Donald Trump's win -- and appointment of one of the leading climate change deniers to head the EPA -- cast a pall over are progress against global warming, but there was one small yet significant victory. According to a lawsuit filed in Eugene, Oregon, kids can now sue the government over climate change.

21 plantiffs aged nine to 20 filed the suit, which took action against President Obama and the fossil fuel industry among other federal agencies with a hand in climate policy.

"Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law, and the world has suffered for it,” Judge Aiken said in her ruling "This action is of a different order than the typical environmental case. It alleges that defendants’ actions and inactions—whether or not they violate any specific statutory duty—have so profoundly damaged our home planet that they threaten plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to life and liberty."

Aiken then went on to quote her colleague, Judge Goodwin, who recently wrote that, "The current state of affairs... reveals a wholesale failure of the legal system to protect humanity from the collapse of natural resources by the uncontrolled pursuit of short-term profits."

As Vice notes, the win follows similar victories worldwide, such as a Netherlands ruling compelling the country to lower their emissions rate.

"My generation is rewriting history," 16-year-old plantiff, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez said in a statement. "We’re doing what so many people told us we were incapable of doing: holding our leaders accountable for their disastrous and dangerous actions."

Head over to Vice for the full story, and then watch our Dear President video series, featuring three youth activists on climate change.

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