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"Prologue" [2017] ELECD 732; in Scanlan, K. Melissa (ed), "Law and Policy for a New Economy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) xv

Book Title: Law and Policy for a New Economy

Editor(s): Scanlan, K. Melissa

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786434517

Section Title: Prologue

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

Prologue
Melissa K. Scanlan

At seven my daughter learned in school about how climate change is
threatening the future existence of the majestic polar bears. She responded
by writing an appeal letter to her school friends to stop burning coal and
oil, refrain from buying unnecessary things, and walk to get where you're
going. Some weeks later she looked at me with those big clear eyes that
only a child has and asked for an honest answer: is it too late to stop this?
As an environmental lawyer and professor, I have spent countless
hours discussing and debating these matters with adults. But it was this
exchange with my child that brought out for me the glaring failure of
environmental law's close to half century of experimentation. While laws
are the fundamental infrastructure that undergirds our economic, politi-
cal and social systems, environmental law is not understood as such. This
shortfall starts with environmental law courses, which in the US, typically
teach the primary federal environmental statutes, with a focus on the field
as a set of rules that establish pollutant limits for specific waterbodies;
protect identified species, ecosystems, and natural resources; or direct an
industry to use a required technology. Although necessary, these rules
do not address the motivating paradigm of our political economy; and
as such, they don't address what we can see today as the deep drivers of
environmental deterioration.
The most daunting example of failing to tackle these drivers is seen
in increasing ...