Here is some of Rebecca’s Most Recent Work
Underburdened Communities
110 California Law Review 1933 (2022)
Environmental Justice: Law, Policy, and Regulation (Columbia Academic Press 2020)
Environmental Justice: Law, Policy, and Regulation explores theory and practice in this dynamic area of the law. It includes the range of environmental threats facing poor, immigrant, and indigenous communities; women, children, and seniors; and other vulnerable populations. This third edition provides extensively updated materials to address environmental justice concerns today, including oil drilling in the Arctic, the Dakota Access Pipeline, drinking water contamination in Flint, and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
The Earth Defenders
This graphic novella is a collaboration with Charlie LaGreca Velasco and UNEP. These short vignette comics tell the story of environmental defenders around the world. The first story, The Keepers depicts the fight of the Sengwer people to keep their land from being confiscated by Kenya under the guise of conservation. The second story, The Song of the Sunderbans, describes the fight against Bangladesh’s decision to build a coal burning power plant in the world’s largest remaining Mangrove forest. Stories set in Cambodia, Colombia, and the Arctic are coming soon .
Other Selected Scholarship
Underburdened Communities, 110 Cal. L. Rev. 1933 (2023)
What Makes It a Just Transition? Lessons from Renewable Rikers, 40 Pace Env. L. Rev. 1 (2023)
This Great Catastrophe: Bungling Pandemics from 1918 to Today, 30 Mich. St. Int’l L. Rev. 1 (2022)
Decarceration with Decarbonization: Renewable Rikers and the Transition to Clean Power, 13 San Diego J. Climate & Energy L. 1 (2022)
In Countless Ways and On an Unprecedented Scale: Reflections on the Stockholm Declaration at 50, 50 Georgia. J. Int’l and Comp. L. 754 (2022)
Renewable Rikers: A Plan for Restorative Climate Justice, 66 Loyola L. Rev. 371 (2021)
Seeing New York City’s Urban Canopy as a Commons: a View from the Street, in Cambridge Handbook on Innovation in Commons Research (2021)
Our Climate Moment is Now! (Or How to Change the Story and Save Our World, in Environmental Law Disrupted (ELI 2021)
Environmental Justice, Sustainable Development, and the Fight to Shut the Poletti Power Plant, in Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development: Intersections and Critical Perspectives (2021)
Global Plastic Pollution: Curbing Single-Use Plastic Production (with Anastasia Telesetsky) in International Handbook of Environmental Law (2020)
Territory is Everything: Afro-Colombian Communities, Human Rights and Illegal Land Grabs, 4 Colombia Human Rts L. Rev. 290 (2020).
The Human Right to Environmental Information, in The Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the Environment (2019)(with Sarah Lamdan).
Mayah’s Lot: Using Comic books to Teach Environmental Justice, in Teaching Law with Pop Culture (2019)
The Trump Administration Versus the Administrative State, 94 Chicago Kent L. Rev. 101 (2019)
Shutting Down Poletti: Human Rights Lessons from Environmental Victories, 36 Wisconsin J. Int’l L. 247 (2019)
Cryptocurrency and the Myth of the Trustless Transaction, 25 Michigan Tech. L. Rev. 1 (2018)
Corrupt at its Core: How Law Failed the Victims of Waste Dumping in Cote d’Ivoire, 43 Columbia J. Env’tl L. 417 (2018)
Reasoning Up: From Customary Law to the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, in The Right to a Healthy Environment in International Law (Cambridge University Press 2018)
In The News
NYC You’re Saying It Wrong PIX11 (Mar. 14, 2024)
Sustainability Matters: Extreme Weather, CUNY TV (Mar. 2024)
The Vision of a Renewable Rikers Island in NYC, YES! Magazine (Nov 7, 2023)
Skepticism Grows About City Hall Push for Giant Cricket Stadium in the Bronx, The City (Jul. 26. 2023)
A Bellweather Climate Case in Montana, Wall Street Journal (Jun. 11, 2023)
Did NY Leaders Leave Residents Unprepared for the Air Quality Crisis? New York Times (Jun. 9, 2023)
New York “Smoke Wave” Response Time Criticized, ABC News (Jun. 7, 2023)
Florida’s Battle Over How Race Is Taught in Schools, BBC News (Mar. 11, 2023)
Residents Living Near Queens Waste Facilities Hope Legal Settlement Finally Clears the Air, City Limits (Feb. 16, 2023)
Legislating Environmental Justice: Lessons Learned from New York Clean Law podcast (with Prof. Hannah Perls) (October 2022)
There Are Four Ballot Measures Facing New York City This General Election, NY1 (October 19, 2022)
Environmental Racism and the Jackson Water Crisis, Mike Gilliam: Let It Rip, CUNY TV (October 4, 2022)
Seed Savior? The Wire China (September 25, 2022)
For Ida-Flooded Denied City Payouts, Legal Options and Political Promises, The City (August 18, 2022)
The Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling Isn’t The Only Legal Attack on the Environment, Vox (June 30, 2022)
New Yorkers Environmental Rights Are Under Attack (with Prof. Katy Kuh) Bloomberg Insights (June 24, 2022)
Environmental Law Toward Sustainability Targets (with multiple co-authors) OneEarth (June 15, 2022)
No Sacrifice Zones in Research Either! SPARK magazine (June 5, 2022) (lead author)
Biden’s CEQ Has a Stephen Miller Problem, E&E News (April 20, 2022)
The Renewable Rikers Prison Reclamation Project, Chaire Normandie pour la paix Good News Stories (November 2021)
Rikers Island Could Become Renewable Energy Hub, Yale Climate Connection (September 27, 2021)
Trump’s Cost-Benefit Rule Under Fire As EPA Mulls Revamp, E&E News (June 9, 2021)
Mayor Signs Off On Plan That Could Turn Rikers Jail Into Green Garrison, Real Estate Weekly (February 25, 2021)
Recent Blog Posts
Daylighting Tibbetts Brooks: Green Infrastructure as Both a Climate and Environmental Win, Happy EcoNews (Feb. 16, 2024)
Visual Storytelling, Can Comics Help Us Advance Solutions to Social and Environmental Challenges, Nature of Cities (Jun. 13, 2023)
Living the Good Life in the Anthropocene: Baking In Inclusion, Environmental Law Prof Blog (Oct. 18, 2023)
Nature for All: How Can We Uproot Structural Inequity In The Provision of Nature and Its Benefits To People? (Roundtable with multiple authors) Nature of Cities (November 25, 2022)
New Yorker’s Environmental Rights Are Under Attack (with Katherine Kuh) Bloomberg Law (June 24, 2022)
No Sacrifice Zones in Research Either! Medium (June 5, 2022) (lead author)
This Changes Everything: New York’s Environmental Amendment, Nature of Cities (February 25, 2022)
Building Environmental Justice in New York City, CPR Blog (August 23, 2021)
Will the Biden Administration Invest in Environmental Justice Reforms? (with Dariya Minovi)CPR Blog (December 9, 2020)
Struggling to Breathe: Asthma, Pollution, and The Fight For Environmental Justice, Data For Progress (December 3, 2020)
Environmental Justice Is Not UnAmerican, CPR Blog (September 21, 2020)
Decolonizing Chadha, Yale Journal on Regulation (July 28, 2020)
Trail Smelter Arbitration Offers Little Guidance for Covid-19 Suits Against China, Just Security (July 14, 2020)
We All Count! The 2020 Census In The Era Of Covid-19, Yale Journal on Regulation (April 5, 2020)
Renewable Rikers As a Blueprint For A Sustainable City, Nature of Cities (March 11, 2020)