Earthrise

Climate change poses an enormous threat to ecosystems worldwide. Rather than waiting for federal regulation and global consensus, Earthrise has taken the lead addressing the causes and impacts of global warming by creatively using legal tools that are already available.

Earthrise maximizes its impact through the work of talented and committed law students. While staff attorneys retain ultimate responsibility for case prosecution, students play a vital role by participating in all phases of the clinic’s work. Students draft pleadings and motions, formulate arguments and strategy, and participate in client contacts, all while earning law school credit for their work.

Lawmakers in the United States have enacted a variety of protections for biodiversity, but resource shortages and lack of political will sometimes prevent government agencies from fully enforcing these laws—or sometimes complying with the law themselves. Earthrise Law Center plays a leadership role in using the law to conserve and restore endangered species and their habitat in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Earthrise Law Center helps its clients monitor how government agencies manage and protect public lands, which play an important role in the environment. They provide essential habitat for many wildlife species, contain watersheds that are critical for threatened salmonids and guarantee clean drinking water for many municipalities, and give people unique and unspoiled places to recreate and reconnect with nature.

Earthrise works to clean up and cool down waterways on a regional and national scale by strengthening and ensuring enforcement of existing laws like the federal Clean Water Act. Earthrise has been working to curb vessel pollution, and is using advocacy and litigation to strengthen the water quality standards for waterbodies.