A USU Ecology Center Speaker Explores Biden's Climate Orders
Senior Fellow Margaret Walls discusses environmental justice, conservation issues, and her upcoming seminar on the matter with Utah Public Radio.
This week USU’s Ecology Center hosted Dr. Margaret Walls for their monthly seminar series. Walls is an economist and senior fellow at Resources for the Future, an environmental nonprofit focused on environmental policy solutions.
Walls’ Wednesday seminar discussed environmental justice and federal funding for conservation.
“The way we've prioritized conservation in the US, how we fund things, how we prioritize what we're going to do doesn't address environmental justice very well,” Walls said.
President Biden issued Executive Order 14008 in January 2021. The order, which focuses on climate solutions, presented the 30x30 initiative, a plan to conserve 30% of all lands and waters by 2030. A lofty goal, according to Walls.
“We've done some calculations that the US is at about 14% of protected lands in the highest categories of protection,” Walls said.
