The Future of Public Lands and Natural Resources Law

• Author: Elaine L. Hughes, Arlene J. Kwasniak, Alastair R. Lucas
• Pages: 209-218

209

CHAPTER 10

THE FUTURE OF

PUBLIC LANDS

AND NATURAL

RESOURCES LAW

Elaine L Hughes

A. INTRODUCTION

At the end of March 2014, the Second Working Group of the Inter-

national Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its portion of the

IPCC’s f‌ifth assessment report, covering the impacts, adaptation, and

vulnerability to the risks of climate change.1 It once again made clear

that “human interference with the climate is occurring” and creating

risks, not only for people, but for natural systems and resource s. Adverse

impacts are expecte d on water quality and quantit y, wildlife, marine a nd

freshwater f‌isheries, forests, and agricultural crops. Since most of the

greenhouse gas production that contributes to climate change arises

from fossil fuel consumption, the need to transition to alternative

energy sources seems to be c ritical not only to the fossil fuel sector, but

to virtually every major natural resource sector on the planet.

Intersecting with the climate crisis is the behemoth of human

population growth. At 7.3 billion people, and a net population growth

of 83 million people per day,2 an increasingly massive population is

competing for our shrinking resource base. The current population is

four times what it was at the begin ning of the 20th century, and double

1 Intergovernment al Panel on Climate Change, Clima te Change 2014: Impacts,

Adaptation & Vulnerability, online: http://ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2.

2 Worldometers, online: www.worldometers.info/world-population.