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Representing Mother Earth: plaintiff lawyers are often called on to represent people injured by pollution and other environmental harms, but who's going to stand up for the planet? Earthjustice is one organization that uses the law to protect both the earth and its inhabitants.

Article Excerpt
Movies like A Civil Action have brought legal battles over environmental issues into the public eye. Such battles are being fought on many different fronts.

The nonprofit, public-interest law firm Earthjustice is dedicated to protecting natural resources and defending people's right to a healthy environment (slogan: "Because the earth needs a good lawyer"). The organization has challenged government agency rules, intervened on the government's behalf in actions against corporations, and contested permits that would allow industries to pollute excessively.

TRIP VAN NOPPEN recently became president of Earthjustice (www.earthjustice. org), headquartered in Oakland, California, after serving as its vice president of litigation since 2005. He recently talked with TRIAL Associate Editor ALLISON TORRES BURTKA about how coal-burning power plants, chemical injuries in the workplace, polar bears, and electric transformers are all intertwined.

TRIAL: How did you first become involved in representing people injured by environmental pollution?

Van Noppen: In the beginning of my legal career, I worked in a small plaintiff firm that handled labor, employment, and workplace injury cases, including claims brought by workers exposed to chemicals. Once I was working on behalf of people injured by chemicals at work, I soon began to represent people in surrounding neighborhoods who were injured by the same factories and the same chemicals--but not at work.

For several years, I worked on a case involving a hazardous waste incinerator in western North Carolina that was running amok and poisoning both its workers and its neighbors. Through a series of lawsuits, we got the place shut down, a cleanup started, and compensation for the injured people. My work evolved from there to working with citizens' groups that were trying to fight proposed hazardous waste incinerators and other kinds of polluting facilities, like power plants and landfills.

TRIAL: Earthjustice claims to represent planet Earth, but who are really its clients?

Van Noppen: We represent hundreds of organizations, from national organizations like the Sierra Club, to state and local environmental groups, to public health groups such as the American Lung Association, to commercial fishing groups and Native American tribes.

We're working with some farmworker groups on pesticide cases, trying to get the most harmful pesticides removed from the market. We've also worked with farming and ranching groups on activities that affect their land, such as oil and gas exploration in the Rockies.

TRIAL: What have some of Earthjustice's greatest achievements been in recent years?

Van Noppen: We were involved in the Supreme Court's landmark global warming decision last spring that ordered the EPA to consider regulating carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas--basically opening the door to all sorts of federal government action related to climate change. We've also successfully tackled several proposed new coal plants, which would...

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