Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development Volume 23 Issue 3 Volume 23, Fall 2008, Issue 3 Article 4 Climate Surfing: A Conceptual Guide ot Drafting Conservation Easements in the Age of Global Warming James L. Olmsted Esq. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcred This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CLIMATE SURFING: A CONCEPTUAL GUIDE TO DRAFTING CONSERVATION EASEMENTS IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING JAMES L. OLMSTED, ESQ.* INTRODUCTION A. As the Ice Caps Melt This article is directed to the land trust community and to oth- er individuals and organizations that seek to preserve and pro- tect land through conservation easements. "It begins with the assumption, based upon overwhelming scientific data and analy- sis, that global warming is here and is having disastrous effects. To support this assumption, this article provides the reader with citations to a mountain of research and scholarship that has been published on the subject of climate change in the past three years. Given the reality of global warming, this article examines how conservation easements should be drafted to help deal with the sweeping and devastating changes global warming will bring. This article is a sequel to a previous law review article ad- dressing many of the same core issues.' Thus, this article covers some previously trodden ground, but in new ways.