Luke Cole


Luke Winthrop Cole was an environmental lawyer and the co-founder of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, in California. He was a pioneer in using legal work for the environmental justice movement.

Education and career

Luke Winthrop Cole was born on July 15, 1962 in North Adams, Massachusetts to Herbert Cole and Alexandra Chappell Cole.
Cole graduated with honors from Stanford University in 1984, and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1989.
Cole served as counsel for the Native Village of Kivalina, Alaska, in its case seeking damages from greenhouse gas emitters from the damage to their town due to global warming.
He taught courses in environmental justice at UC Berkeley, UC Hastings and Stanford Law.

Death

Cole died on June 6, 2009 in a car crash in Uganda.

Publications