Christophe Courchesne

NYT: "Climate 'Shock' is Eating Away at Home Values"

I remember long debates on whether "Climate Shock" as book title would come across as catastrophizing.

10 years later, it's an above-the-fold NYT headline.

VPIRG and Vt. Environmental Advocacy Clinic Urge Court to Uphold Landmark Climate Adaptation Law SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (November 24, 2025) — Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic, on behalf of the Vermont Public Interest

VPIRG and Vermont Environmental Advocacy Clinic Defend Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act in Amicus Brief www.vermontlaw.edu/news-and-eve...

In One Week, Trump Moves to Reshape U.S. Environmental Policy

While the rest of the world was at #COP30, the U.S. government was busy rolling back bedrock environmental protections www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/c...

COP30 TEXT ANALYSIS: One way to read dense COP text is to focus on the verbs. These are helpfully italicised – and for good reason.

MOSTLY INACTIVE: Carbon Brief analysis of the “global mutirão” text finds 69 inactive verbs, requiring no action, against 32 active verbs.
1/4

Why I Am Resigning A federal judge explains his reasoning for leaving the bench.

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
A brave and powerful piece by Judge Wolf.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is not a political tool for the President’s administration to reward organizations that support him while punishing organizations that he dislikes. The Trump Administration lacks the legal authority to take this action.

The problem with food and climate — and how to fix it Global food production — from meat to grains — accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, says sustainability scientist Jonathan Foley. He presents a portfolio of data-backed solutions to b...

The most under-appreciated (and under-funded and under-reported) driver of climate change is our food system.

Our food system emits ~1/3 of global emissions. But it only gets 3% of climate funding and 4% of media coverage.

Let’s focus more on food.

Here’s a start: go.ted.com/jonathanfoley24

Trump’s orders unnerved many in the industry and appear to have discouraged some large firms from taking on cases they would otherwise have backed, lawyers say. That has dried up a formerly reliable supply of help from large law offices for people and institutions challenging government policies. The American Bar Association, which joined or filed four lawsuits against the Trump administration, “has experienced difficulty finding previously willing law firms to represent it,” its attorneys wrote in court papers. In one case, the organization said, it was unable to join a lawsuit challenging the administration because it could not get attorneys in time.

We have reached the point where the *American Bar Association* cannot find attorneys willing to represent them in litigation against the Trump administration.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Planet’s first catastrophic climate tipping point reached, report says, with coral reefs facing ‘widespread dieback’ Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns

There is a lot of really terrible things happening but I hope this doesn't get lost in the news. We really, really, really need to end fossil fuel use. And soon.

Judge William Young's ruling against Rubio and Noem is a lesson for all in the Trump era Young lays bare the unconstitutionality of the Trump administration's student deportation efforts — and issues a challenge to America. Also: More court pushback.

NEW: Judge William Young's ruling against Rubio and Noem is a lesson for all in the Trump era.

Young lays bare the unconstitutionality of the Trump administration's student deportation efforts — and issues a challenge to America.

Today, at Law Dork:

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91 Her discoveries in the 1960s about how chimpanzees behaved in the wild broke new ground and represented what was called “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.”

Farewell to Jane Goodall 🌿 A pioneering scientist whose groundbreaking work with primates transformed how we understand ourselves. She showed how research and advocacy can unite, inspiring generations.

Thank you to the career federal employees, who show up to work every day and improve people's lives across the country.

BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to "strike fear" into First Amendment protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Here Comes the Sun Day

Just truly superb coverage of @sundayofaction.bsky.social Sun Day in the NYTimes. Solar Power is People Power!
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/c...

Vermont Law and Graduate School classroom building surrounded by trees with yellow fall foliage

Thrilled to welcome so many great teachers and scholars to VLGS this weekend for the 16th Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship. It’s magical to be together as a community sharing ideas in a beautiful place, especially at such a challenging time for environmental law and policy.

New Hampshire has never been a trailblazer on solar, but clean energy proponents still see a path • New Hampshire Bulletin New Hampshire has been slower than the rest of New England to lean into renewable electricity generation, including through solar power. And while some opportunities to change that will likely arise…

"In New Hampshire, approximately 2% of electricity was generated through solar power as of spring 2025 — far less than the other New England states’ average of about 15%." From Molly Rains #NHPolitics

Hot off the press: We can provide for the first time a systematic attribution of recent #heatwaves to the emissions of #carbon_majors. Essential new #Nature article coordinated by @yannquilcaille.bsky.social at @ethz.ch, with numerous contributors @usyseth.bsky.social:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SCOTUS conservatives OK Trump admin's racial profiling of Latinos in low-wage jobs Five of the six Republican appointees to the Supreme Court wrote nothing Monday. But their actions, and Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence, paint an alarming picture.

What happened at SCOTUS today is alarming: The right-wing majority allowed the Trump admin, as part of its sweeping immigration raids, to racially profile Spanish-speaking people who look Latino at certain low-wage job sites in the Los Angeles area while litigation challenging the raids is ongoing.

Environmental Advocacy Clinic Contributes to Major Win for Water Quality with National Impact By: Rubina Manjikian JD/MCEP’27 and Haleigh Smith JD/MCEP’27 The Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC), together with

This was terrific work by student attorneys for great clinic clients VNRC, American Whitewater, and Vermont Council of Trout Unlimited. Vermont waters and wildlife and the many who cherish them deserve the strong protections guaranteed by federal and state law.

On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution.
But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable

Environmental Advocacy Clinic Joins Litigation Effort to Defend Vermont’s Wild Worcester Range and Enforce State’s Public Trust Obligations for State Lands Lawsuit Alleges Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Has Violated the State Constitution and Discriminated Against Vermonters in its Management of State

First week of the term: Welcome new VLGS students! At the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, we are getting underway with an important new piece of litigation. Thanks to @standingtrees.bsky.social and co-counsel Jim Dumont for the chance to contribute to this important case.

One of the most remarkable and impactful transformations of all human technology and civilization in history is happening right now!

Forest Experts Warn Spending Bill Sets Up US Forest Service to Fail The recently passed spending bill sets logging targets that federal officials don’t have the capacity to meet

Incoherence in timber targets at the Forest Service, with quotes from @standingtrees.bsky.social, me, and others of all persuasions

Great overview from one of Vermont Law and Graduate School’s terrific summer media fellows (and master’s grad) @danad1012.bsky.social, with a quote from yours truly

I am getting asked a lot how we can teach environmental law now, when its foundations are in such chaos. | Christophe Courchesne I am getting asked a lot how we can teach environmental law now, when its foundations are in such chaos. This was an especially challenging question to answer this week, with the endangerment repeal p...

Some thoughts and kudos to end the VLGS summer session, which was glorious and upbeat amid it all. Hard time to teach environmental law, to be sure, but we must keep at it, and my students and colleagues are inspiring.

Looking for a way to do something? read the EPA reversal of the endangerment finding, and then file a public comment explaining why it is false, wrong, misguided. Your comment can be scientific, legal, or just about what the American people want..
Reversal: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

DOE climate report response form We are collecting names to assemble a writing team to respond to the DOE climate working group report. If you'd like to contribute, enter your info below. At this point, there is no guarantee what we'll do (if anything), but we want to keep our options open by collecting names. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. We are primarily looking for Ph.D. scientists at universities or government labs in appropriate fields. I realize that this will exclude some qualified people and I apologize, but we felt this was necessary for a variety of reasons.

🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨

Please RT this so as many people see it as possible.

forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...

Indefensible end to another indefensible week. Calamities across the landscape.

Trump Environmental Protection Agency moves to repeal finding that allows climate regulation - The Boston Globe The proposed EPA rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

EPA’s disregard for the dangers of greenhouse gases defies science, law, and common sense.

More than two decades ago, Massachusetts led the charge to force EPA to do its job to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and we’re not going to stop holding EPA accountable now.