{"product_id":"say-goodbye-to-nature-how-the-trump-administration-is-rapidly-dismantling-a-half-century-of-environmental-protection","title":"Say Goodbye to Nature: How the Trump Administration is Rapidly Dismantling a Half-Century of Environmental Protection - 30 Sep 2025","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003ePresident Donald Trump and his administration are on the path to undo over fifty years of environmental law. Until now, American presidents, working with Congress, have strived to build a strong national system to protect habitats, conserve species, restrict soil, air and water pollution, regulate pesticides, and reduce greenhouse gases to slow climate change. All of these safeguards to protect and preserve our environments are now under serious threat from the current administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. Three environmentalists, Bob Dreher, Sharon Tisher, and Jim Engell with extensive careers in environmental law, government agencies, non-profit conservation organizations, and university education on climate change and other environmental concerns, will have an in-depth discussion on how the current administration is rapidly dismantling our national and state systems of environmental protection. They will focus on what is happening and what we can do about it.  John Kress will moderate the conversation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003eBob Dreher\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e has spent his legal career focusing on environmental and natural resources matters working at the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now Earthjustice), as Deputy General Counsel of the EPA in the Clinton administration, in private practice representing environmental groups and the Penobscot Nation in Maine, as Deputy Executive Director of the Georgetown Environmental Law \u0026amp; Policy Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources for the U.S. Department of Justice and Associate Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Obama administration, and as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Defenders of Wildlife. He lives in Maryland.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003eDr. Sharon Tisher\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e has taught environmental law and policy in the Ecology and Environmental Sciences program at the University of Maine for 30 years. She has chaired the boards of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners' Association, and the Orono Land Trust.  As a member of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Corps, she presented her lecture on An Inconvenient Truth to over a thousand people. Her current environmental project is \"A Climate Chronology,\" which traces the history of climate science, US policy, and international policy. Before transitioning to academia, she practiced trial law for 15 years with Day, Berry and Howard and was the firm's first woman partner. She lives in Maine.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003eProf. James Engell\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e is Gurney Research Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard, as well as faculty associate of the Harvard Center for the Environment. He served as Chair of the Department of English from 2004-2010 and 2020-2021 and is a faculty associate of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard.  A leader in the University's movement to divest from fossil fuels and decarbonize the environment, he is the author and editor of twelve books and more than four dozen articles and chapters on Romantic and eighteenth-century studies, as well as environmental issues. He has received teaching, advising, and publishing awards and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Montana.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003eDr. W. John Kress\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003e is Curator Emeritus at the National Museum of Natural History and former Under Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution where he focused his research on plant evolution, biodiversity conservation, and the Anthropocene. Among his scientific and popular papers are his books Plant Conservation – A Natural History Approach, The Ornaments of Life - Coevolution and Conservation in the Tropics, Living in the Anthropocene – Earth in the Age of Humans, and Smithsonian Trees of North America.  In addition to serving as Adjunct Faculty at Duke University and George Washington University, he has been a Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College and at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. He lives in Vermont.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; color: #222222; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 18.4px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Avenir Next LT Pro', sans-serif;\"\u003eThis discussion will take place on Tuesday, September 30 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm online via Zoom Webinar.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"event-calendar-app","offers":[{"title":"Registration Fee","offer_id":44235133943999,"sku":null,"price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4723\/6799\/files\/unnamed_c01357de-e9c9-4b88-9199-dd64ee8783bd.jpg?v=1747076820","url":"https:\/\/greenmtnacademy.org\/products\/say-goodbye-to-nature-how-the-trump-administration-is-rapidly-dismantling-a-half-century-of-environmental-protection","provider":"Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning","version":"1.0","type":"link"}