Blue Bayou: The BP Deepwater Horizon Blowout and the Social and Environmental Erosion of the Louisiana Coast

Prof. Daniel Farber, JD

University of California, Berkeley

Thursday, October 7, 2010 - 11:30am to 1:00pm

Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs

View Video Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

In his lecture Prof. Farber discussed how the Louisiana Coast was under grave threat from erosion, rising seas, and pollution even before the explosion on the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon platform. Whole communities have vanished under the rising water, and the livelihoods and communities of people who depend on fishing for income has been threatened. The oil spill was a critical blow to these struggling communities and to threatened coastal ecosystems. This lecture argued that environmental law needs to take a more holistic view, integrating consideration of multiple environmental threats and linking communities with ecosystems.

Commentators:

CONSORTLV eric sheppard JPG
Eric Sheppard, PhD, MA, Regents Professor, Department of Geography
University of Minnesota

van ness
Alexandra B. Klass, JD, Professor, Law School
University of Minnesota

Continuing Legal Education credit (CLE) for attorneys (1.5 hours) was approved.

Daniel Farber, JD, is the Sho Sato Professor of Law and Chair of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Faculty Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Prof. Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Law Institute. He is the Editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship. Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his BA, MA, and JD degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law and was the class valedictorian. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review.