“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
— John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
When I started my career in journalism, I often heard this maxim about audience building: All news is local. The general idea underlying the concept (if you’re a journalism professor avert your eyes) was that no matter how national the story or the publication, it related to some localized community. The “locality” could be geographical, but equally, it could be about different identities, economic standings, experiences, etc.
We used this concept to shape coverage with specific goals based on what would appeal or prove useful to those who read the articles. The most powerful stories, as the argument goes, center on specific local audiences or communities, even if the story focuses on a national or global issue. Every issue, from the most wide-ranging to the most niche has this local audience, but also this intrinsic web of consequences and tie-ins that tie them together.
The idea of the locality and interconnectedness of everything came back into my mind through an entirely different context, the Environmental Law Society’s annual winter weekend in Provincetown, MA. The crux of the weekend’s programming, created by ELS President Carly Morris and Vice President Hannah Coulter, aimed to recenter a similarly global problem, climate change, through a local lens.
We heard from several speakers about the community-led efforts on the Cape, and in Massachusetts more broadly, to combat, mitigate, and live in a global warming-shaped future. These speakers each brought home the idea that even this massive existential crisis manifests locally. That’s how people feel it in a way that makes them want to act. Whether it’s through seeing the pond you used to play in as a kid now poisoned with an algae bloom; a local neighborhood that used to sit right by the water but now sits underneath it; the beach you visited with your family that now looks unrecognizable. I could go on. But at the core of it, and at the core of the weekend’s messaging, was the idea that while the flaccid national and global response to climate change might cause despair, it’s the local and state efforts that can still make a difference as we wait for the world and the federal government to catch up.
We first heard from Bruce Hopper, the deputy head of counsel and litigation manager at MassDEP, who began his remarks with a similar idea to the one I shared about news media: In ecology, everything is connected. Hopper told us of the many ways that MassDEP and other state agencies are working to prevent all the climate rollbacks we see nationally from manifesting in our state and this community. We also heard about interstate efforts–a collection of decentralized localities—working in concert to act where the centralized government has left us in the lurch.
For an even more localized take on how to mitigate the efforts of climate change, we heard from Janet Williams of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and Chatham Climate Action Network. Williams told us of the numerous climate change mitigation strategies being implemented on the Cape in places like Chatham, Wellfleet, and many other seaside communities already dealing with the intense fallout of rising and warming seas, among other climate and environmental pollution-caused problems. She noted the work of her fellow local advocates, many of whom have no expertise in environmental law or policy, whose work is essential to saving the iconic coastlines that so many New Englanders cherish.
Our final speaker did not come from the legal world but from the world of real estate. Beth Hardy Wade, a long-time leader at Habitat for Humanity on the Cape and the soon-to-be associate director of Resilient Roots, spoke to us of efforts to provide environmentally sustainable affordable housing for folks on the Cape. Housing scarcity is a major issue, in the Cape and elsewhere, but it often needs to be balanced with climate goals and maintaining the natural beauty of the landscape. Ms. Wade’s work showed how those ambitions can co-exist, and in fact, co-promote one another—but only if they come along with a community focus and local buy-in.
While all the speakers provided incredible insight and inspiration for how to fight the good climate fight with your neighbors and fellow citizens, what will stick with me most was getting connected with my new community—my fellow climate advocates here at BC Law. I was left with a passion for growing that community and furthering our own “local” and community efforts to work toward a more sustainable future for our community and our world. In my view, one of the most important planks of that work is to continue to promote environmental law programs, classes, and participation in climate action here at BC Law. This school has a venerable tradition in this area of study, thanks in large part to the work of the many incredible professors and course offerings, including an opportunity to teach undergrads, but I believe our community and this school can do so much more in this fight.
If there’s any notion I want to impart here it is that any work, education, or collective raising of awareness about environmental law’s role in combating climate change is essential. This is, without any hyperbole, a situation that puts humankind at risk of self-imposed extinction. It goes almost without saying that increased environmental law opportunities are justified on that premise alone. But when I see the strong-willed and tight-knit community of law students already here at BC, I know that they deserve every bit of support to become advocates for protecting the Earth and the people who inhabit it. I hope we can expand that community beyond this group to those who may not think environmental law is for them but still want to work to preserve the natural wonders and resources that make the Earth a worthwhile place to live.
All change, no matter how grand, comes from local and community-driven efforts. After the ELS weekend, I believe that our community here at BC Law can be a major part of that change if given the proper support and opportunity. Spending time with my classmates over the weekend reminded me of the power of that notion and of the meaning that can come from connection with people who also want to make a change in their part of the world. I hope the wider BC law community and administration see it too, and together I think we can make a real change before it’s too late.
Ian Hurley is a first-year student at BC Law. Contact him at hurleyia@bc.edu.
BC Law: Impact 