Ocean Iron Fertilization and Indigenous Peoples\u27 Right to Food: Leveraging International and Domestic Law Protections to Enhance Access to Salmon in the Pacific Northwest

Ocean iron fertilization (OIF) is a new and controversial climate change mitigation strategy that seeks to increase the carbon-absorbing capacity of ocean waters by depositing significant quantities of iron dust into the marine environment to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton blooms. The photosynthetic processes of these blooms absorb carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it to the ocean floor. OIF has been criticized on several grounds. including the foreseeable and unforeseeable adverse consequences it may cause to the marine environment, as well as the daunting challenge of reconciling several potentially overlapping sources of international and domestic environmental law, which may lead to difficulties in regulating OIF effectively. Notwithstanding these challenges, OIF recently has produced a valuable benefit unrelated to its carbon sequestration purpose. In 2012, the Haida indigenous community in Canada conducted an OIF experiment that sought to restore its decimated supply of Pacific Northwest salmon stocks, upon which the Haida community relies for subsistence and self- determination. The experiment significantly increased salmon stocks within the span of one year. This Article addresses whether indigenous communities like the Haida in the U.S. Pacific Northwest region could assert a legal right to employ such a strategy in the future to help restore and maintain a cultural food source that has been depleted in part due to climate change impacts. The Article confirms that international environmental law, international human rights law, and federal Indian Law in the United Stales provide a firm foundation for enshrining a legal right to food for federally recognized U.S. tribes in this region. It proposes a potential exception to a future international environmental law treaty framework governing OIF experiments that would protect indigenous communities\u27 rights to enhanced access to salmon as a subsistence and cultural food resource that is essential to self-determination

Kyoto or Not, Here We Come: The Promise and Perils of the Piecemeal Approach to Climate Change Regulation in the United States

Climate change is a pervasive, yet controversial, problem. During the six months leading up to the Kyoto negotiations, President Clinton faced a major challenge when he tried to rally support at home for binding reductions on GHG emissions. Despite political and industry concerns about its potential economic impacts, the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol; however, the Bush administration withdrew from the Protocol in 2001. Part I of the Article analyzes the U.S. federal regulatory approach to climate change. Part II explores representative state, regional, and local attempts to combat climate change, whereas Part III describes voluntary compliance initiatives in the regulated community to monitor and reduce GHG emissions. Part IV focuses on federal lawsuits brought by states, cities, and nongovernmental organizations filed against 1) the federal government seeking to compel a mandatory climate change program or 2) the regulated community seeking to hold companies accountable for the effects of GHG emissions. The Article concludes that climate change litigation is a more effective tool to bring about a mandatory federal regulatory program than are legislative efforts at the state, regional, and city levels, or voluntary initiatives within the regulated community

Fool Me Once, Shame On You: Promoting Corporate Accountability for the Human Rights Impacts of Climate Washing

Effective climate change governance faces two overarching challenges. The first is mobilizing the political will to regulate climate change with sufficient ambition. Second, when regulatory measures are in place to address climate change, the next challenge is ensuring that governmental and private sector entities are on track to comply with these time-sensitive climate governance commitments. This article addresses the second challenge. It reviews “climate washing” litigation that seeks to hold fossil fuel companies and other private sector entities accountable for misleading the public about their compliance with climate change mandates or goals. The article argues that climate washing tactics threaten human rights to health, property, food and water, and life, especially in vulnerable communities, by postponing effective climate regulation and thereby amplifying the risks from climate change-related events such as severe storms, flooding, heat, and droughts. It proposes to incorporate human rights compliance mechanisms into companies’ characterizations of their climate change compliance to help ensure these entities are transparent and truthful in their efforts to comply with climate change governance mandates or goals

Napoleonic Propaganda: Rationalization for War and Control of an Empire

This paper describes the way Napoleon Bonaparte used propaganda to influence nations to fight the enemies of nineteenth century France and to control the peoples of Europe. Although Napoleon never used the specific term propaganda he utilized its methods in order to sway the masses into following him. Under the leadership of Napoleon, France rose from the chaos of revolution to dominate Europe. The armies of France and its allies crushed all opposition militarily, but the political battle for the minds of the people was waged for and by Napoleon

Climate Change Impacts on Ocean and Coastal Law: U.S. and International Perspectives

Ocean and coastal law has grown rapidly in the past three decades as a specialty area within natural resources law and environmental law. The protection of oceans has received increased attention in the past decade because of sea-level rise, ocean acidification, the global overfishing crisis, widespread depletion of marine biodiversity such as marine mammals and coral reefs, and marine pollution. Paralleling the growth of ocean and coastal law, climate change regulation has emerged as a focus of international environmental diplomacy, and has gained increased attention in the wake of disturbing and abrupt climate change related impacts throughout the world that have profound implications for ocean and coastal regulation and marine resources. Climate Change Impacts on Ocean and Coastal Law effectively unites these two worlds. It raises important questions about whether and how ocean and coastal law will respond to the regulatory challenges that climate change presents to resources in the oceans and coasts of the U.S. and the world. This comprehensive work assembles the insights of global experts from academia and major NGOs (e.g., Center for International Environmental Law, Ocean Conservancy, and Environmental Law Institute) to address regulatory challenges from the perspectives of U.S. law, foreign domestic law, and international law.https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1002/thumbnail.jp