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  • Currently in Portland — June 13, 2023: A few clouds in a mostly sunny Tuesday.

Currently in Portland — June 13, 2023: A few clouds in a mostly sunny Tuesday.

Plus, 16 kids are suing the government to protect their future.

Author

Eric Holthaus
June 12, 2023

The weather, currently.

A few clouds in a mostly sunny Tuesday.

I was moving this weekend and the weather was a surprise! I did NOT expect to see rain on Friday. As much as I was relieved to see us getting some moisture, it did make my plans more difficult! Today's newsletter is now coming from a different quadrant of Portland than the one I'm used to, and now I have a whole new garden to work on and make my own. I'm already plotting the removal of the lawn, so I can put in a pollinator-friendly wildflower garden. The weather this week is looking pretty darn nice, with Tuesday showing up as a mostly sunny day in the mid-70s. Basically an ideal spring day. (Though summer is now looming just around the corner.) Enjoy this week's weather while it lasts, because some rain might be waiting for us next weekend!

What you need to know, currently.

The first climate-related constitutional court case in US history to go to trial got underway on Monday in Helena, Montana.

Though Montana’s Republican-led government has repeatedly tried to block it, the case brought by 16 youth plaintiffs from the state alleges that approving fossil fuel projects violates their constitutional right to a safe environment.

The case isn’t an isolated one, it’s part of a concerted years-long effort led by Our Childrens Trust, a group of lawyers dedicated to supporting youth and their right to a safe environment around the world. A second constitutional court case, and the first in the world to take on systemic funding of fossil-intensive transportation network, goes to trial in Hawaii later this year.

For more on the Hawaii case, here’s climate reporter Dana Drugmand:

The stakes for climate trials like these are not just philosophical. Kaliko T., one of the younger plaintiffs in the lawsuit, already has felt firsthand the effects of a destabilizing climate. In 2018, Tropical Storm Olivia’s heavy rainfall caused flash flooding that destroyed her family’s home, an extreme weather occurrence expected to become increasingly common in Hawaii under climate change projections.

“I am glad that my story is helping to advance climate action in Hawaiʻi. I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I and my family have,” she said in a statement.

Dana Drugmand

Montana and Hawaii are two states that enshrine the right to a safe environment in their constitutions. If these cases are successful, they could pave the way for a future federal constitutional claim to a right to a stable climate, under the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

-Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

Welcome to the new-and-improved Currently!

If you’re a big fan of Currently, please share us with a friend! Our brand-new referral program is a way to give our biggest fans direct ownership of our company. We are the first weather service in the world to do this, and we’ll have much more in the coming days on our hopes and dreams for member-ownership, as well as Currently as a whole.

Thank you for taking this exciting journey with us!

—Eric Holthaus