Yes, It’s That Time of Year Again

Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy 2020-07-06

Like everyone else, I’m sure you find fundraising appeals annoying. That’s why we only do them twice a year.  But there couldn’t be a more important time for the work we do, given the urgency of the climate crisis and the ongoing policy disaster in D.C.

Yes, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis. But climate change and the biodiversity crisis aren’t going away while we deal with those other problems. That means that the environmental work we do at Berkeley and UCLA remains as urgent as ever.

Federal environmental law has been under constant assault for almost four years.  Only the states have been able to move forward, with California in the vanguard.   At both Berkeley and UCLA, we have worked closely with state officials to help keep California moving forward.

Whatever happens in November, this work will remain vital. If Trump wins, California’s efforts will be crucial to keep hope alive. If Biden wins, our work will move into a new phase. We’ll help translate California’s programs to the national level.  As the federal government works to catch up to the state, California in turn will need to push ahead.  We can help make that happen.

The work we’ve done has more than local significance. In a project headed by former Governor Jerry Brown, we are working to bring what we’ve learned in California to assist China in reducing its carbon footprint. And there’s also a need for reliable, evidence-based insight into the national situation.  Our research programs at Berkeley and UCLA are dedicated to those missions.

Supporting Berkeley. If you’d like to support Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE), click here. If you’d like more information about the Center, click here.

Supporting UCLA. You can find out more about UCLA’s Emmett Institute here. The  Emmett Institute has a dedicated donation page here.

This has been a time of turmoil, from the unexpected results of the 2016 election to the coronavirus outbreak today.  One constant has been the need to address the environmental crises facing the world. We have devoted ourselves to that effort in past years, and we need your help to keep doing so in the future.

Thanks for your support, and for reading Legal Planet! We promise not to hit you up again till the nights grow long again next winter.

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