My home town is burning and my family's houses are on the front lines, with searing temperatures, zero humidity and high winds fueling a climate-driven fire.

Every day, I go to school, complain about homework, and think about my own future. But I also think about the future of our planet, and our environment. I don’t think that I should have to worry about whether our planet will still be inhabitable for my grandchildren, and their children when they are born, but I do. My generation, and every generation after us will have to live with the effects of climate change and, if the government does not regulate greenhouse gas emissions, things are only going to get worse. I refuse to sit back and watch it happen.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Wilkins heard the arguments on Friday in Washington, D.C., and is deliberating now on the question of whether young people can sue to compel their government to take serious measures to stop global warming.

Courage. The word that comes to mind when I think of Glori Dei Filippone, a 13-year old from Des Moines, Iowa. Along with Kids vs. Global Warming, she petitioned her state's natural resources protection agency to take immediate action on climate change, asking for annual reductions in Iowa's carbon dioxide emissions, to protect the resources of her state.