“The gravity of climate change and environmental threats is now beyond dispute. As sea levels rise, river and lake levels fall, extreme weather such as fires and hurricanes occur more frequently, and local and global temperatures set records again and again. The need to combat the causes of climate change and the destabilizing effects of the climate crisis and other environmental threats now has traction in political and economic spheres, but it is not formally accepted as a legal principle. This symposium explores the concept of sustainability as a legal principle. It is a principle that informs traditional law; it also provides a basis for positive legal outcomes in today’s dangerous age of the Anthropocene, the current geological age, in which humans are the dominant feature and animals and plants are regarded as artifacts of human activity. In assessing scholarly interest and gathering scholarly input on this topic, the UMKC Law Review took a decidedly expansive view of sustainability. After all, sustainability and sustainable development, as established by the United Nation goals, is by nature, wide- ranging. UMKC Law Review Submissions and Symposium Editor Bryn White and other student editors reviewed an array of articles and essays dealing with aspects of climate change and the need to restore and maintain a healthful environment. The robust response from scholars and practitioners allowed the Law Review to gather articles and essays that consider aspects of the law and the need to effectuate the principle of preserving human society and civilization, including hopeful as well as sobering views of the Anthropocene.”
Irma S. Russell
UMKC Law Review 