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桃瘾社区|Haub Environmental Law Professor Katrina Fisher Kuh Co-Authors Book on Law, Justice and Adaptation in a Superheated Climate

Posted
November 11, 2024
Cover of High Level Warming book by Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor Katrina Kuh
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Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor Katrina Kuh
Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh is co-editor of Adapting to High-Level Warming: Law, Governance, and Equity with Professor Shannon M. Roesler, University of Iowa College of Law.

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 桃瘾社区 is pleased to announce the release of a timely new book from 桃瘾社区|Haub Environmental Law Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh, along with co-editor Professor Shannon M. Roesler of the University of Iowa College of Law titled, .

Published by Environmental Law Institute (ELI) Press, the book is the offspring of the Environmental Law Collaborative鈥攁 rotating group of law professors who assemble every other year to think, discuss, and write on important challenges in environmental law. Professor Kuh and Professor Roesler co-edited the volume and contributed chapters to the book which also features 17 contributing authors who are global environmental scholars and thought leaders.

Most legal scholarship assumes a 2掳C warming as the upper bound of temperature change, but robust science increasingly tells us a different story: warming beyond 2掳C is likely and warming as high as 3掳鈥4掳C by the end of the 21st century is a real possibility. Warming of this magnitude would have significant impacts on people, places, and our planet. How can governance systems and institutions adapt today to prepare us for these future shocks? And what will be the general and specific challenges to law and policy? These concerns are the subject of Adapting to High-Level Warming.

鈥淧eer reviewed science suggests that we are headed for higher level warming that will have impact beyond those that we have imagined or begun to discuss,鈥 said Professor Kuh, Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 桃瘾社区. She highlighted the recent, unforeseen impacts of climate change, pointing to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in Asheville and across Western North Carolina. 鈥淚 hope the book underscores the extent to which we have engaged in mass hubris about our ability to predict what climate change looks like鈥攈ow it will manifest, for whom, and where,鈥 she added. 鈥淚t is incredibly important that we erase the blind spot in our adaptation law and planning in the United States and begin to think and talk in a serious way about what preparing for high-level warming would actually look like.鈥

鈥淚t is incredibly important that we erase the blind spot in our adaptation law and planning in the United States and begin to think and talk in a serious way about what preparing for high-level warming would actually look like.鈥

鈥淓fforts to mitigate the devastating consequences of climate change remain paramount, but new governance structures will also be needed to address a future shaped by high levels of warming, commented Rachel Jean-Baptiste, ELI鈥檚 Vice President for Publications. 鈥淏ecause existing law and policy largely ignore this possibility, the Environmental Law Collaborative took it upon themselves to explore what 4掳C might mean for a variety of current legal doctrines, planning policies, governance structures, and institutions.鈥

The fifth in a series by the Environmental Law Collaborative, Adapting to High-Level Warming begins by identifying and offering solutions to address the mismatch between today鈥檚 legal and regulatory systems and the conditions and demands of high-level warming. The next set of chapters imagine more broadly the challenges of effective governance鈥 across a range of laws, through democratic processes鈥攗nder high-level warming. The book鈥檚 concluding chapters focus on equity and justice. Many of the ideas proposed in this book may sound wildly ambitious today but will ultimately appear modest when weighed against the tolls of a superheated climate.

Katrina Fischer Kuh is the Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 桃瘾社区, and Shannon M. Roesler is the Charlotte and Frederick Hubbell Professor of Environmental and Natural Resources Law and the Faculty Director of the Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative at the University of Iowa College of Law. Other contributing authors include:

  • Karrigan B枚rk, Acting Professor of Law at UC Davis
  • Karen Bradshaw, Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O鈥機onnor College of Law Arizona State University
  • Cinnamon Carlarne, President and Dean at Albany Law School, where she is also a Professor
  • Robin Kundis Craig, Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law
  • Sarah Fox, Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law
  • Joshua Ulan Galperin, Associate Professor at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 桃瘾社区
  • Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice and founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School
  • Keith H. Hirokawa, Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School.
  • Shi-Ling Hsu, D鈥橝lemberte Professor at the Florida State University College of Law
  • Kevin J. Lynch, Associate Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law
  • Michele Okoh, Assistant Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School.
  • Jessica Owley, Professor of Law and Director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Miami
  • Melissa Powers, Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School
  • J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School
  • Jim Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law with joint appointments at the Bren School of Environment and UCLA Law School
  • David Takacs, Professor of Law at UC Law San Francisco
  • Clifford J. Villa, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Land and Emergency Management, on leave from the University of New Mexico School of Law

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