Economies need nature. Natural systems provide foundational economic goods and services, including oxygen, water, land, food, climate stability, storm and flood protection, recreation, aesthetic value, raw materials, minerals, and energy. All built capital is made of natural capital, including cars, buildings, and food. The coastal economy of the Mississippi River Delta also requires hurricane protection, a stable climate, waste assimilation, and other natural services. No economy can function without nature's provision of economic goods and services.

Jeremy Firestone is an Assistant Professor of Marine Policy, University of Delaware, College of Marine Studies. Jonathan Lilley is a Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware, College of Marine Studies. The authors acknowledge the comments of Howard Schiffman, Jennifer Sepez, and Peter Singer whose insights and wisdom have enriched the manuscript. The views expressed herein, however, are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect in whole or in part, the views of the reviewers.

This is not an academic issue. Within the last two years, EPA staff has suggested in two publications that the Agency has a strong interest in transboundary enforcement. A research report published in October 2002 by the Environmental Law Institute® (ELI), written with the support of legal counsel from EPA Region IX, surveyed several possibilities for government and citizen suit enforcement against cross-boundary pollution between Mexico and the United States.

I. Introduction

Editors' Summary: Looking at extremes may seem futile when dealing with important environmental issues: the outcome on either end of the spectrum is almost always objectionable. Yet they are the bounds within which the solution lies. Thus, finding the balance between the endpoints is imperative. The Colorado River and its related international water law is the story of how the context of the times drives the evolution of law within such extremes.

Editors' Summary: The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, more commonly knows as the Ramsar Convention, is one international framework used to protect wetlands. At this time, the United States has designated 22 sites as wetlands of international importance. In this Article, Royal C. Gardner and Kim Diana Connolly analyze survey data collected from each of these 22 sites to determine whether and how Ramsar designation benefits these wetland areas.

I. Introduction

Editors' Summary

Editor's Summary: In an era of rapid population growth and urban expansion, efforts to protect ecosystems and the wildlife they support often generate controversy. According to Adrianna Kripke, the experience of California's Orange County with protecting the coastal sage scrub ecosystem provides a valuable lesson in conservation planning: property owners are more willing to dedicate land and funding to ecosystem protection when the land will also serve as publicly accessible open space.

Editors' Summary: Groundwater resources in the intermountain West (Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) continue to dwindle while populations expand. In the 1950s, states set up oil and gas conservation commissions to regulate the disposal of small amounts of highly saline water produced during conventional oil and gas extraction. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, energy producers began extracting methane trapped in coal seams too deep to mine conventionally. Today, this coalbed methane (CBM) comprises nearly 10% of total domestic natural gas production.