Substance use disorder (SUD) affects human’ brains and behaviors, leading to uncontrolled use of substances. Symptoms can be moderate to severe. For individuals, this might involve drugs or alcohol. For industrialized societies, it certainly involves fossil fuels.

On March 13, 2020, sixteen Montana youth challenged the State’s fossil fuel-based state energy system, which they said contributes to climate change in violation of their constitutional rights. Plaintiffs argued against Montana rules that forbid consideration of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions or climate change in environmental reviews. The young people said aggregate acts taken by the State were intended to implement and perpetuate a fossil fuel-based energy system.

In reasons for judgement, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley made findings of fact after hearing from a long list of expert witnesses. These included:

• There is overwhelming scientific consensus that Earth is warming as a direct result of human GHG emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels.

• While several GHGs are emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the GHG most responsible for trapping excess heat within Earth’s atmosphere.

• Science is unequivocal that dangerous impacts to the climate are occurring due to human activities, primarily from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.

• A substantial portion of every ton of CO₂ emitted by human activities persists in the atmosphere for as long as hundreds of years or millennia. As a result, CO₂ steadily accumulates in the atmosphere.

• The cumulative effect of GHG emissions causes the impacts for the climate being experienced today. Human activity and the burning of fossil fuels have accelerated the accumulation of CO₂ to  the point that 42% of the total accumulation of CO₂ emissions has happened in the last thirty years.

• CO₂ levels have fluctuated throughout history, but the rate of increase in atmospheric CO₂ is 100 times faster than in natural CO₂ fluctuations and cycles, and it is happening in a very short timeframe that is unprecedented in the geologic record.

• The Earth’s energy imbalance (the difference in energy from sun arriving at the Earth and the amount radiated back to space) is what climate scientists describe as the most critical metric for determining the amount of global heating and climate change we have already experienced and will experience as long as the Earth’s energy imbalance exists. The scientific consensus is that CO₂ from fossil fuel pollution is the primary driver of Earth’s energy imbalance.

• There is scientific certainty that if fossil fuel emissions continue, the Earth will continue to warm.

The Court also found that young people are uniquely vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, which harms their physical and psychological health and safety, interferes with family and cultural foundations and integrity, and causes economic deprivations.

Elected District Court Judge Kathy Seeley determined that anthropogenic climate change is already impacting, degrading, and depleting Montana’s environment and natural resources. She found in favour of the youthful plaintiffs and declared the subject Montana statutes were unconstitutional.

While this is an important victory, expect it to be appealed to the Montana Supreme Court and beyond. Oil and gas industry lobbyists spend billions of dollars to influence decision makers. Sadly, the hugely wealthy industry is listened to far more than scientists.

But in the words of Gandhi, “Even a single lamp dispels the deepest darkness.” The Montana case may be that lamp.