This is Science Friday. I'm Iroflato. And I'm Kathleen Davis. A bit later in the hour, Angela Rasmussen joins us for an update on COVID. It is not going away.

We'll also talk about one specific symptom people with COVID can experience, brain fog, and what researchers are learning about it. And we'll take you to Reno for a look at their

water recycling program. But first, this week, a state court in Montana ruled in favor of a group

of 16 youth climate activists who argued that a state environmental law violated part of the state

constitution. The ruling will allow but not require

regulators to consider climate impacts when evaluating proposed energy projects for approval.

Joining me now to talk about that and other stories from the week in science is Omeria Fon,

science writer at Vox based in Washington. Welcome back. Good to have you.

Thanks, Ira. This seems like sort of a really interesting and important decision. Tell me about it.

Climate activists around the world have been exploring litigation lawsuits as a way of trying to get

governments and oil companies to act on climate change. So far, they've

been stalled in courts, but this recent decision in Montana is probably one of the earliest

and most significant decisions in their favor. As you noted, Montana is kind of a unique case

because they actually have a provision in their constitution that says that they have to

maintain and

improve the environment for present and future generations. And these group of kids, they said

that the state was violating that provision in their constitution because they were continuing

to approve new fossil fuel projects without thinking about the climate change impacts.

And so what does the state have to do now?

Is it required to do something? Well, what's interesting is that previously there's this law in Montana

called the Montana Environmental Policy Act. And under the previous regulation, it said that they

weren't allowed to consider climate change. So what this ruling does is it allows them to. It doesn't

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