As the World Burns : The New Generation of Activists and the Landmark Legal Fight Against Climate Change

**“The story of** __**Juliana v. United States**__ **and the committed young people behind it will give you hope in the next generation.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of** __**The Sixth Extinction**__ Do our children have a right to inherit a livable planet? Is the government obliged to protect it? Twenty-one young people from across America have sued the federal government over climate change, charging that actions promoting a fossil fuel economy violate their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. Their trial could be the civil rights trial of the century, but the government has used arcane legal tactics to stymie its progress at every turn. __As the World Burns__ by investigative reporter Lee van der Voo follows the plight of the young plaintiffs, chronicling their legal battle as their childhoods are consumed by another year of drought and wildfire, floods and hurricanes, and the most tumultuous political season in modern history. __As the World Burns__ is climate breakdown like you’ve never seen it—through the eyes of the young. In 2015, twenty-one kids across America sued the federal government over climate change, arguing their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property were being violated. Theirs was to be the civil rights trial of our century. But it hasn't happened yet. Instead, their day in court slipped by while Trump Administration deployed rare legal tactics to stymie the case, leaving our nation's courts in a tangle and legal observers aghast. In As the World Burns, investigative reporter Lee van der Voo recaps a year in their wait for a trial. It unfolds against the backdrop of cataclysmic floods and wildfires, rising seas and hurricanes, and an epic Congressional fight for power with a president who refuses to acknowledge any of it. Along the way, 15-year-old Jayden Foytlin battles the oil politics of south Louisiana, her home having flooded twice. Jacob Lebel, 20, works to protect his Oregon farm from a proposed natural gas pipeline with dubious benefit. And 11-year-old Levi Draheim fights to save the barrier island he calls home as the seas rise and hurricanes force evacuations. Timely, important, and urgent, As the World Burns is climate breakdown like you've never seen it'through the eyes of the young. It hits home the dire consequences of inaction and the potential pitfalls of leaving the fate of the planet in the hands of U.S. court system