Judge Lets Seattle Kids’ Climate Change Suit Proceed

SEATTLE (AP) — A judge says eight Seattle children should have "their day in court" to argue that Washington state and others are violating their constitutional rights to a healthy environment by failing to protect them from climate change.

King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill on Monday wrote that there's a need for coordinated science-based action by the state to "address climate change before efforts to do so are too costly and too late."

The children, ages 12-16, asked a state judge last month to require the state Department of Ecology to come up with science-based numeric emissions reductions.

The case is part of a nationwide effort led by the Oregon-based nonprofit Our Children’s Trust to force states and the federal government to take action on climate change.