Editors' Summary: Caves and their valuable repositories of ecological, geological, and archaeological data are at risk from human activities such as tourism and vandalism. Structures that took millions of years to form may be destroyed in seconds by careless or malicious visitors, and delicate cave-dwelling species such as bats are vulnerable to human disturbances. In this Article, Henry L.
Editors' Summary: Recent lawsuits by state and local governments, public interest organizations, and private citizens against electric companies, automobile companies, and lead paint manufacturers signify the reemergence of the common law as a powerful tool for protecting the environment. In this Article, Denise E. Antolini and Clifford L. Rechtschaffen provide a broad introduction to various common law theories that can be used to protect the environment, including trespass, nuisance, strict liability, and public trust.
Editors' Summary: On September 27, 2007, the Environmental Law Institute and Sidley Austin LLP cosponsored a seminar to discuss drafting climate change securities disclosures. The panelists examined SEC requirements applying to climate change, examples of climate change disclosures, and what investors want to know about climate change and what they are doing to get that information. The seminar concluded with a question-and-answer period. Below is a transcript of the event. [Transcribed by ACE Transcription Service, Washington, D.C.
America builds on the edge of disaster prone areas: on moveable barrier islands, fragile coastal ecosystems, shorelines subject to inundation, and next to flammable forests. Ferocious storm events focus attention during the tragic moment and as short-term recovery efforts proceed; too often, we then return to business as usual, continuing to build and rebuild on the edge. This series of Articles draws from our book Losing Ground: A Nation on Edge. The volume collects papers from a variety of disciplines: law, history, geography, environmental science, and urban planning.
Editor's Summary: Historically, regulatory approaches to natural disaster mitigation have been created in the aftermath of specific disasters. For instance, the world's first city building code was created in the wake of the Great Fire of London, and the U.S. Congress enacted flood control rules for the Lower Mississippi after the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. In this Article, Rutherford H. Platt discusses how natural disasters have informed society's understanding of natural resource management and land use planning over the last several centuries.
Editors' Summary: The traditional link between disaster mitigation and local land use planning was highlighted by the Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA) of 2000, which emphasizes the need for mitigation coordination among state and local entities. In this Article, Patricia E. Salkin looks at the role of local governments in natural disaster mitigation, specifically, how local governments may use traditional land use powers, such as the police power, to protect against disasters.
Editors' Summary: The term natural disaster is a misnomer. As Anna K. Schwab and David J. Brower note in this Article, disasters do not occur naturally, they occur only where humans have placed themselves in the way of natural hazard events. Therefore, decisions about the way human environments are initially constructed can mitigate the effects of natural hazard events. They distinguish between resistance and resilience, explaining that attempts to resist forces of nature by trying to contain or control nature itself have largely been unsuccessful.
Editors' Summary: Commercialization of nanotechnologies for water treatment prior to careful study of their potential risks may put human health and our limited freshwater resources at risk. In this Article, Reut Snir explores the risks surrounding regulating nanotechnologies for water treatment. She analyzes the gaps in the current legislative and regulatory framework managing nano-based applications for water treatment, focusing specifically on EPA's tools for collecting environmental health and safety information.
Editors' Summary: Although federal environmental statutes may largely have been created to address limitations in the common law, common law still retains some advantages over statutory law for plaintiffs seeking redress in the face of risk or uncertain harms. In this Article, Michael D. Axline explains some of the shortcomings of statutory law.
Editors' Summary: A growing number of states are creating resident curatorship programs to preserve historic buildings located on public land. Under these programs, state park services lease surplus buildings to individuals and corporations who agree to restore or rehabilitate them at their own expense in exchange for a rent-free life tenancy or long-term lease. In this Article, Adam Wolkoff analyzes resident curatorship programs in Delaware, Maryland, and Massachusetts to provide guidance for other states considering this approach.