Protecting the Environment
A Planet in Peril
Earth faces unprecedented environmental challenges. Heading the list of threats is climate change, with its promise of drastic climate and environmental harm planet-wide. Unchecked, climate change, also known as global warming, threatens entire species and ecosystems, as well as large population centers, industries and economies. Other environmental priorities include the persistent problems of air and water pollution, toxic wastes, and the protection of natural resources and wildlife.
CPR Member Scholars work to protect the environment through research and scholarship focused on the critical policy choices confronting us today, and by devising the environmental policy approaches of tomorrow.
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Protecting Public Lands and Waters
The nation’s public lands and waters have faced persistent challenges in recent years, as efforts to preserve and protect nature have run headlong into political pressure to defend destructive exploitation for profit. Learn about CPR Member Scholars' work to protect public lands, public waters and precious natural resources from destruction and misuse.
Disasters and Public Policy
The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was made worse by bad policy decisions long before the storm and a miserable response in the immediate aftermath. Similarly, the Massey Mine Disaster and the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico were the product of failed policy. CPR Member Scholars have written extensively about these "unnatural disasters."
Clean Energy
The world's continued reliance on fossil fuels as its main source of energy is quite literally endangering the ability of the planet to sustain life as we know it. CPR Member Scholars have created an energy issue group aimed at tackling the long-simmering question of developing clean energy sources. Read about their work.
Protecting Wildlife and Ecosystems
Learn about CPR Member Scholars' work on protecting wildlife and ecosystems from sustained assault, including a unique project aimed at protecting "ecosystem services" in the Pacific Northwest.
Many Challenges, Many Roadblocks
In 2006, the Center for Progressive Reform launched its Next Generation Environmental Initiative to develop ideas and resources for Congress as it takes up the important business of rebuilding the nation’s environmental protection efforts after several years of neglect. Most of the nation’s current environmental laws were crafted before some of today’s principle environmental challenges were even contemplated – global warming and endocrine disruptors, for example. The Next Generation Environmental Initiative will help lawmakers renew existing environmental statutes, and develop tightly focused laws to address more recently recognized environmental problems. Read more about the Next Generation Environmental Initiative.
- The Chesapeake Bay
- Clean Air and Water
- Clean Energy
- Climate Change
- Disasters
- Environmental Justice
- Public Lands and Waters
- Toxics
- Wildlife & Ecosystems
And read any of a variety of CPR Perspectives on environmental issues, including Jobs and the Environment, Environmental Enforcement, Devolution and The Takings Clause.
