Law School featuring Bruce Rich, environmental attorney and author

 

Bruce Rich is a Washington D.C.-based attorney who has served as senior counsel on international issues for major national environmental organizations. Rich has also worked for a variety of international agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, and the World Bank. Recently, Rich has been involved in a growing international research and advocacy campaign to promote environmental and social reforms in the export finance agencies of the major industrialized countries. Rich is also currently involved in the research and writing of a new book on the World Bank, as a visiting scholar with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington D.C.

 

Recognized as a widely acclaimed author by many, including the New York Times Sunday Book Review and Le Monde Diplomatique, Rich has written numerous books, articles and op-eds. His articles and op-eds are featured in publications such as The Financial Times, The Nation, and The Ecologist, as well as the Environmental Law Institute’s policy journal, Environmental Forum. The author of Mortgaging the Earth, Rich received the Global 500 Award for environmental achievement from the United Nations.

 

In his latest book, To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India, Rich searches for a new global order based on a common global ethic and global justice based on the lives of two influential figures of ancient India, Ashoka and Kautilya. Ashoka ruled the largest, richest, and most powerful multi-ethnic state and tried to create a secular state ethic of non-violence and reverence for life. Kautilya wrote the world’s first treatise on political economy. Both addressed questions of political realism and idealism, the role of force and violence in international relations, and tensions between economics and ethics. Through retelling mythical and historical accounts, Rich distills the message of Ashoka and Kautilya to help us sustain our world in the 21st century.

 

The UH Bookstore will have To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India, with a forward written by Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and afterword written by His Holiness the Dali Lama, available for purchase at the event for a special discounted price of $20.

 

The event will be streamed live online at http://www.livestream.com/uhrichardsonelp via the Environmental Law Program’s Livestream Channel, for those unable to attend the event in person. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will also be served. RSVP requested by noon on Friday, February 18, 2011 to elp@hawaii.edu.