Frederic C. Rich is an American author, lawyer, and

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

. He lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and New York State's Hudson Valley. Rich's first book, ''

Christian Nation A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church (also called an established church), which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by ...

'', is a work of dystopian political fiction arising from the counterfactual of a McCain/Palin victory in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

followed soon after by

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

's sudden death and

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...

's ascension to the presidency.Author website
/ref> It was published by

W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly '' The Norton ...

in 2013. In ''Getting to Green'', a non-fiction book published by W. W. Norton in April 2016,Getting to Green at W. W. Norton & Company
/ref> Rich argues that the American

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

has lost its way and explains how it can get back on track. The book calls for conservatives to reconnect with their long tradition of support for conservation and for the Green movement to adopt the reforms necessary to restore bipartisan support for the environmental agenda.

Early life and education

Rich grew up in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and attended

Deerfield Academy Deerfield Academy (often called Deerfield or DA) is an Independent school, independent College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding and day school in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1797, it is one of the oldest secondary schoo ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. After graduating from Princeton, he studied moral philosophy at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

as a Keasbey Scholar and then received his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

School of Law.

Career

Law

Rich practiced law at the international corporate law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, from 1981 through 2014, becoming a partner in 1989, leading the firm's project development and finance practice for 25 years, and serving as co-head of the firm's corporate, financial, and transactional practice from 1999 through 2005. In 2010 Chambers USA called Rich "the preeminent project finance lawyer in the world, " and in 2011 he was named "Dealmaker of the Year" by ''American Lawyer''.

Books and other writing

Rich has stated that his writing, both fiction and non-fiction, aims to probe contemporary

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

issues from a perspective that is independent, non-partisan, and pragmatic. In addition to his books, Rich is a

blogger A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

on ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

'' and other sites. One of his ''Huffington Post'' pieces received 15,000 likes. His other writing includes book reviews and a proposal for a permanent site for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. He has also composed an environmental oratorio, The Hudson Oratorio.

Environmental activism and interests

Rich has served on many not-for-profit boards, mostly of organizations working in the fields of environment, land conservation, and parks. He is Vice Chair of the Washington D.C.–based national

Land Trust Alliance Land Trust Alliance is a nature conservation organization, based in Washington, D.C. The Alliance represents many land trusts across the United States. History Originally formed as the Land Trust Exchange in Boston on February 22, 1982, Allan Sp ...

, Chair of the

Scenic Hudson Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that was founded in 1963 to oppose a hydro-electric power project in New York. History Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference on November 8, 196 ...

Land Trust, founding Chair of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, and Vice Chair of The Battery Conservancy in Manhattan. He serves as head of the Environmental Leaders Group in New York State, and he is on the Advisory Board of

The Hastings Center The Hastings Center for Bioethics is an independent, nonpartisan bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York. Its mission is to address ethical issues in health care, science, and technology. Through its projects and publications and its pu ...

(bioethics) and the Dean's Advisory Committee for the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

School of Public Health. In 2010 Rich developed an experimental rooftop food garden on the

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

of a

LEED Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

condominium building in Manhattan and began to chronicle its successes and failures in his blog, Battery Rooftop Garden, which has received attention from the media.

Honors and awards

* 2010 The Frances Reese Medal from Scenic Hudson for "service to the Hudson Valley" * 2011 American Lawyer "Dealmaker of the Year" * 2011 Environmental Advocates of New York Advocates Award * 2012 The Battery Conservancy Urban Farmer Award * 2014 The Patricia Adams Award for Community Service from Desmond-Fish Library

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rich, Frederic C. Living people Writers from New Jersey American environmental lawyers Princeton University alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni Sullivan & Cromwell partners Year of birth missing (living people)