The air is, after all, a bigger body than any body of water, and one that affects us all. A judge in Texas agreed that air should have the same legal protection as water.
Philip Bump wrote for Grist 10 July 2012, Texas judge rules that the atmosphere is protected under the public trust doctrine
Last May, a group of teenagers filed a series of lawsuits seeking to force the federal and state governments to take action on climate change. A key argument made in the lawsuits is that the atmosphere is a public trust — or, as described in one brief, that it is a “fundamental natural resource necessarily entrusted to the care of our federal government … for its preservation and protection as a common property interest.”
Yesterday, a state district court judge in Texas agreed.
Key issue from the plaintiffs' press release:
In deferring to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's (TCEQ) decision to deny the Plaintiffs' petition for rulemaking while other ongoing litigation over regulations ensues, the Judge concluded that the TCEQ's determination that the Public Trust Doctrine is exclusively limited to the conservation of water, was legally invalid. …
Which is not only good for air, but indicates that water already is legally a public trust.
-jsq
On behalf of the youth of America, Our Children’s Trust, Kids Versus Global Warming and others began filing suits around the country, arguing the atmosphere is a public trust. So far cases have been filed in 13 states.
English Common Law. Traditionally it has applied to water resources. The waters of the state are deemed a public resource owned by and available to all citizens equally for the purposes of navigation, fishing, recreation, and other uses. The owner cannot use that resource in a way that interferes with the public’s use and interest. The public trustee, usually the state, must act