Cheap fossil fuels powered an economic boom, providing financial benefits to older generations. However, we now witness the drawbacks, and young Mainers will bear the consequences. Due to climate change, we are already paying more for food and home insurance. Our federal and state tax dollars support Mainers affected by climate-related disasters. Yet, with the recent cutbacks in federal funding, we will be left to pick up the pieces on our own.

Back in 1977, fossil fuel companies were told that their activities would cause climate change. They should have protected us by converting to clean energy, but instead, they chose to deceive the public. Currently, they are paying politicians and media hundreds of millions of dollars a year to lie and tell us that climate change isn’t a serious threat.

These multinational corporations are screwing over Americans to control the energy sector and maintain their tax breaks. They are protecting their bottom line by taking control of our government, and this is endangering our families’ lives.

Members of Third Act, a volunteer group of Mainers over 60, are painfully aware of how our energy consumption threatens the lives of our younger family members and future generations. We accept responsibility for this. We recognize that fossil fuel companies exploit us by forcing us to pay for their mistakes. Young people are spearheading the movement to tackle climate change, and we are dedicated to supporting their efforts.

Here are their words.

Maine’s youth understand that our generation, along with those who follow, will be disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. We are inheriting a terrible threat we did not create. Nevertheless, we are committed to advocating for practical and impactful legislation that will help save our future.

With our partners at Third Act Maine and other environmental organizations, Maine Youth for Climate Justice is leading the effort to pass a climate superfund in our state. Inspired by the landmark federal superfund legislation passed in 1980, the Maine Climate Superfund will seek compensatory payments from multinational oil and gas corporations that have polluted Maine’s atmosphere for decades.

The Maine legislation mirrors a law passed in Vermont last year. Similar legislation is being introduced this year in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and other states across the U.S.

Here’s how it will work. The state of Maine will produce a report on the financial impact of fossil fuel-related pollution from 1995 to 2024. The state will identify the largest emitters responsible for this pollution during that time. Maine will demand that companies pay for their share of greenhouse gas emissions. Payments deposited into the Climate Superfund account will fund adaptation projects to help protect Mainers from extreme weather caused by big oil and gas companies.

A Maine Climate Superfund will save our taxpayers and towns money. Mainers shouldn’t bear the cost of increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters. That responsibility should rest with the companies that emitted over 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in Maine while raking in billions of dollars in profit.

We must urge our state lawmakers to pass the Maine Climate Superfund Act. This measure will hold polluters accountable and ensure that Mainers are not left responsible for fixing a crisis they did not cause.

Maine’s youth are leading the charge because we refuse to accept the status quo — one where we and our neighbors bear the environmental and financial burdens of a crisis created by fossil fuel corporations. Now is the time for bold, fair and necessary action. We cannot accept complicity. Our future depends on it.