Region: International
What Do Tomorrow’s Leaders Think About This Mess?
Listening to student voices on the pandemic, climate change, and the future
One thing I’ve always loved about teaching is the opportunity to see important issues through my students’ eyes. So for my last Climate Law and Policy class at UCLA Law this week, I asked my students to tell me what they are thinking about the future of climate policy in light of today’s global circumstances, …
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CONTINUE READINGNever Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste
Coronavirus, Climate Change, and the Global Energy Transition
There has been no shortage of commentary on what the Coronavirus pandemic means for climate action and for the energy industry. Obviously, it is too early to draw firm conclusions, but the last several weeks have made clear that the crisis is affecting the entire energy economy in profound ways and that our collective response …
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CONTINUE READINGWho’s WHO?
Trump cut off funding to the WHO. What’s that? And also, why?
Most people probably hadn’t heard of the WHO until Trump announced he was cutting off funding. Here’s what you should know about the organization and Trump’s complaints about it. The Organization. The World Health Organization, an agency of the UN, was established by a 1946 agreement, which went into effect two years later. It has …
CONTINUE READINGGreen Stimulus?
Why so many coal plants are still being built in China.
During this Earth Week, it is encouraging to see glimmers of environmental ambition in various jurisdictions around the world. The EU is rolling out a European Green Deal with the goal of “striving to be the first climate-neutral continent.” South Korea, the world’s 7th largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter, recently announced a 2050 net zero …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Story of Rona the Roaming Coronavirus
The little virus who loved to make friends.
Once upon a time, there was a little coronavirus named Rona. Rona loved to make friends with people and play with them. She could make friends with one person and just a few days later be playing with two or three or four people they met together. Rona’s Uncle Donald told everyone it was ok …
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CONTINUE READINGEarth Day in the Time of Covid-19
Emmett Institute Addresses How the Pandemic and Lockdown Affect Environmental Issues
This Wednesday, April 22, marks the 50th time we have celebrated Earth Day. This year’s celebrations will, of course, look nothing like the first Earth Day in 1970, when 20 million people took to American streets to raise public awareness about environmental issues. Given the global lockdown because of the covid-19 pandemic, large public gatherings …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Sustainable is the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain?
New CLEE and NRGI “FAQ” released today addresses common misconceptions
Co-authored with Ted Lamm and Patrick Heller (advisor at the Natural Resource Governance Institute and a senior visiting fellow at CLEE) The global transition from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) will require the production of hundreds of millions of batteries. The need for such a massive deployment raises questions from the general public …
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CONTINUE READINGDeferred Planetary Maintenance
It’s easy to put off long-term problems when there’s a crisis. Much too easy, actually.
Long-term problems get short shrift in a crisis. That’s true of infrastructure repair; it’s also true of climate change. Like deferred maintenance, climate change just gets bigger the longer it’s put off. I often see the fruits of deferred maintenance on the Berkeley campus. Building conditions are a huge problem at Berkeley. Whenever there’s a …
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CONTINUE READINGHow the Coronavirus is (Not) Like Climate Change
The two have some informative parallels, although some observers draw the wrong conclusions
The coronavirus dominates the news and much of our minds. Here at Legal Planet, we have written about the coronavirus and presidential powers, disaster declarations, fossil fuel production, decision-making under uncertainty, inequality, and cities. I will join the party and consider what are the parallels and differences between the coronavirus crisis and anthropogenic climate change, …
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CONTINUE READINGAre Pandemics An Argument Against Cities?
COVID-19 spread shows governance matters more than density
With the COVID-19 virus shutting down cities and countries all over the world, anti-urban advocates are seizing the moment to argue that pandemics prove urban density is bad. For example, longtime sprawl booster Joel Kotkin argues that shelter-in-place orders and fear of contagion will push people to demand more lower-density homes, far from crowded and …
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