Gary L. Thompson - Geography, Environment, and American Law

Gary L. Thompson is associate professor of the department of geography at the University of Oklahoma.

Fred M. Shelley is associate professor of geography and planning at Southwest Texas State University.

Chand Wije is an environmental consultant in Austin, Texas.

Risa Palm is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon.

W. Wesley Pue is Nemetz Professor of Legal History at the University of British Columbia.

James N. Corbridge Jr. is professor of law at the University of Colorado.

Otis W. Templer is professor of geography at Texas Tech University.

Rutherford H. Platt is professor of geography at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Olen Paul Matthews is professor and chair of the department of geography at the University of New Mexico.

Ernest S. Easterly III is professor of law at Southern University.

Jeroen Wagendorp is water resource specialist for the Barry County Health Department in Hastings, Michigan, and adjunct professor of geography at Western Michigan University.

During the 1980s, Gary Thompson, Chand Wije, and I were members of the Department of Geography at the University of Oklahoma. Over the years, we frequently talked about various aspects of the relationships between geography and law, with particular interest in environmental law in the United States. In discussing these issues, we soon became aware that very little literature has explored the relationships between geography and environmental law in the United States.

Although geographers and lawyers often address similar issues, there has been minimal interface between their respective disciplines. This is particularly true in the area of environmental issues. A substantial literature relating law and human geography has developed in recent years. This has not been matched by comparable interaction between law and environmental geography despite the historic role of environmental issues in the discipline of geography and despite the increasing importance of environmental issues in American society. We are hopeful that this book will provide an initial impetus toward the establishment of a research agenda that links the two fields more directly.

The lack of interface between geography and environmental law stems, in part, from the fact that the two fields approach similar research problems from very different intellectual perspectives. Although geographers are concerned with the description of the unique characteristics of places, many are also anxious to understand relationships between processes and patterns. Environmental geographers focus particularly on problems of human beings in the natural world. How do people cope with natural hazards and natural disasters? How do they identify, use, and value natural resources? How has modern technology contributed to climatic change, and how might any resulting changes in climate in turn affect settlement, agriculture, water use, and other aspects of society? These are but a few of the questions addressed in recent geographical literature involving the interface between society and the natural world.