Contributing authors – including New Economy Law Center Fellows Sarah Krakoff and Pat Parenteau – offer ideas for re-examining and re-evaluating the concept of sustainability within the complex context of anthropogenic climate change.
Jessica Owley and Keith Hirokawa (ed.) Rethinking Sustainability to Meet the Climate Change Challenge, Environmental Law Institute: Washington DC, 2015, https://www.eli.org/eli-press-books/rethinking-sustainability-meet-climate-change-challenge
“We urgently require an economic system that prioritizes ecological sustainability, just distribution and obligations to future generations…” (p.11), writes New Economy Law Center Fellow Joshua Farley in the introduction to a new book on ecological economics. In Beyond Uneconomic Growth, Farley provides an introductory synopsis on why a new economic system – inspired by Herman Daly’s ecological economic principles – is needed to avoid complete ecosystem collapse. Another New Economy Law Center Fellow, Peter G. Brown, concludes the volume with an ethical perspective that positions humans as participants in, rather than masters of, the larger ecological community.
Joshua Farley and Deepak Malghan (ed.) Beyond Uneconomic Growth: Economics, Equity and the Ecological Predicament, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016, http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/eep/preview/book/isbn/9781783472499/
Gus Speth, co-founder of the New Economy Law Center and co-chair of the Next System Project, announced a new edition in NSP’s “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” series. The four models highlighted in Volume Five of the series include the “Economy for the Common Good (ECG),” Paul Raskin’s vision of “Earthland,” Michael Shuman’s “The Promise of a Million Utopias,” and a vision for Community Economies. Economy for the Common Good founder Christian Felber visited the Vermont Law School campus last September to present his model in an event organized by NELC, part of Felber’s U.S. book tour. To read more about this tour and other ECG happenings, check out the newly launched International ECG Newsletter. To learn more about ECG and other political-economic alternatives, see the link below.
“New System Series: Volume Five,” Next System Project, February 28, 2017
With Donald Trump now in the White House, environmentalists are left wondering how they can fight back against an administration hostile to climate action and environmental protection. Do we turn to the courts, or take to the streets, or both? Last month Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Society presented a panel discussion, “Environmental Advocacy Under a New Administration,” to talk about the current situation and potential strategies. Panelists included New Economy Law Center Fellow Patrick Parenteau and co-founder Gus Speth. See what they and other panelists had to say by watching the video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kuAdriwbk
Climate science and policy is under attack from the new Trump administration, but this assault faces a legal roadblock in the form of a group of young plaintiffs asserting their right to a livable climate. The landmark case Juliana v. U.S. survived a motion to dismiss and is now proceeding to what observers expect to be “the trial of the century” this summer of fall. In the following piece featured in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Top Ten Watch List 2017, Professor and New Economy Law Center co-founder Melissa Scanlan examines the legal questions in this case, including constitutional and public trust claims.
Juliana v. United States: Does the Constitution Guarantee a Livable Planet for Our Kids?
In response to President Trump’s executive orders giving the go ahead to controversial pipelines Dakota Access and Keystone XL, New Economy Law Center Fellows Annie Leonard and Bill McKibben insisted the grassroots resistance would continue. See below for article, which quotes Leonard and McKibben at the end.
Dakota Access Pipeline protest in front of TD Bank in Montpelier, VT
Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin. “Trump signs orders advancing Keystone XL, Dakota Access oil pipelines,” Chicago Tribune, January 24, 2017, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-dakota-keystone-pipeline-20170124-story.html
New Economy Law Center co-founder Gus Speth, a longtime environmental “insider,” calls for a transformative new approach to environmentalism that works outside the current toxic political-economic system. On October 20, 2016 he delivered the annual David Sive Memorial Lecture on Environmental Law at Columbia Law School, arguing that system change is necessary because “environmental problems are rooted in defining features of the current political economy.” See link below for the full video of his talk.
New Economy Law Center Fellow and leading public trust doctrine advocate, Prof. Mary Wood of University of Oregon, reflects on the federal youth climate change lawsuit Juliana v. United States that now will be headed to trial. Wood explains the constitutional claim and cruel irony of this case, its importance in the context of a Trump administration, and what President Obama could still do before leaving office.
Can the current profit-driven, exclusive and gentrified housing market give way to a limited equity, inclusive and affordable model of homeownership? New Economy Law Center Fellow, Janelle Orsi 
(Director of Sustainable Economies Law Center), explores this question in the following blog post that encourages us to consider “a different model of property ownership” in alignment with new economy objectives.
“Chase it down and read it!” is what New Economy Law Center Fellow, David Bollier, advises in regards to a recently published (Sept. 2015) new economy book by British design expert John Thackara. From establishment of a “food commons” to bioregionalist redesign of urban landscapes, Thackara’s How to Thrive in the Next Economy illustrates emerging examples of what life in a more socially responsible, environmentally sustainable economic system might look like. See below to read Bollier’s full review.
David Bollier, “John Thackara’s Intimate Tour of the Emerging New Economy,” October 5, 2016, http://bollier.org/blog/john-thackara%E2%80%99s-intimate-tour-emerging-new-economy