Environmental and Climate Law

Watch

• What is the tragedy of the commons? - Nicholas Amendolare ↗TED-Ed
• The inside story of the Paris climate agreement | Christiana Figueres ↗TED
• How do carbon markets work? ↗The Economist
• Do we Need Nuclear Energy to Stop Climate Change? ↗Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
• Climate change on trial - BBC World Service Documentaries ↗BBC World Service
• How and why is the environment protected? - BBC Learning English ↗BBC Learning English

Read

• Silent Spring ↗This seminal work, though published decades ago, remains the foundational text for understanding the modern environmental movement and the imperative for its legal scaffolding.Rachel Carson
• The Tragedy of the CommonsAn essential essay articulating the inherent challenges of managing shared resources, providing a core theoretical underpinning for much of environmental law and policy.Garrett Hardin
• Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action ↗A Nobel laureate's rigorous empirical counterpoint to Hardin, demonstrating how communities can, and do, successfully manage common-pool resources without private ownership or top-down regulation.Elinor Ostrom
• Environmental Law and Policy ↗This comprehensive textbook offers an authoritative and accessible overview of the complex legal and policy frameworks governing environmental protection in the United States.James Salzman and Barton H. Thompson Jr.
• The Problem of Social CostA Nobel Prize-winning economic treatise that profoundly influenced the design of environmental regulations by exploring how property rights and transaction costs affect resource allocation and pollution.Ronald Coase
• The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World ↗This provocative work explores the burgeoning legal movement to grant personhood and rights to ecosystems, offering a radical yet increasingly influential paradigm for environmental protection.David R. Boyd

Voices to follow

• Mary Robinson ↗A venerable voice for climate justice, she consistently links environmental degradation with human rights, advocating for equitable global solutions.Chair of The Elders; former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change
• Michael Gerrard ↗A preeminent authority on climate change law, his work at Columbia provides essential legal frameworks and policy analysis for navigating environmental challenges.Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School; Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
• Daniel Esty ↗Known for his pragmatic approach to environmental governance, he champions innovative policy and market mechanisms to drive sustainability and address climate change.Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University; former Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Glossary

• BiodiversityThis refers to the variety of all life forms on Earth – from tiny bacteria to giant trees and animals – and the ecosystems they live in. A high level of biodiversity means a healthy and stable environment. For example, a rainforest with many different types of plants, insects, and animals has high biodiversity.
• Carbon FootprintThis is the total amount of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by a person, organization, event, or product. It measures your impact on the environment. For example, choosing to walk or cycle instead of driving a car helps reduce your personal carbon footprint.
• Climate ChangeThis refers to long-term shifts in Earth's weather patterns and average temperatures, mainly caused by human activities like burning fossil fuels. It leads to things like rising sea levels and more extreme weather. For example, scientists observe that many places are experiencing hotter summers and less predictable rainfall than in the past.
• ConservationThis is the careful protection and management of natural resources and wildlife to prevent them from being wasted or destroyed. It's about preserving nature for the future. For example, a community might work on a conservation project to protect a local forest from being cut down.
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)This is a study done before a new project (like building a factory or a dam) begins, to predict what effects it might have on the environment. It helps decision-makers understand and reduce potential harm. For example, before a new highway is built, an EIA would check if it might harm local wildlife or pollute nearby water sources.
• Environmental LawThese are the rules and regulations that governments create to protect our natural world, like air, water, land, and wildlife. They aim to prevent harm to the environment and ensure people use resources responsibly. For example, a law might say factories can't dump waste into rivers.
• Greenhouse GasesThese are gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, like a greenhouse, keeping our planet warm enough to live. However, too many of these gases, mainly from human activities, cause the Earth to warm up too much, leading to climate change. For example, carbon dioxide released when we burn petrol in cars is a major greenhouse gas.
• PollutionThis is when harmful substances or energy are introduced into the environment, making it dirty or unsafe. It can affect air, water, and soil, harming living things. For example, smoke from vehicles and factories causes air pollution, making it difficult to breathe in cities.
• Renewable EnergyThis is energy collected from natural resources that replenish themselves constantly, like sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat. Unlike fossil fuels, they don't run out and produce less pollution. For example, many homes now use solar panels on their roofs to generate electricity from the sun.
• SustainabilityThis means meeting our own needs today without making it harder for future generations to meet their needs. It's about using resources wisely so there's enough for everyone, forever. For example, a school might practice sustainability by recycling all its waste and using solar panels for electricity.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Ecosystem Tipping Points Environment

  A court usually wants near-certain proof before it acts. But an ecosystem can slip past a point of no return long before the proof is airtight, and then there's no undo button. The law waits for certainty while nature doesn't wait at all, and their clocks just don't line up.

• Causal Inference & Experiments Mathematics

  You couldn't sue anyone over a heatwave, because who's to say it wasn't just bad luck? Now "attribution science" can measure how much more likely human pollution made this exact storm. The lawsuit was waiting on the math to catch up.

• Modelling & Simulation Mathematics

  A climate lawsuit can hang on one question: will the judge accept a computer simulation as real evidence? You're asking a courtroom to treat a model's prediction about the future as proof of a harm that hasn't fully happened yet.

• Freshwater Systems Environment

  To protect a river, New Zealand did something wild: they legally made it a person. Now the Whanganui River can go to court in its own name, like a company can. They snuck a whole river into a legal box built for humans.

• Environmental Engineering Technology

  Permits and environmental regulations translate public requirements into conditions that engineers must design for and verify.

  Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Environmental Engineers ↗ · ABET engineering program criteria 2025–2026 ↗