The environmental movement has effected many changes in its first quarter-century of existence; now a new vision is needed to shape environmental policy for the next 25 years, according to the head of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, which has launched the public outreach phase of "Environmental Reform: The Next Generation Project." Jointly sponsored by the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies F&ES and the Law School, the two-year project seeks to new theories, strategies and tools that can deliver greater "environmental value" to address the public's desire for more effective and efficient environmental protection.
"The environmental policy debate in this country has run aground, and we intend to refloat it with fresh thinking and new directions," says Daniel C. Esty, director of the center and former deputy assistant administrator for policy, planning and evaluation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "It's time for the hard work and serious thinking necessary for systemic reform to occur.
The environmental debate "has become polarized in recent years, leaving a void that calls for 'radically centrist' new ideas," contends Professor Esty, who has joint appointments at Yale's law and forestry schools. "We are stepping up to the plate to fill the policy void by committing substantial time, energy and resources, and seeking the help of experts throughout the country and the world. Our goal is to develop a new way of thinking that can serve as the framework of environmental policy for the next 25 years."
"We solved the most obvious problems during the first 25 years of the environmental movement by targeting the largest, most visible pollution sources," says project director Marian Chertow, who joined the F&ES faculty in 1990 after seven years in state and local government. "But the most pressing environmental problems now are quite different in character -- they are diffuse, subtle and often global in their reach. Today's conditions do not simply allow us to turn to government for answers. Government financing is shrinking, and the private sector's role is broadening throughout the world."
The project will attempt to unite the natural and industrial worlds through a focus on "industrial ecology," Professor Esty explains, and to offer a new intellectual foundation for future environmental policy by rethinking core concepts such as property rights, ecosystem protection and land use. The project will highlight the fact that many important decisions shaping environmental quality are made outside the environmental realm, he adds. Next Generation policy, therefore, will find ways to shape the environmental impact of decisions made in agriculture, transportation, energy and services sectors.
Since the project began last spring, the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, 14 policy review teams have been working to produce an agenda for environmental action that will be offered to public policy makers and regulators, as well as to the broader audience of business and community leaders. The teams are being spearheaded by nationally known leaders from business, non-governmental organizations and academia. Workshops have been held by all 14 teams involving some 250 people from across the nation and the world. Each team leader will contribute a chapter to The Next Generation compendium, which will be drafted by September. Key findings will be released at a Yale conference Sept. 20-21 in time for the state and federal elections. The entire second year of the project is being devoted to outreach and dissemination.
"We're very pleased with the progress of the project," said F&ES Dean Jared Cohon. "Dan Esty's federal government experience and Marian CChertow's in-state and local experience make the policy components live. They have tested the ideas in class and among the hundreds of experts who have visited Yale this year to participate in Next Generation workshops. The project will go beyond the traditional academic mission with a substantial outreach effort to make the ideas known in communities across the country."
Yale professors have played a prominent role in the project, both as leaders and participants. In addition to Dean Cohon, team leaders include John Gordon, former F&ES dean and the Pinchot Professor of Forestry; Carol M. Rose, the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor of Law and Organization at the Law School; E. Donald Elliott of the Law School; and Todd Strauss, assistant professor of public policy and management science at the School of Management.
Other Yale participants have come from the School of Nursing, the department of epidemiology and public health in the School of Medicine, and the Office of Cooperative Research. Yale Corporation members William Reilly and Frances Beinecke serve on the project's 15-member advisory board, which also includes Yale alumni Joan Z. Bernstein, Edward Strobehn and Fred Krupp. A steering committee of F&ES researchers Reid Lifset and Bradford Gentry, senior fellow William Ellis and assistant dean Jane Coppock have guided the project over the last year.
Major project support has come from the Avina Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, GE Fund, German Marshall Fund, Hughes Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.
For more information, contact Ms. Chertow, Professor Esty or project administrator Janet Testa at 432-6197. The e-mail address is jtesta@minerva.cis.yale.edu.