Virtual Bookshelf: March 2021 Environmental Symposium

CAFO provides an unprecedented view of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations where an increasing percentage of the world's meat, milk, eggs, and fish are produced. As the photos and essays in this powerful book demonstrate, the rise of the CAFO industry has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Speaker Dr. Meredith Niles contributes with the co-authored chapter: Changing the law : the road to reform.

Conservation easements are an essential tool for protecting the American landscape. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of acres protected by land trusts grew from 23 million acres to 47 million acres. Conservation easements used by federal, state, and local governments would likely add several million additional acres to this total. Given their widespread use, ongoing innovations, and pressing environmental challenges, the time is ripe to provide a comprehensive review of conservation easements. A Changing Landscape: The Conservation Easement Reader does just that, offering conservationists, academics, government officials, and others a nuanced, multifaceted resource. Written by speaker Laurie Ristino.

Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law provides the first comprehensive explication of the dynamic interactions between climate change, public health law, and environmental law, both in the United States and internationally. Responding to climate change and achieving public health protections each require the coordination of the decisions and behavior of large numbers of people. However, they also involve interventions that risk compromising individual rights. The challenges involved in coordinating large-scale responses to public health threats and protecting against the invasion of rights, makes the law indispensable to both of these agendas. Speaker Margot J. Pollans contributes a chapter on food systems.

A tour of some of the world 's most iconic and endangered species, and what we can do to save them. Climate change and habitat destruction are not the only culprits behind so many animals facing extinction. The impact of consumer demand for cheap meat is equally devastating and it is vital that we confront this problem if we are to stand a chance of reducing its effect on the world around us.

Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works examines morality from an environmental perspective. Featuring accessible selections--from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research--it addresses both theory and practice.

In the groundbreaking Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Law, leading environmental legal scholars Mary Jane Angelo, Jason Czarnezki, and Bill Eubanks, along with five distinguished contributing authors, undertake an exploration of the challenging political and societal issues facing agricultural policy and modern food systems through the lens of environmental protection laws. Through this exploration, the authors seek to answer difficult questions about the need for new approaches to agricultural policy and environmental law to meet 21st Century concerns surrounding climate change, sustainable agriculture, accessibility to healthy foods, and the conservation of natural resources and ecosystem services.

Collectively, cities take up a relatively tiny amount of land on the earth, yet emit 72 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, cities need to be at the center of any broad effort to reduce climate change. In Greenovation, the eminent urban policy scholar Joan Fitzgerald argues that too many cities are only implementing random acts of greenness that will do little to address the climate crisis. She instead calls for "greenovation"--using the city as a test bed for adopting and perfecting green technologies for more energy--efficient buildings, transportation, and infrastructure more broadly.

In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical--and accessible--plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations.

This cutting-edge book invites readers to rethink environmental law and its critical role in ensuring a sustainable future for all. Featuring international narratives, it demonstrates how environmental law can be a potent tool to secure multi-actor engagement, to improve ocean governance and to usher in effective policy reforms. Edited by keynote speaker Elizabeth A. Kirk.

A Humane Society lawyer uncovers the dirty dealings of America's factory farms, and shows how we can reimagine farming and our relationship with animals to mitigate the effects of climate change. Peter Brandt, a litigator at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), has been at the forefront of some of the toughest cases of animal abuse in the last ten years--including supervising a team of lawyers working to protect the interests of farm animals. In this revelatory and often surprisingly funny memoir-cum-manifesto, Brandt describes his growing awareness of the extent of the cruelty of animals in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (a.k.a. factory farms), and the manifold harms to human health, local communities, and the environment for those who live near them.

Plastics have transformed every aspect of our lives. Yet the very properties that make them attractive--they are cheap to make, light, and durable--spell disaster when trash makes its way into the environment. Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is a beautifully-illustrated survey of the plastics clogging our seas, their impacts on wildlife and people around the world, and inspirational initiatives designed to tackle the problem.

Interest in urban agriculture continues to flourish, and as a result more communities are faced with the demand for a variety of agricultural activities within the urban environment. Urban Agriculture is a current and practical resource examining all aspects of agricultural activities within non-rural settings, from neighborhood gardens and backyard livestock to commercial farming operations. It addresses the many land use, environmental, and regulatory legal issues that confront local governments, property owners, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhood groups when addressing urban gardening or farming. In addition, the authors describe and analyze the experiences of specific urban areas, providing perspectives on their different approaches, including those that have been successful, those that have not, and those not yet fully evaluated. Speaker Margot J. Pollans co authors the chapter on Setting the table for urban agriculture.