Culture & Ethics
Climate Change is Coming for Your Coffee
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
My drug habit is becoming more expensive thanks to the dangerous duo of climate change and Donald Trump. The cost of coffee keeps going up. I saw firsthand why this is happening back in May on an eye-opening trip to Acre, Brazil, where I toured a couple of farms in the Amazon. One was a …
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CONTINUE READINGHalloween Hacks for a Warming Planet
Pretty or scary or brave? There’s a climate costume to suit all tastes and all ages.
Children will be roaming the streets tonight dressed as Superheroes, Princesses, and Evil Villains. But really, these invented figures can’t hold a candle to the real ones in our world. Here are some new custumes, suitable for a world facing a climate crisis.
CONTINUE READINGWhat Went Wrong with News Coverage of the LA Fires
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
When disaster strikes your town, you rely on journalists to help explain what happened and why. Last January, many of us in Los Angeles turned to The LA Times as unusual firestorms kicked up and ultimately destroyed parts of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. The LAT’s journalists and photojournalists did incredible coverage from lots of angles, …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Groups and the New McCarthyism
The Administration’s search for a vast leftwing conspiracy could ensnare some environmental groups.
The White House’s reference to a “vast network” rings a historical bell. A speaker seventy years ago decried “a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man.” That speaker was Joe McCarthy. Environmental groups weren’t active during his time, but does anyone doubt that they would have been on his hit list?
CONTINUE READINGAt a Loss for Words? Resist Climate Silence
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
A few years ago, I was writing about how President Joe Biden was flying around the country to promote his landmark climate law without uttering the word “climate.” Seems so quaint. Now, we find ourselves in a place where “climate change” is on a list of banned words maintained by the U.S. Energy Department, along …
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CONTINUE READINGNew York Climate Weak
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Now is the time for courage. Now is not the time to pull punches or pull speakers. We need more speech — not enforced silence. That’s why I’m not a big fan of shutting down campus speakers, even those who might spread climate obstruction. Like Vicki Hollub, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, who was being …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It’s remarkable that with everything else that’s raging, climate and energy bills still managed to dominate the legislative session that just wrapped in Sacramento. After all, the reason lawmakers were still at work this past Saturday — the day after the legislative session was supposed to end — was that negotiations on climate bills pushed …
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CONTINUE READINGWatch “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog”
LAPL
The American Experience’s “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” tells an extraordinary story. It premieres on PBS this Tuesday.
A few years back, a colleague of mine, who I very much wanted to remain at UCLA, approached me because he was contemplating accepting an offer at a Washington, D.C. law school. He feared remaining in Los Angeles, even though he wanted to stay, because he didn’t want his young daughter exposed to the southland’s …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Does Misinformation Follow Extreme Weather?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Nowadays when an extreme weather event strikes in America, what follows is a secondary emergency in the form of misinformation on social media. We’ve seen it play out after floods and heat waves, but this phenomenon really goes into overdrive after hurricanes and wildfires. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate looked …
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CONTINUE READINGChina is Kicking Our Ass at Our Own Game
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
The first time I saw a Chinese-made EV on the road I was walking on a crowded sidewalk in São Paulo. It was a Saturday night this May, when the whole city seemed to be out enjoying the warm weather. A street rave took over an entire block so to keep moving, we pedestrians had …
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