Living on (under?) the Edge: The Commons between Environmental Risk and Economic Development

Abstract

"Sitting in the City Council meeting for hours, waiting patiently as the democratic process played out, I tried to think of what I would say when my turn to speak came around. The concern that had brought me to the meeting was how to get the city of Laramie to take significant steps to reduce its carbon footprint and thus tread more lightly on the planet, reducing the damage done to the global commons. But before that topic could be discussed, we needed to clear the agenda of an earlier question regarding the protection of our local aquifer from the potential negative impacts of another new housing project."