| Many environmental protection lawsuits turn on | | | | change, and that there are serious side effects in |
| the question of who has standing; are the legal | | | | the over-application of pesticides and herbicides. |
| issues limited to property owners, or does the | | | | Largely due to this political critique and confusion, |
| general public have a right to intervene? | | | | and a growing concern with the environmental |
| Environmental protection law is a body of law, | | | | health problems caused by pesticides, some |
| which is a system of complex and interlocking | | | | serious biologists and ecologists created the |
| statutes, common law, treaties, conventions, | | | | scientific ecology movement which would not |
| regulations and policies which seeks to protect the | | | | confuse empirical data with visions of a desirable |
| natural environment which may be affected, | | | | future world. |
| impacted or endangered by human activities. | | | | However, the environmental movement today |
| One of the earliest environmental protection | | | | persists in many smaller local groups, usually within |
| lawsuits to establish that citizens may sue for | | | | ecoregions, furthering spiritual and aesthetic values |
| environmental and aesthetic harms was Scenic | | | | which Thoreau or those who rewrote Chief |
| Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power | | | | Seattle's Reply would recognize. |
| Commission, decided in 1965 by the Second | | | | The visions and confusions, however, persist. The |
| Circuit Court of Appeals. The case helped halt the | | | | new tribalist vision of society, for example, |
| construction of a power plant on Storm King | | | | echoes the concerns of the original |
| Mountain in New York State. | | | | environmentalists to a degree. And the more local |
| The Environmental Movement has three main | | | | groups increasingly find that they benefit from |
| roots: Conservation of natural resources, | | | | collaboration, e.g. on consensus decision making |
| preservation of wilderness and the movement to | | | | methods, or making simultaneous policy, or relying |
| reduce pollution and improve urban life. | | | | on common legal resources, or even sometimes a |
| Some people are skeptical of the environmental | | | | common glossary. |
| movement and feel that it is more deeply rooted | | | | Despite all the political talk and dispute among |
| in politics than science. Although there have been | | | | environmental groups; we can all agree on one |
| serious debates about climate change and effects | | | | thing: Each individual must take good care of |
| of some pesticides and herbicides that mimic | | | | mother earth while he or she is here - a |
| animal sex steroids, science has shown that the | | | | borrowed time that eventually is passed on to the |
| claims of environmentalists have creedence, that | | | | next generation. |
| we are indeed experiencing human-induced climate | | | | Thank you for your time. |