Vibrant Environment

2025 saw a record-breaking number of flash flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

When I was a graduate student, I attended a conference session on the sediment record of the Arctic Ocean. Over the course of the conference, I heard experts debate, vigorously, the pros and cons of using the chemical elements protactinium and thorium to estimate the age of Arctic sediments, where the region’s sedimentary features preclude a more conventional dating approach. Let’s just say there were some diverse viewpoints.  

States are facing a double whammy—rising disaster relief costs due to an increasing number of extreme weather events and limited or, in some cases, withdrawn insurance coverage for high-risk areas. 

2025 was a challenging year for the global response to climate change. 

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was ratified by the United States and 197 other parties, has endured since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Climate negotiations under the Convention have ebbed and flowed for more than three decades but no signatory has previously walked away from the Convention and denounced climate change as a hoax. 

By Federal Register notice with a short comment period ending February 17, EPA has proposed a major revision to a longstanding Clean Water Act program that for decades has given the states substantial regulatory oversight over the water quality impacts of activities conducted pursuant to a federal license or permit.  

Recreational and commercial fishing in The Bahamas sustains over 25,000 jobs and generates over $1 billion annually in economic activity, equivalent to roughly 20% of the country’s GDP.

“The question for the environmental law profession over the coming decades, in my view, is not what will you stop but what will you build?” This was the charge recently proffered by Ted Nordhaus, President of the Breakthrough Institute, to the future generation of environmental lawyers at Lewis and Clark Law School.

For more than 40 years, the Environmental Forum has played a distinctive role in environmental law and policy: creating space for thoughtful debate, diverse viewpoints, and constructive disagreement. From its earliest days, the Forum has never existed to tell readers what to think, but to illuminate what is worth thinking about.

As the need to transition away from fossil fuels accelerates, a key debate has gained renewed political traction: are environmental reviews slowing the deployment of renewable energy projects?  

Environmental defenders play a crucial role in safeguarding the environment, yet every year hundreds are threatened, arrested, and killed. Since 2012, 2,253 environmental defenders have been killed or have disappeared worldwide. In 2024 alone, Global Witness documented 146 killings and disappearances.