Luke Cole was an environmental lawyer and the co-founder of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment

Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment

The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment is an environmental justice litigation organization dedicated to helping grassroots groups across the United States with problems related to the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by poor people and people of color. Their primary offices are...

. He was a pioneer in using legal work for the environmental justice movement. He died in 2009 in a car crash in Uganda.

Cole graduated with honors from Stanford in 1984, and cum laude from Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 in 1989. At the time of his death Cole served as counsel for the Native Village of Kivalina, Alaska

Kivalina, Alaska

Kivalina is a city in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 377.-History:...

, in its case seeking damages from greenhouse gas emitters from the damage to their town due to global warming. Cole co-authored the book From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press 2001) with Sheila Foster. He taught courses in Environmental Justice

Environmental justice

Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...

 at UC Berkeley, UC Hastings and Stanford Law and was awarded the Environmental Leadership Award from UC Berkeley’s Ecology Law Quarterly honored Luke in 1997. In 2009 Luke was given the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship.