March, 2023

March, 2023

Friends,

Amanda Abrams has a very interesting and relevant article in Sierra, Spring 2023, “Underwater: Could climate chaos sink the US real estate market?” She reviews the evidence for US coastal areas such as the tidal areas of South Carolina. Marshlands are being filled for development and they are, of course, periodically flooded. Because of our developments, our flood plain maps are outdated, and so our land-use plans and restrictions are outdated. We suffer similar problems with our developments on the edge of suburbia and wild areas in the Mountain West. Not only do we have wildfire problems, but areas such as St. George, Utah, are overdeveloped and exacerbate our water allocation problems. Abrams fears are that these overdevelopments could precipitate another foreclosure event on a national level, i.e. another financial crisis resulting from a contagion of overly optimistic real estate development followed by mortgages being abandoned. I recommend the article for your reading list.

My recent text, Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty, is selling very well, much better than I had anticipated. I thank all who use it, and please send me an email with your comments. Also Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse is also selling steady as is Imperfect Duties of Management. Both of these were published in the last three years.

I am told that my new scholarly book, Environmental Advocacy and Local Restorations, (Palgrave-Macmillan) will be out in May. You can now preorder the book. It concerns the federal areas of concern program for restorations of our most polluted old-industrial areas along the Great Lakes, and also of some of our Northeast US rivers that were similarly restored. The theme concerns the rather excellent and dedicated efforts of local environmental advocacy organizations such as the Mystic River Watershed Association, and the Penobscot Nation. The substantial efforts of experts at state and federal agencies are also highlighted. They gather the relevant data, support the local volunteers, and give the local restoration movements some direction. In some areas, state agencies offer considerable leadership. This phase of the environmental movement is not, however, without a few roadblocks sometimes provided by state bureaucracies. I think the stories concerning these efforts are compelling, and I suspect you will also find them useful. My hope is that reading the accounts of “how they did it” will motivate some local organizations to consult the experts available, obtain some federal and state funding, and give improving their corner of the world a try.

I am pondering what my next effort should be. I am writing a little on The Undamming of America Movement. That will take me to some interesting areas if I choose to go that way. But I also know that much more should be written on Our Most Polluted River: The Grand Calumet. I have a chapter on this problem in the book to be published in May. But there is so much more that should be investigated and made public. How could we allow such an environmental calamity to occur? Perhaps I need to complete that story?

Rich Robinson

SUNY Fredonia