LITIGATOR
This environmentalist/lawyer is not
afraid to take on the Trump administration
BY CHLOE MALLE
pressure on their representatives. “I think
[legislators] need to know that their con-
stituents care,” she says. “I do find a lot of
times that politicians are like, ‘Oh, thank
you for caring,’ and then they don’t do any-
thing. We expect action, and we’re going
to push them to take action.”
New Yorker Alexandria Villaseñor, 14,
was visiting Northern California in 2018
when the deadly Camp Fire broke out. She
feared the effects of bad air quality on her
asthma, especially as wildfires become
more frequent with worsening climate
conditions. She heard Greta Thunberg
speak at a climate-change conference later
that year, spurring her to go on strike
weekly for more than a year as part of the
Fridays for Future movement. Strikes are
a way for even those too young to vote to
challenge the status quo. “When we
disrupt the system, we have this amazing
opportunity; we end up breaking it so we
can make it even better,” she says. “It’s one
of the best ways that I can really have a say
in the future that I’m being given.”
A main reason these young women
want their governments to act is they un-
derstand that, by solving the climate cri-
sis, many marginalized communities will
be lifted up too. Ayisha Siddiqa, 21, is the
founder of Extinction Rebellion Universi-
ties, the collegiate action arm of the envi-
ronmental group Extinction Rebellion.
Her family farmed in Pakistan before com-
ing to the U.S., and she credits that history
with her concern for the environment.
“When older people say this is not an
emergency, it’s because we’ve stopped re-
garding the people who face the effects of
climate change as humans,” she says. “If
this crisis affected America first, it would
be solved or in the process of being solved.”
“Women are more empathetic and able
to comprehend the negative effects cli-
mate change has on issues like gender
inequality and unequal distribution of
resources,” says Mariana Vargas, 20, who
works with the Alliance for Climate Edu-
cation. When she attended the High
School for Environmental Studies in Man-
hattan, she petitioned the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education to include vegan lunch
options. “I hope that my activism inspires
others to take the initiative to act fast and
not wait for politicians to continue to
make false promises,” says Vargas, who
will return to college in the fall for envi-
ronmental and urban studies as well as
community organizing, “because change
doesn’t start with them but with us.”
THE BENEFIT (if you can call it that) of D.C.’s current environment-
undermining stance is it “has woken people of all generations up,” says Abigail
Dillen, president of Earthjustice, the nation’s largest environmental-law orga-
nization. “I feel surrounded by people who are more activated, mobilized, and
political—and we need civic engagement to counter this administration.”
Since 2017, the San Francisco–based organization has filed 136 cases against
the Trump government, with about 120 currently on the docket.
Earthjustice’s tagline, “Because the earth needs a good lawyer,” predates
Dillen’s tenure as president. (She started in the group’s Bozeman, Montana,
office in 2000, protecting wildlands and endangered species like wolves and
grizzly bears.) “It resonates because people understand when you’re in trou-
ble, you need a good lawyer,” she says. “And our planet is often in trouble.”
Dillen, 48, anticipates “the most challenging year yet,” thanks to career
lobbyists now running the EPA. “We saw the pace and scale of harm really
accelerate last year as they were in charge,” she says. But, fortified by
Earthjustice’s record—especially blocking President Trump’s attempt to
reopen Arctic drilling—she’s ready for the next fight. “We haven’t lost any big
cases yet,” she says. “Right now, in a time when we’re arguing over basically
what the facts are in the news, the courts are this remaining venue where you
can have really fact-based fights about what the future should look like.”
THE
Abigail Dillen
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