Youth Plaintiffs

Navahine youth voices were heard and met with direct action! Their bravery, perseverance and hope secured a climate victory for young people and all people in Hawai‘i, and around the world.

Youth Plaintiff

Taliya N.

Age: 16
Hometown: Kamuela, Hawai‘i

Taliya is a volleyball player and enjoys playing at Hāpuna Beach. She also enjoys swimming regularly, snorkeling, and boogie boarding. However, she has observed loss of sand and usable recreation area as high tide events increase; during high surf, Hāpuna Beach is inaccessible to the public, and other beaches she loves to go to, like Spencer Beach, Kealakekua (Captain Cook) Bay, Waialea Beach, Hāpuna Beach, and Kaunaʻoa (Mauna Kea) Beach.

Taliya and her family live off the grid and are not connected to the County of Hawai`i public water system, so they rely on an individual rainwater catchment system to meet their daily water needs. In the fall of 2021, as the result of the ongoing drought affecting Hawai‘i Island, Taliya experienced water insecurity for the first time during the winter. Climate change is also increasing the occurrence of extreme precipitation and other natural disasters, like flash floods and wildfires, that have prevented Taliya from traveling or attending school up to six times a year.

I joined this lawsuit in hopes of making a change to the way our world works. When my mom introduced this case to me, I thought that it impacted me closely and it related to me culturally. This case was a good idea for me to put my words and opinions into action. Instead of just talking about how climate change is bad, I am actually participating in helping to fix this problem. I look forward to what this case means to Hawai’i and the changes that will be made.

—Taliya N.