On Monday, March 25, 2024, Gunston's In Celebration of Books welcomes Elizabeth Rusch, an environmentalist who will be discussing her book, The 21: The True Story of the Youth who Sued the U.S. Government over Climate Change.
From severe flooding in Louisiana to wildfires in the Pacific Northwest to melting permafrost in Alaska, catastrophic climate events are occurring more frequently—and severely—than ever. And these events are having a direct impact on the lives (and futures) of young people and their families. In the ongoing landmark case Juliana v. United States, twenty-one young plaintiffs claim that the government’s support of the fossil-fuel industry is actively contributing to climate change, and that all citizens have a constitutional right to a stable climate—especially children and young adults, because they cannot vote and will inherit the problems of the future. Elizabeth Rusch’s The Twenty-One is a gripping legal and environmental thriller that tells the story of twenty-one young people and their ongoing case against the U.S. government for denying their constitutional right to life and liberty. A rich, informative, and multifaceted read, The Twenty-One stars the young plaintiffs and their attorneys; illuminates the workings of the United States’s judicial system and the relationship between government, citizens’ rights, and the environment; and asks readers to think deeply about the future of our planet.
Join award-winning author Elizabeth Rusch on a gripping journey through America’s courts that just might transform how you think about climate change. Author, magazine writer, and speaker Elizabeth Rusch tackles vital, high-interest topics such as life-saving science, young people taking on climate change, space exploration, women’s battle for equal pay, and the state of our democracy. Her work for young readers offers cutting-edge information and fresh approaches to popular topics. Her longer narrative nonfiction, which reads like fiction, often blurs the boundary between current events and history, covering important recent moments that have the potential to change the future in surprising ways.
Rusch is the award-winning author of more than 24 books, which have received multiple starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Horn Book, Booklist, School Library Journal, and the BCCB, among others. Her work has won the Golden Kite Award, the Subaru Prize, the Cook Prize, the Green Earth Award, and the Oregon Book Award, and has landed on many notable and best of the year lists produced by ALA, NCTE, NSTA, Bank Street College of Education, Kirkus, SLJ, NBC News and the New York and Chicago Public Libraries. Rusch is also the author of more than a hundred articles in publications such as The New York Times, Smithsonian, Harper's, Backpacker, American Craft, Mother Jones, and Portland Monthly, among many others.