Tag: earth
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Return to the Earth: Washington’s Revolutionary Human Composting Statute
Confronting our own mortality can be challenging, but there is no shaking the truth that we will all die someday. As depressing as that is, the sooner we accept that fact, the sooner we can begin to plan for what we want to happen to the physical body we leave behind and share that plan…
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Brightfield Projects Could Be on the Rise After President Biden’s Executive Order
Recently, on January 27, 2021, President Biden took executive action to revitalize energy initiatives in communities that have been adversely impacted by brownfield sites. [1] Through the recent executive order, President Biden created an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. [2] The recently developed Interagency Working Group is co-chaired by…
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Re-Fortifying the Dunes: The Beach Dune Restoration Project of Flagler Beach, FL
Sea-level rise is just one of the numerous effects human-induced climate change has brought upon the planet, with average sea levels having swelled over eight inches since 1880, and about three of those inches gained in the last twenty-five years. [1] Although the current rise in sea levels may seem miniscule, the potential effect this poses to…
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Return to Fire: Native Americans’ Work to Reclaim Their Right to Fire
2020 saw one of the deadliest wildfires in California. At the end of the year, 10,000 fires burned over 4.2 million acres of land. [1] One wildfire in August, called the Complex fire, began as 38 separate fires that combined into the first “gigafire” due to its burning of over 1 million acres of land. [2] In addition, there…
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Choosing Hemp
Hemp, the sober cousin of marijuana, is known to be the one of the most versatile plants in the world. It has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years and is said to have over 25,000 uses. Hemp was so popular that it was mandated for farmers to grow hemp seed during the colonial years.…
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The OneNYC 2050 and Beef Reduction
New York City, the city that never sleeps, is not sleeping on climate change or global warming. On April 22nd, 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an ambitious $14 billon plan to fight climate change and global warming. The plan is to reach complete carbon neutrality by 2050 [1]. One of the ways the OneNYC 2050 plans…
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Minimalism & The Environment
When I first heard about minimalism, I thought about how it was a ridiculous lifestyle that was highly unattainable and impractical. I had seen the videos of vloggers sharing how they fit all of their possessions in a single backpack or how they were able to put a year’s worth of trash in one mason…
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Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink
While visiting my extended family recently, I had to opportunity to catch up with one of my cousins with whom I had lost contact. As it goes in these situations, we exchanged pleasantries, talked about our families and major life events since our last contact over a decade ago, and discussed our current careers. I…
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Plastic Bags… to Ban or Not to Ban? That is the Question.
I visited St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, back in October, and went grocery shopping, just like I did before I moved away in 2017. I got to the cashier, paid for all of my groceries and she asked me if I wanted to purchase a reusable bag. Annoyed, I said no, thinking, “why should I…
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Are We Beginning to See the Light? The Effectiveness and Resourcefulness of Automatic Light Systems
Few inventions over the past couple of centuries have been more resourceful and beneficial to human existence than electricity and artificial lighting. Consider, for a brief moment, just how often you use artificial lighting on a daily basis. Whether it be for academic endeavors late at night or just keeping your kitchen lit making breakfast…
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Nature Versus Nurture, Why Not Nurture Nature? The Argument for Extending Rights to Nature
Since its inception, the legal field has had an anthropocentric, or human centered, focus of legal rights. Even when a nature-based case come to a court the judge still views the issue in how it will impact humans and not nature itself. Nature has been considered to have property rights in that as long as…
Barry Law Environmental and Earth Law Journal 