Jonathan Z. Cannon

I am an environmental lawyer and law professor. But my interest in the environment began before I was either with a child's delight in the outdoors. That interest grew through wilderness trips and through study of the English romantic poets Wordsworth and Keats and American nature writers Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and Carson -- all before I went to law school.

Environmental law is a complex and technical discipline, but within the legal debates are the signs of a deeper clash between worldviews -- one animating the environmental movement, the other resisting the inroads of that movement on the dominant strains of U.S. culture. In Environment in the Balance, I bring this foundational clash to the surface through an analysis of the Supreme Court's major environmental decisions.

When I am not teaching or writing, I like to run, particularly on the trails through the woods near our home, read poetry and suspense novels, and be with family and friends.