal experts say could set a major precedent regarding the government’s responsibility to protect future generations from climate change. And beyond the legal end, the effort has become among the most high-profile efforts by young Americans to push for climate action.

“It never crossed any of our minds that we’d be on national television or having this kind of groundbreaking case,” Gibson-Snyder, 19, said.

The start of the trial was a victory in its own right. The legal challenge — which stretches back 12 years — has faced a variety of efforts to prevent it from coming to trial. The state attorney general’s office has slammed the legal effort, and tried to get the case dismissed eight times since the original complaint was filed.

In a statement to NBC News, Emilee Cantrell, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said: “This case should have never made it to trial, and we look forward to proving that. It would be impossible for the court to grant relief to the plaintiffs that would remedy their alleged injuries. The plaintiffs are just looking for another line in their next documentary.”

It’s the kind of jab that this young group has gotten used to. Gibson-Snyder said she’s seen comments calling them “climate Nazis” and uneducated. Nate Bellinger, attorney for “Our Children’s Trust,” the nonprofit public interest law firm behind the lawsuit, said the high-profile trial in a Republican-run state has led to major backlash for the plaintiffs.

“Some of them have lost friends and have been criticized by classmates, even teachers in some instances,’ he said. “The fact that they’ve stood up to their government, in the current landscape in Montana, where it’s really challenging to do that, it really demonstrates a lot of courage and persistence on their part.”

The lawsuit focuses on a part of the Montana Constitution that was added in 1972 that says “the state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.”

Similar lawsuits have succeeded in other parts of the world. In 2021, a lawsuit brought in part by young activists succeeded in convincing a German court to order revisions to the country’s climate legislation after finding it placed too much of the burden on young people. In Austria, Peru and Portugal, young people have filed lawsuits seeking to force their governments to act.

Mica Kantor, 14, joked that instead of convincing his parents to let him go to the movies with friends, he was getting them on board with him joining the Montana lawsuit. He said it’s important to get the courts to make changes because it will be years before he can vote.

He said his parents took a bit of cajoling — 11 is rather young to be involved in litigation.

“I think I just really stressed, 'this is something that’s really important to me and I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said, “And it’s my future that I want to protect and all the kids’ future in Montana.”

Americans’ views on climate change vary sharply by age and political affiliation, with younger people more likely to say that addressing the issue should be a top priority, according to surveys done by the Pew Research Center. And Americans ages 18 to 34 have seen the biggest shift in terms of “acceptance and worry” related to global warming, according to Yale University’s program on climate change communication. Even young conservatives have begun to embrace the need for climate action.

Montana remains a staunchly red state, something not lost on Gibson-Snyder, but she sees a way forward. She said she now hopes to one day work in the Montana Legislature.

“We’re asking for a transition over the next 30 years so that we can move away from these fossil fuels and have a transition,” she said. “That’s why it’s called a transition to cleaner energy.”