Fighting Pollution: Protecting People and Planet with Law, Advocacy, and Action

Join the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice and the Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice for a 2026 Earth Day forum with activist, author, and 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Diane Wilson. The title of the forum is “Fighting Pollution: Protecting People and Planet with Law, Advocacy, and Action.” The program is inspired by this year’s Earth Day theme: “Our Power, Our Planet.” Celebrate Earth Day by learning more about how law, policy, and protest can be used to protect our planet—and explore how you can contribute.

Light Refreshments to be served following the event. 

RSVP here

Event Participants

Welcome from Professor Gerald Torres (Yale School of the Environment & Yale Law School; Board Chair of Earth Day Network)

In conversation with Professor Erin Gaines (University of Texas School of Law)

About the Speaker

Diane Wilson is the director and founder of Calhoun County Resource Watch and the executive director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper. A lifelong Texan shrimper and fourth generation fisherwoman, her environmental activism began after she read a 1989 Associated Press article that listed her home—Calhoun County, Texas—as the most toxic county in the United States. After watching local fisheries collapse, she worked to protect the region from pollution and restore the devastated marine ecosystem. For decades, she has fought against plastic pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and advocated for environmental justice, peace, and human rights. She was a lead plaintiff in the Waterkeeper vs Formosa case, which settled in 2019 for $50 million. In 2023, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize—often referred to as the “Green Nobel”—for her work holding Formosa accountable for its pollution. Most recently, she has advocated against plastic pollution and plans to install small modular nuclear reactors in the Gulf. 

About the Participants

Gerald Torres is a professor at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale Law School. He is the former Association of American Law Schools President and has taught at Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. Professor Torres served as Counsel to the Attorney General on environmental matters and Indian affairs at the U.S. Department of Justice. Professor Torres served on the Board of the Environmental Law Institute and the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and was the founding chairman of the Advancement Project. He is board chair of Earth Day and a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He was a consultant to the United Nations on environmental matters. Torres is a life member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. An internationally known scholar of Indian law, Torres has recently focused on cooperative resource management between tribes, the states, and the federal government, and the changing legal landscape within American colonies.

Erin Gaines is a clinical professor in the University of Texas School of Law Environmental Clinic, representing communities and non-profits in pollution and climate change cases. Previously, she was a supervising senior attorney at EarthJustice and a Team Manager and Equal Justice Works Fellow at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Gregg Costa on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Gaines has received the State Bar of Texas Poverty Law Section’s Impact Award and the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service’s Houser Award.