Ten of the Top Environmental Stories of 2011
- Nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan.
- EPA issues new rules limiting mercury emissions by power plants.
- Durban climate summit produces modest progress, as developing countries begin to acknowledge the need for binding limits on their carbon emissions.
- White House kills scheduled new regulations of ozone.
- California adopts cap-and-trade system under AB 32.
- White House announces stringent new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
- GOP Presidential candidates embrace anti-science, anti-regulatory positions.
- House of Representatives passes a slew of anti-environmental bills and riders, which with few exceptions die in the Senate.
- Australia adopts a carbon tax.
- IPCC report links climate change and extreme weather.
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6 Replies to “Ten of the Top Environmental Stories of 2011”
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About Dan
Dan Farber has written and taught on environmental and constitutional law as well as about contracts, jurisprudence and legislation. Currently at Berkeley Law, he has al…
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This list makes sense from a legal perspective, though I might have included the Keystone XL protests. However, if it’s going to be a list of the top environmental stories, rather than just the top environmental law stories, it would have to include some things that are actually happening in the natural world (e.g. methane escaping from beneath melting tundra) as well as relevant changes in human behavior. I’ve had too much pie to come up with such a list myself just yet, but it might be a more useful exercise.
This list makes sense from a legal perspective, though I might have included the Keystone XL protests. However, if it’s going to be a list of the top environmental stories, rather than just the top environmental law stories, it would have to include some things that are actually happening in the natural world (e.g. methane escaping from beneath melting tundra) as well as relevant changes in human behavior. I’ve had too much pie to come up with such a list myself just yet, but it might be a more useful exercise.