James Gustave (Gus) Speth (born March 4, 1942) is an American environmental lawyer and advocate who co-founded the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

Early life and education

He was born in

Orangeburg, South Carolina Orangeburg, also known as ''The Garden City'', is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population of the city was 13,964 according to the 2010 United States Census and declined to 1 ...

in 1942. He graduated summa cum laude from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1964, attended Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall and the '' Yale Law Journal'', in 1969.

Career

In 1969 and 1970, Speth served as a law clerk to

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Justice Hugo L. Black. He was a co-founder of the

, where he served as senior attorney from 1970 to 1977. He served from 1977 to 1981 as a member and then for two years as chairman of the

Council on Environmental Quality The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices on the developme ...

in the

Executive Office of the President The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenc ...

. As chair, he was a principal adviser on matters affecting the environment and had overall responsibility for developing and coordinating the President's environmental program. In 1981 and 1982, he was professor of law at

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

, teaching

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

. In 1982, he founded the

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, for ...

, a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based environmental

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

, and served as its president until January 1993. He was a senior adviser to President-elect

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's transition team, heading the group that examined the U.S.'s role in

natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

and the environment. In 1991, he chaired a U.S. task force on international development and environmental security which produced the report ''Partnership for Sustainable Development: A New U.S. Agenda''. In 1990 he led the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development which produced the report ''Compact for a New World''. From 1993 to 1999, he served as Administrator of the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

; he served as special coordinator for economic and social affairs under Secretary-General

Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali (; , ar, بطرس بطرس غالي ', ; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1992 to 1996. An academic ...

, managed the

United Nations Development Assistance Plan The United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP) is a common business plan for the United Nations agencies and national partners, aligned to the priorities of the host country and the internationally agreed development goals. It was launched ...

and also served as chair of the

United Nations Sustainable Development Group The United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), previously the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), is a consortium of 36 United Nations funds, programs, specialized agencies, departments and offices that play a role in development ...

. In 1999, he became the dean of the

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale School of the Environment (YSE) is a professional school of Yale University. It was founded to train foresters, and now trains environmental leaders through four 2-year degree programs ( Master of Environmental Management, Master of Environme ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. He served the school as the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean and Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy when he retired from Yale in 2009 to assume a professorship at

Vermont Law School Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is a private law and public policy graduate school in South Royalton, Vermont. It offers several degrees, including Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, Master of Environmental Law ...

South Royalton, Vermont South Royalton is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Royalton, Windsor County, Vermont, United States. With a population at the 2010 census of 694, South Royalton is the largest community in the town. It ...

. Speth was succeeded as Dean at Yale by Sir

Peter Crane Sir Peter Crane, FRS (born 18 July 1954) is the current President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Senior Research Scientist in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. In addition to his work in leading and d ...

. In 2014 he published his memoir ''Angels by the River''. In that year, he was also board member of the New Economy Coalition. Speth currently serves on the advisory council of Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization. Speth has been a leader or participant in many task forces and committees aimed at combating environmental degradation, including the President's Task Force on Global Resources and Environment; the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development; and the National Commission on the Environment.

Awards

Among his awards are the National Wildlife Federation’s Resources Defense Award, the Natural Resources Council of America's Barbara Swain Award of Honor, a 1997 Special Recognition Award from the

Society for International Development The Society for International Development (SID) was founded in Washington, D.C., United States, in 1957. SID has a network of individual and institutional members, local chapters and partner organisations, in more than 80 countries. It works with ...

, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the

Environmental Law Institute The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., that seeks to "make law work for people, places, and the planet" through its work as an environmental law educator, convener, publ ...

, and the Blue Planet Prize. He holds

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s from

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

, the

College of the Atlantic College of the Atlantic (COA) is a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, United States. Founded in 1969, it awards bachelors and masters ( M.Phil.) degrees solely in the field of human ecology, an interdiscipli ...

, Middlebury College, and the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

Publications

Books

* ''Globalization and the Environment'' (as an editor),

Island Press Island Press is a nonprofit, environmental publisher based in Washington, D.C., United States, that specializes in natural history, ecology, conservation, and the built environment. Established in 1984, Island Press generates about half of its r ...

(2003) * '' Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment'' (2004) * '' Global Environmental Governance'', Island Press (2006) * ''The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

(2008) * ''America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy'',

(2012) * ''Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril'' (chapter), Nelson, Michael P. and Kathleen Dean Moore (eds.) Trinity University Press, (2010) * ''Angels by the River, a memoir'', Chelsea Green Publishing (2014) * ''Imagine a Joyful Economy'', with Peter Denton, Wood Lake Publishing Inc''.'' (2020) * ''They Knew: The US Federal Government's Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis'',

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

(2021)

Articles

* ''Beyond Reform'' Our Planet Magazin
PDF
* ''America the Possible: A Manifesto'', ''From decline to rebirth'
link
* ''America the Possible: A Manifesto'', ''A new politics for a new dream'
link

References

External links

Angels by the River
- book website * * * Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies profile, Archived July 1, 2007
Greenery and Justice for All
- Jan 9, 2015, Pacific Standard interview
“Focus 580; Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of Global Environment,”
2004-06-29, WILL Illinois Public Media, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 5, 2021. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Speth, James G 1942 births Living people People from Orangeburg, South Carolina American non-fiction environmental writers Yale University faculty Yale Law School alumni Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford American Rhodes Scholars Sustainability advocates Administrators of the United Nations Development Programme Natural Resources Defense Council people Carter administration personnel American environmental lawyers Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States American officials of the United Nations Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers