Climate: The mother behind kids' long-shot legal crusade -- 12/19/2012

EUGENE, Ore. -- For Julia Olson, it all started with "An Inconvenient Truth."

The then-thirtysomething environmental lawyer watched Al Gore's climate change documentary while eight months pregnant with her second child.

By her own admission, she "cried through the whole film" and spent several sleepless nights plotting a way to increase public awareness of climate change. Her initial idea was to plan public marches on Washington, D.C., but she ending up launching a national legal campaign aimed at forcing government action on climate change.

Enlisting children as plaintiffs, she advanced the novel legal theory that the atmosphere is a "public trust" under common law and that the states and federal government have a duty to preserve it...The idea of having children front the campaign came after climate scientist James Hansen introduced Olson to teenager Alec Loorz who, with his mother, Victoria, started a group called Kids Vs. Global Warming.

Twitter / RichardGrenell: Will any liberal reporter write ...

Will any liberal reporter write about the global warming impact of Air Force One flying to Hawaii multiple times?