Support Lawyers Fighting for Environmental Justice
ClientEarth is an organisation, sure to cheer you up, if you feel a bit in despair about the state of the planet. Founded a couple of decades ago by a New York environmental lawyer), he moved to London and the organisation has been helping to clean up the planet, ever since:
- 90% of the world’s forests have already disappeared
- 1 million of the planet’s species are facing extinction
- 7.25 million tons of plastic end up in oceans each year are forced from their homes, due to climate change.
If this makes you scared, fear not. This organisation has clout, as the top bods here are top lawyers who know the law, and how to work it.
From exposing greenwashing and ensuring environmental laws are put into practice, it’s like having the ‘environmental hot squad’ on your team.
Not just campaigners who march down streets, these are the ones who can tick the boxes, dot the i’s and cross the t’s, to really bring about effective change.
And will even stand up to top governments, to force them to follow the laws they serve on others, to protect the environment.
Thanks to ClientEarth, even the EU (that makes laws for 27 countries) is finally amending its own laws, to ensure that people can take the EU to court, if they don’t follow protect the planet.
ClientEarth has so far brought a whopping 140,000 cases to court (companies and local governments).
There are lawyers across 14 countries, so people can easily find an expert to argue their case. It also has 25 active cases to defend wildlife and habitats.
This organisation is an unsung hero of the environmental world.
Recent victories include:
- Ensuring BPA plastics have hazardous warnings
- Preventing illegal logging plans in Poland
- Preventing a Bulgarian river valley, being turned into a motorway
- Stopping KLM airlines promoting flying as ‘sustainable’
- Helped bring the upcoming ban on a bee-killing pesticide
- Stopped a generation of new European coal-fired power plants
- Won 3 clean air cases in the UK
- Helped to write the EU fisheries law (to stop over-fishing)
Ongoing campaigns include:
- Challenging construction of hydroelectric Balkan power plants (which would impact wildlife)
- Training over 1500 environmental judges and prosecutors in China
- Trying to stop a new airport in Portugal’s most important wetland, a migratory route for birds travelling from North Europe to Africa. ClientEarth says ‘We’re stepping in’.
James – you’re an Eco Hero!
We’re quite interested in founder James Thornton, so let’s learn more about him. Named ‘one of the 10 people who could change the world’, is it not refreshing that instead of continuing his lucrative Wall Street career, he called out those who need to hear the environmental urgency, and won?
Always fascinated by the natural world, he wanted to be a biologist, but ended up an environmental lawyer. His first victory was to win over 80 cases, to force the US Reagan administration to clean up polluted water.
How Can We Help ClientEarth?
Of course, all charities rely on donations, and this organisation strongly relies on business and big donations, as it costs millions to take governments and big businesses to court. One donor says:
It would be really easy to be despondent about the enormity of the challenge which faces the world, and everything in it. But we can do something, and we could turn things around.
We need to enforce existing legislation and make politicians bring in new legislation, where necessary. So I am delighted that I have been able to help, in a small way.
An Upbeat Book on Environmental Justice
How to Be Hopeful is an upbeat book to help you become grounded and empowered, amid the world of climate anxiety.
This is an active and evidence-based book on how to stop climate change. To help you:
- Accept your fears, but keep positive
- Source solutions-focused news
- Track positive trends
- Act from your unique gifts
- Practice interspecies etiquette (be animal-kind!)
- Gather strength from circles of support
Author Elin Kelsey PhD leads workshops for environmental organisations and youth climate activists . She lives in California and British Columbia (Canada).
Is it Too Late to Stop Climate Change?
The authors of the book Not Too Late write:
It’s late in the game, but the game’s not over. Climate scientist Michael Mann says ‘The solution is already here. It all comes down to political will and economic incentives’.
The good news is we know what to do and how to do it:
- Leave fossil fuel in the ground
- Build renewable energy systems
- Foster regenerative agriculture
- Design energy-clean transit alternatives
The only obstacles are political (fossil-fuel industry and government allies don’t want to give up short-term profits, even though it may cause long-term harm).
People often don’t get that we can really do this. Imagination is a super-power. We have to believe the world can be different. Then act on it.
