ABSTRACT
The risks of modernity are amply evident in the advancement and depredations of anthropogenic climate change. This chapter takes as its entry point a current federal lawsuit being pursued in the interest of climate recovery and judicial intervention. Mounted on behalf of youth and future generations, the lawsuit—Juliana v. the United States—ispart of Our Children’s Trust (OCT), an initiative with an integral media aspect. This chapter, co-authored by an environmental attorney and a media studies scholar, aims to explore how Juliana and OCT media, in their respective idioms, articulate pressing issues of injunctive relief, standing, time, and space. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach, the authors query, what are the capacities of law and media to figure the catastrophe of climate change? How do the writings of Ulrich Beck illuminate this topic, and, reciprocally, what do this case and media assemblage reveal about Beck’s thought? The chapter demonstrates the ability of risk media to advocate for a just energy scenario and engage in “affirmative speculation” at this major moment of “regulatory capture,” when agencies designed to act in the public interest are being run by individuals whose loyalties lie with the industries known to be contributing to climate change.
