Youths sue Trump over climate change, fossil fuels

Smoke-choked air that fills their lungs, floods threatening their homes and debilitating heat; a group of young Americans testified yesterday that President Donald Trump's fossil-fuel push is trampling their inalienable rights.

- 

Lighthiser v Trump is emblematic of a growing global trend of legal action as a tool to push action on planetary warming amid political inertia or outright hostility.

At issue are three executive orders that together seek to "unleash" fossil fuel development at the expense of renewable energy.

They are also contesting the government's actions undermining federal climate science, from firing scientists to removing critical reports.

A two-day hearing opened in a federal courtroom in Missoula, Montana where Julia Olson, lead attorney for the 22 plaintiffs, framed the dispute as a constitutional test.