Tisher

Sharon S. Tisher

Emerita Lecturer, School of Economics and Honors College, University of Maine

Connect with Sharon

About Sharon

Tisher's research focuses on environmental law, climate science and policy,  and pesticide regulation.  The overarching theme in  A Climate Chronology, a 300-page color coded chronology of developments in climate science and in U.S. and international policy from 1824 through to the present, is the disconnect between advancement in scientific understanding,  and development of policy to address the crisis.  Tisher is a retired trial attorney, a member of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Corps, and has served as President and chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association,  and as President of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. 

Contributions

In the News

Sharon S. Tisher quoted on searchable chronology of climate-change events dating back to 1824 and up to the present by Bill McKibben, "It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Damage" The New Yorker, August 4, 2021.
Sharon S. Tisher quoted on her comprehensive timeline of climate science and policy that shows science advancing through the decades, but national and international policy lagging behind, or even moving backward by Katelyn Weisbrod, "Warming Trends: Couples Disconnected in Their Climate Concerns Can Learn About Global Warming Over 200 Years or in 18 Hole" Inside Climate News, July 31, 2021.
Sharon S. Tisher's research on the affects of the climate crises discussed by Beth Staples, "Tisher Hopes Climate Timeline Provides Perspective, Serves As Springboard for Action," UMaine News, June 15, 2021.
"Trump Suddenly Has an ‘Open Mind’ on Climate Change. We Hope He Means It.," Sharon S. Tisher (with Harold W. Borns Jr.), Bangor Daily News, December 6, 2016.
"There’s No Blueprint for Farming in Our ‘New Normal’ Climate," Sharon S. Tisher (with Ted Quaday), Bangor Daily News, March 5, 2015.
"Bruce Poliquin Has a Chance to Make His Mark, Emulate Maine’s Environmental Heroes," Sharon S. Tisher (with Peter Mills), Bangor Daily News, December 23, 2014.
"Maine Should Lead Washington on Climate Policy," Sharon S. Tisher (with Peter Mills), Bangor Daily News, December 24, 2013.
"Climate Denial: Seductive But Not Morally Excusable," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, June 12, 2013.
"Facts Don’t Support Rhetoric of Climate Change Deniers," Sharon S. Tisher, Portland Press Herald, December 19, 2012.
"A New Approach to Fighting Maine’s Invisible Enemy," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, April 28, 2010.
"Connecting Chemicals and Obesity," Sharon S. Tisher, Lewiston Sun Journal, March 7, 2010.
"Give Obama ‘Super’ Support," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, February 29, 2008.
"Restore the Clean Water Act," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, October 3, 2007.
"Protect Health, Not a Cash Cow," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, April 20, 2007.
"A Bill to Maine’s Taste," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, March 24, 2003.
"Frankenfish and the FDA," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, February 15, 2002.
"Genetic Contamination Reaps Disaster," Sharon S. Tisher, Bangor Daily News, April 13, 2001.
"Biotechnology in Agriculture: A European Perspective," Sharon S. Tisher, Interview with Hans Hosbach (conducted by Tisher), Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, July/August 1999.

Publications

"A Climate Chronology," The University of Maine, January, 2023.

Presents a searchable document available at the above link which explains developments in climate science over the last 200 years in juxtaposition with events in U.S. and international policy. Provides links to news and commentary for further research. Displays the connections and disconnections between science and policy, and offers readers the opportunity to develop their own understanding of the origins of those disconnections.

"Pesticides Quiz and Primer" Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener (2023).

Presents a list of questions, drawing from information and research found in peer-reviewed journals, advocacy group commissioned studies, and venerable science texts to educate Mainers who would endeavor to increase their knowledge of pesticides and their understanding of safe, alternative treatments and methods.

"Climate Policy 2015: Reports from the Congressional Trenches" (with Peter Mills). Maine Policy Review 25, no. 1 (2016): 72-76.

Urges action in Congress to address the problem of climate change, and stems from interviews with Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree regarding their climate-related initiatives in 2015.

"Everglades Restoration: A Constitutional Takings Analysis" Florida State University Journal of Land Use Planning and Environmental Law 10, no. 1 (Fall 1994).

Details the restoration endeavors that the government will have to take to counter the ecological crisis in the Florida Everglades (including restoring the hydrology of the region to more closely approximate pre-flood control and pre-drainage groundwater levels, flooding and sheet flow dynamics, effecting the "unchanneling" of once meandering rivers, and transforming agricultural or residential lands to wetlands), and analyzes Florida common law and federal constitutional law to determine whether such restorative efforts are likely to be characterized as unconstitutional "takings" requiring compensation.