On Monday morning November 16 I had breakfast with Professor Tseming Yang to discuss progress on our Global E On Monday morning November 16 I had breakfast with Professor Tseming Yang to discuss progress on our Global Environmental Law casebook. Tseming was in D.C. for the 100th anniversary of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division where he formerly worked. We are making good progress on the Global Environmental Law casebook with the complete manuscript due by April 1, 2010.
I am delighted that a new book that makes a major contribution to the growing literature on global environmental law has been published. The book is Tulane Professor Oliver Houck’s Taking Back Eden: Eight Environmental Cases that Changed the World. It is now available from Island Press. Professor Houck contacted me this week to compare notes on our parallel work on global environmental law. I mentioned to him that I had been one of the anonymous reviewers of his book manuscript for two different publishers to whom I enthusiastically recommended that the book be published. Professor Houck is a gifted writer and his book tells remarkable stories about courageous individuals who used law to tackle daunting environmental problems in several countries including the U.S., Russia, Japan, Chile, India and Greece. Information concerning how to order a copy of the book is available online at: http://www.islandpress.com/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=1918
Last week South Korea and Russia announced new plans to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) prior to the start of next month’s Copenhagen Conference. On November 17 South Korea announced that it plans to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 30 percent below uncontrolled levels by the year 2020, which will represent a 4 percent reduction over its 2005 emissions. At a summit between the EU and Russia in Stockholm Russian leaders offered to reduce their country’s GHG emissions by as much as 25 percent if other large countries agree to do the same.
At the end of next week I will be traveling to Jordan on a project for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. I will be assisting Jordanian law professors in the design of their environmental law curricula. In preparation for the trip to Jordan I met on Friday morning with lawyers from EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board who also will be in Jordan conducting an environmental law training course for Jordanian judges and law professors. On Sunday morning I had a conference call with the ABA staff in Jordan to discuss preparations for the trip.
On Saturday night I had a reunion with some of my former EDF colleagues at the home of NRDC scientist Linda Greer. She hosted a dinner party for a delegation of 14 visiting environmental professionals from China. The delegation included Chinese public health officials, scientists, lawyers and professors who are working to combat lead poisoning problems in China. As previously reported (see August & 30 postings) concern over lead poisoning has led to the temporary closure of some lead smelters in China. The group, which was led by Alex Wang from NRDC’s Beijing office, visited the St. Louis area and the Doe Run lead smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri as well as the excellent environmental law clinic at Washington University. They also came to Baltimore and visited the city health department to obtain information on how Baltimore has responded to lead poisoning problems.
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