Environmentally, our planet lacks the laws to keep it safe, and those
laws we do have are feebly enforced. Every year is the hottest in human
history, while forest, reef, ice, tundra, and species are disappearing
forever. It is easy to lose all hope.
Who will stop the planet from committing ecological suicide? The UN?
Governments? Activists? Corporations? Engineers? Scientists? Whoever,
environmental laws need to be enforceable and enforced. Step forward a
fresh breed of passionately purposeful environmental lawyers. They
provide new rules to legislatures, see that they are enforced, and keep
us informed. They tackle big business to ensure money flows into
cultural change, because money is the grammar of business just as
science is the grammar of nature.
At the head of this new legal army stands James Thornton, who takes
governments to court - and wins. And his client is the Earth.
With Client Earth, we travel from Poland to Ghana, from Alaska to
China, to see how citizens can use public interest law to protect their
planet. Foundations and philanthropists support the law group
ClientEarth because they see, plainly and brightly, that the law is a
force all parties recognize. Lawyers who take the Earth as their client
are exceptional and inspirational. They give us back our hope.
