February 29, 2008
More than 3,000 Environmental Activists From Around the World Expected at 26th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference on March 6 – 9
More than 3,000 environmental activists from 50 countries around the world will be “Compelling a Climate of Change,” at the 26th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, held Thursday, March 6, to Sunday, March 9, at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
The conference, billed as the premiere annual gathering for environmentalists worldwide, hosts more than 126 panel discussions, workshops and multimedia presentations addressing environmental law and advocacy issues. Discussion topics include forest protection and ecological restoration, grazing and mining reform, labor and human rights, air and water pollution, Native American treaty rights, globalization and “free” trade, environmental justice, corporate responsibility, marine wilderness, international environmental law, water rights and dam removal, oil and gas litigation, genetic engineering and urban growth.
This year’s keynote speakers are:
- Edith Brown Weiss – Francis Cabell Brown Profess of International Law at Georgetown University Law Center; former Chairperson of the Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank
- David Cobb – Green Party nominee for President of the United States in 2004; dedicated legal career to challenging illegitimate corporate power and to creating democracy
- Carrie Dann – leader of Western Shoshone and other indigenous people in resisting the destruction, pollution and forgetting of the land
- Dave Foreman — Executive Director and Senior Fellow of The Rewilding Institute, a conservation think tank; has worked as a wilderness conservationist since 1971
- Cynthia McKinney — Green Party nominee for President of the United States in 2008; served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003, and from 2005 to 2007
- James Milkey — Assistant Attorney General, and Chief of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General
- Sophia Rabliauskas — leader of her Poplar River First Nation in the boreal region of Manitoba; has worked to secure protection for two million acres of undisturbed forest land
- William H. Rodgers, Jr. — University of Washington School of Law Professor, specializing in natural resource law and is recognized as a founder of the environmental legal field
- Jane Williams — Executive Director of California Communities Against Toxics; co-chair of AB32’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee
The four-day conference is organized by the volunteers of Land Air Water (LAW), a student environmental law society, and is sponsored by Friends of LAW. Online registration is available on the conference Web site.
