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51�Թ� This Event

We are “at work in the ruins” of U.S. democracy. This is a provocative assertion. But it is one increasingly difficult to dispute given the collision of political, social, economic, and ecological crises that U.S. institutions and systems have helped accelerate and failed to remedy. Bedrock environmental laws have withered as a result, compelling us to now seek new paths that lead us away from the ruins of what was to the promise of what can be: A thriving western U.S., abundant with protected and interconnected ecosystems, powered by renewable energy, and cared for by communities brought together in an ecology of kinship. This effort—which we call Emergent Horizons—is our enduring commitment to serve as a pathfinder and spark a movement-wide effort to revitalize the domain of environmental law.

51�Թ� the Speaker: Erik Schlenker-Goodrich is the executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, working from Taos, New Mexico. He is a seasoned litigator and policy advocate at the federal and state level whose work centers on the protection of ecological resilience and a just transition from fossil fuels. Erik is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in natural resources and concentration in American Indian Studies. He earned his law degree and a certificate in environmental & natural resources law from the University of Oregon School of Law.