First aid for the planet is the goal behind the 2002 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, which begins today and runs through Sunday. This year’s conference theme is “Global CPR: Conservation, Preservation, Restoration.”
“The theme represents an
urgency on the part of humans to start preserving, conserving and restoring the resources of the planet,” said conference co-director Jonathan Manton.
More than 3,000 people from around the world, including activists, attorneys, students and scientists, are expected to attend the conference, which is now in its 20th year.
The conference is sponsored and organized by the University student group Land Air Water, an environmental law student society that currently has more than 60 members.
This year’s conference lineup includes keynote addresses by environmental activists and more than 125 panels, workshops, films and other events.
Keynote speakers include several well-known figures in the environmental movement such as Sarah James, Ralph Nader, Michael Frome and John Echohawk.
Bennett Raley, the Bush administration’s Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the Department of the Interior was originally scheduled to speak, but he was unable to attend because he is testifying in U.S. Senate hearings this week.
James, a member of the International Indian Treaty Council, will speak on Thursday. Nader, a former Green party presidential candidate, and Echohawk, the executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, will speak on Friday. Frome, a conservation writer and journalist will speak on Saturday.
Among conference speakers are also three past winners of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, including Lois Gibbs, who organized the Love Canal Homeowners Association in 1978 after discovering that her neighborhood had been built on top of a toxic waste dump.
Workshops and panels will cover a broad range of environmental topics, such as global ecosystems, student activism, labor issues and hemp litigation. Conference co-director Brad Schaeppi said the diversity of panel topics and presenters is a unique advantage of the event.
Although it is a law conference, speakers and panel presenters represent not only the legal community but “all the actors who can talk about the issues from the environmental perspective,” he said.
Panels, keynote addresses and other conference events are free for University students. Fees for non-students will be assessed on a sliding scale according to ability to pay. Everyone attending conference events is asked to register at the Knight Law Center. Registration will be held on the front steps of the law center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Saturday, and from 8:30-11 a.m. Sunday.
For law students and non-law students, the conference provides a chance to learn more about environmental issues and activism on both the local and international level, conference co-director Jen Dues said.
“It just gives you a good opportunity … to find out what other people are doing in the environmental movement,” she said.