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Gus Speth Grads Radical Departure from the Environ­ Mental Movement’S Strategy As He Urges Americans to Rethink Our Very Way of Life

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Gus Speth Grads Radical Departure from the Environ­ Mental Movement’S Strategy As He Urges Americans to Rethink Our Very Way of Life 42 43 yale law report winter 2009 the green issue Nations Development Programme, the principal arm of the United Nations for Calling for Transformative Change funding and coordination of interna- James Gustave Speth ’69 tional assistance for development. Dean, Yale School of Forestry & Since 1999, Speth has been at the Environmental Studies School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where he now serves as the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean and Sara As a boy in the rural South Carolina low endowed and well-respected environ- Shallenberger Brown Professor in the country, James Gustave “Gus” Speth mental organization. After nrdc, as the Practice of Environmental Policy. He is grew up hunting, fishing, and swim- principal White House adviser to the author of several books, including ming the Edisto River. Each summer President Carter on environmental most recently, The Bridge at the Edge of the he visited his grandparents on Lake affairs, Speth was responsible for the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Junaluska in the North Carolina development and coordination of the Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability and mountains. The year he turned thirteen, Speth arrived for his summer in the mountains to find the lake wiped out— dead—due to a major pollution incident. Working within this system alone In Speth’s words, “That did it.” The death of that lake propelled is not going to solve the problem ... Yale Law School counts among its graduates Speth toward a lifetime devoted to Green environmental advocacy. Now, with What we really need is transformative a great number of leaders in the environmental arena. more than forty years of work as The following profiles highlight just a few of an environmental advocate and adviser change within the system itself to his credit, Speth is calling for a the alumni involved in the “green” arena. if we’re going to save this planet. Gus Speth Grads radical departure from the environ- mental movement’s strategy as he urges Americans to rethink our very way of life. Carter Administration’s environmental Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis Speth’s work got its first real foothold program. Speth again advised the White of the Global Environment. during the late 1960s when, as a student House about natural resources, energy, In The Bridge at the Edge of the World, at the Law School, he and several of his and the environment when he was Speth details the deterioration of the classmates began planning out what tapped to be senior adviser on President planet. He writes, “Half the world’s was to become the Natural Resources Clinton’s transition team in 1992. For tropical and temperate forests are gone. Defense Council, America’s most well- much of the 1990s, Speth led the United The rate of deforestation in the tropics is 44 45 yale law report winter 2009 about an acre a second. Half the planet’s work in the steel industry. He soon wetlands are gone. An estimated 90 branched out on his own, purchasing percent of the large predator fish are what would become Cherokee Sanford Advocating for the Environment gone and 75 percent of marine fisher- Redeveloping Brownfields Group, the largest privately-held brick Liz Barratt-Brown ’91 ies are overfished, fished to capacity Thomas Darden ’81 manufacturing company in the United Senior Attorney, International Program, or depleted, up from 5 percent a few CEO, Cherokee Investment Partners States. Darden’s environmental bent and Natural Resources Defense Council decades ago. Twenty percent of the ingenuity came into focus when he con- corals are gone; another 20 percent verted the plant’s fuel source from fossil severely threatened. Species are Fifteen miles north of Montreal, a former years old. “It was so compelling,” he fuels to sawdust. In 1985, Cherokee took Liz Barratt-Brown ’91 is passionate number of key issues. Among the proj- disappearing about 1,000 times faster General Motors manufacturing site is remembers, “it gave me a new mental on the work of cleaning up contaminated about Canada’s Boreal Forest—and ects she has worked on: building and than normal. The planet has not seen gaining new life. Until recently, the 232- construct for how growth could happen soil. That arm of the business eventually about stopping the strip mining that implementing the global warming, bio- such a spasm of extinction in 65 million acre industrial site was a ghost town, in the U.S.” led Darden to redevelopment work. has already forever changed the forest’s diversity, and ozone layer treaties; years, since the dinosaurs disappeared. plagued with soil contamination and lit- Redevelopment and urban infill proj- Today, one of Cherokee’s biggest chal- landscape. strengthening international institu- Each year desertification claims a tered with abandoned debris. Now more ects are low-hanging fruit in the mission lenges is changing public perception “Oil from this region—called tar tions; and instituting corporate pur- Nebraska-sized area of productive capac- than a thousand housing units, shops, to green the planet, according to Darden. about urban infill and redevelopment. sands—is literally scraped out of what chasing policies around forest conser- ity worldwide. Toxic chemicals can be offices, a recreation center, and an urban Buildings, he explains, use 30 to 40 per- Trying to convince the American public was previously part of a beautiful forest vation and energy use. found by the dozens in essentially every town square are starting to rise on the cent of all energy consumed in the U.S. that urbanization is positive for the envi- of green, slow-growing trees and wind- Barratt-Brown, who worked for the one of us.” once discarded site. The project, known The location of buildings accounts for ronment-—that densely populated areas ing rivers, and the nesting ground for NRDC and in the U.S. Senate for six Speth is now calling for a transforma- as “Faubourg Boisbriand,” is one of some another 20 percent of energy consump- are less resource-intensive than the more nearly 40 percent of our songbirds and years prior to law school, was happy to tion in American society as he points five hundred redevelopment sites taken tion. Taken together then, buildings and superficially “green” suburbs—is a tough waterfowl,” explains Barratt-Brown. rejoin the group after graduating from to American “affluenza” as one of the on by Cherokee, a firm headed by Tom their locations make up half of the sell. “The public at large is not as aware As an attorney in the International Yale. root causes of the escalating deteriora- Darden ’81. energy problem in the country. [as policy makers] of the environmental Program with the Natural Resources “I love the organization and its mis- tion of the planet. In order to save the Under Darden’s leadership, Cherokee “Americans need to think more about impact of real estate on the environ- Defense Council (NRDC), one of the sion,” she says. planet, Speth argues, we must challenge invests in the acquisition, remediation, where we build,” Darden says. “If you ment,” Darden says. “There is nothing nation’s top environmental action “We have more than one million our own consumption and move from a and sustainable development of under- build the right kind of buildings, in the less green than big houses built on grassy groups, Barratt-Brown has spent twen- members and activists. I’ve seen the “consumer to conserver society.” utilized or contaminated properties right places, you can address half of the lots around golf courses.” ty-five years working tirelessly on a organization grow tremendously, but it “All we have to do to ruin the planet (called “brownfields”). Darden sees energy equation.” In addition to having a business mis- is keep doing exactly what we’re doing opportunity in properties where most Darden attended the Law School sion focused on advancing sustainability, today,” Speth said while serving as a other people would see only difficulties. before an environmental law program Cherokee has also funded or helped to panelist at the Law School’s Alumni Many of the projects are developed in or was in place. He took property law raise more than $30 million for philan- Protecting the Environment at Work and at Home Weekend in October. in close proximity to urban centers. courses that touched on some of the thropic works. The company’s outreach Michael Fisher ’94 “Working within this system alone is Faubourg Boisbriand, for example, will work he would do in the future, but the program operates in the U.S. and interna- not going to solve the problem,” he con- Environmental ted to protecting the environment. They be in walking distance to a regional tionally, helping those who have been tinued. “What we really need is transfor- Protection Agency made a conscious choice to live where commuter rail line that connects the affected by environmental disasters. In mative change within the system itself If you build the right kind lawyer Michael Fisher they can walk to work or take public site to downtown Montreal. India, “Cherokee Gives Back” is commit- if we’re going to save this planet.” of buildings, in the right places, ’94 grew up in a small transit, and their home runs on 100% The same story of redevelopment is ted to addressing problems stemming “you can address half of the energy” town in the Midwest, where he spent a wind power. Still, says Fisher, he doesn’t repeating itself at other Cherokee proj- from the Union Carbide pesticide plant equation. Thomas Darden lot of time outdoors with his parents. focus too much on the “personal virtue” ect sites. Southwest of Houston, a disaster that killed thousands in 1984.
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