For years, a chemical plant in the Chinese village of Qiugang had polluted the river, poisoned the drinking water, and fouled the air — until residents decided to take a stand. The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video co-produced by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, tells the story of the villagers’ determined efforts to stop the pollution.

...Slottje warned municipal officials to avoid getting trapped into thinking they have to provide road use agreements....The biggest problem Slottje sees facing municipalities is the increased erosion of enforcement of environmental regulations. “So we’re swinging back to protecting the environment through property rights and home rule,” she said.

The conference will use natural gas drilling as a lens to explore energy policy, the global energy market, and the integral role the law can and must play in creating energy security and ensuring a sustainable future.

Residents of Pittsburgh -- as well as potentially tens of millions of other everyday citizens in the Northeast corridor who rely on their taps to deliver safe water -- are consuming unknown and potentially dangerous amounts of radium in every glass of water.