Annual Bartley Lecture Highlights Safeguards for Vulnerable Communities
2024 KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Randall S. Abate, Assistant Dean of Environmental Law Studies at George Washington University
TOPIC: Coastal Migration with Dignity: Safeguards for Vulnerable Communities
At the annual Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture, George Washington University’s Randall Abate warned that current United States laws are inadequate to address the growing crisis of climate-related displacement, highlighting vulnerable communities in Florida and Alaska as prime examples.
The Bartley Lecture Series, hosted by the University of Florida’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, honors the legacy of Ernest R. Bartley, a distinguished professor who made significant contributions to urban planning and law. The 2024 lecture focused on climate resilience and adaptation.
Speaking to a packed room at the Harn Museum of Art, Abate discussed the concept of “coastal migration with dignity,” examining how legal frameworks can better protect communities forced to relocate due to climate change.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
RANDALL S. ABATE is the Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School. Prior to joining GW Law in July 2022, he held full-time law teaching positions for three decades at six U.S. law schools. From 2018-2022, he served as the inaugural Rechnitz Family and Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, a Professor in the Department of Political Science, and the Director of the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth University in New Jersey. With a primary focus on climate change law and justice, Dean Abate has lectured and taught courses in over 25 countries on six continents and has published six books and about 40 law journal articles and book chapters. He is the author of Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources (Cambridge University Press, 2019); editor of What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law? (ELI Press, 2d ed., 2020), Climate Justice: Case Studies in Global and Regional Governance Challenges (ELI Press, 2016), and Climate Change Impacts on Ocean and Coastal Law: U.S. and International Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2015); and co-editor of Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Search for Legal Remedies (Edward Elgar, 2013). Early in his career, Professor Abate handled environmental law matters at two law firms in Manhattan. He holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a J.D. and M.S.L. (Environmental Law and Policy) from Vermont Law School.
ABOUT THE TALK
Sea level rise has caused forced migration from coastal areas in the U.S. and around the world. While this migration affects communities across the socioeconomic spectrum, legal mechanisms are necessary to better protect communities that are most vulnerable to this threat of imminent coastal migration. To date, legal responses to coastal migration typically have been reactive and designed to limit damage and disruption that has already occurred. This lecture will propose proactive strategies to enhance protection of these marginalized communities through vulnerability assessments, adaptive legal mechanisms, and funding. It first considers proposed adjustments to FEMA’s authority to help limit the vulnerability of these communities. It then addresses case studies in Florida and Alaska to consider two dimensions of the threats that these communities face. The first case study of the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami explores potential safeguards to diminish the effects of climate gentrification on this community. The second case study of the West Coast of Alaska analyzes measures to help ensure that these communities will be able to relocate and resettle away from vulnerable coastal areas before life-threatening emergencies arise.
For more information, see the article, “Coastal Migration with Dignity: Safeguards for Vulnerable Communities” by Randall S. Abate and Aashini Choksi, Environmental Law Reporter (2024)
The Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture Series
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
Every fall in honor of Dr. Ernest Bartley, the UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning holds a special memorial lecture and social. The lecture brings inspiring speakers in the field of planning to speak about public service and about working together to achieve common goals.
PREVIOUS SPEAKERS:
- 2024: Randall S. Abate
- 2023: Ashon Nesbitt
- 2022: Tony Garcia
- 2021: Pegeen Hanrahan
- 2020: Sen. Jose´ Javier Rodríguez
- 2019: Bill Kercher, AICP
- The Honorable Alan S. Gold
- Dr. Robert Knight
- Senator Bill Nelson
- Senator Bob Graham
- Thomas G. Pelham
- Bob Rhodes
- Professor Earl Starnes
Ernest R. Bartley, FAICP, Professor Emeritus (1919 – 2008)
Dr. Bartley came to Gainesville in 1949 after receiving his Doctorate from the University of California in 1948. He served for some twenty-four years as a member of the faculty of the Department of Political Science. He participated in 1975 in the formation of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. He retired formally from the University in 1992, but he continued to teach until his death. During his fifty-nine years of association with the University of Florida, he received seven teaching awards from two colleges for his outstanding teaching. He was on the graduate faculty and served as a member of several University-wide committees.
After obtaining his Baccalaureate degree from Nebraska Wesleyan in 1940 and his Master’s Degree from the University of Nebraska, in June, 1941, he joined the United States Air Corps as an aviation cadet. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he was retained in the Air Corp training command for two years. At his request, he was then assigned to a combat unit. As a Captain he flew aerial combat as a captain on the first B-29 sorties from Saipan to Japan. He was transferred to the headquarters of the 21st Bomber Command where he served on General Curtis E. Lemay’s war plans staff. Upon his return to the United States, he continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve from which he retired in 1979 as a Lt. Colonel. Dr. Ernest Bartley was a member of the 73rd Bombardment Wing Association.
Commencing in the 1950’s, Dr. Bartley served as a consultant in land use control planning and regulation. He was a consultant to the Alaska Statehood Committee, the Alaska constitutional Convention, and was active in Washington, D.C. during Alaska’s struggle for statehood. At the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Constitutional Convention, Dr. Bartley was honored for the significant role he played in the writing of the Alaska Constitution. He was an active member, supporter, draftsman and spokesman in support of efforts in Florida for the enactment of planning and growth management legislation. Dr. Ernest Bartley served as consultant to numerous cities, counties, and private clients in Florida and other states. He qualified in state and federal courts as an expert witness in some eighty cases involving urban and regional planning. He drafted numerous zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations for municipalities and counties in Florida. He was sought as a speaker at numerous planning conferences and conventions.
His professional associations included the Florida Planning and Zoning Association, American Society of Planning Officials (now The American Planning Association), The American Institute of Planners (now the American Institute of Certified Planners) and other groups. In 2000, Dr. Bartley was honored in New York by election to membership in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He was appointed as a member of the State of Florida’s Planning Commission by (then) Governor Robert Graham. He held numerous offices in the organizations to which he belonged. In 2007, Ernest R. Bartley received the Lifetime Service Award from the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association for “Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Planning.”
He was author or co-author of many books, monographs, pamphlets, and papers. Dr. Bartley’s Tidelands Oil Controversy, originally published by the University of Texas Press, was republished as one in the series of Classics in American Land Law. National and State Government textbooks, written with the late Dr. John M. Swarthout, were published by Oxford University Press. His Text of a Model Ordinance written with the late Frederick H. Bair, Jr. and published in several editions by the American Society of Planning Official, was a standard work on the subject for many years.
In 2007, an annual life-time of achievement award was established in Dr. Bartley’s name by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The first recipient of that award was the former Florida Governor, Reuben Askew.