Climate Impacts: The Economist’s View
Climate change may damage economies more than previously thought.
The Economist has an important story about climate change impacts. There are two big takeaways, one about growth in developing countries and one about economic repercussions in developed countries like the U.S. It has long been known that climate change will impose costs on developing countries. But there is increasing reason to think that it impacts growth rates, which could have larger long-term effects: Despite some successes, tropical countries grew by 0....
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Proposed Drinking Water Program Reorganization: A Primer
What would the shake-up mean for those who currently lack affordable access to safe drinking water?
A shake-up of California’s struggling Drinking Water Program is in the works. What follows is a little history, context, and a few thoughts on what it will likely mean for drinking-water stakeholders—in particular those who have the hardest time accessing safe drinking water. A history of problems for the Drinking Water Program Last April, Jonathan Zasloff posted about California’s failure to spend $455 million in federal contributions to the Safe Drinki...
CONTINUE READINGLightbulb Wars : The Saga Continues
Republicans win a largely symbolic victory for an obsolete technology.
Among the sleeper provisions of the new budget deal is a ban on enforcing federal lightbulb standards. This is a great example of symbolic politics -- it makes Tea Party Republicans happy, has limited practical effect, and makes little policy sense. Or to put it another way, the enforcement ban is a dumb thing to do in practical terms. The policy wonk in me quails,. But at the same time it's good to know that conservatives didn't have enough leverage for something...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Martin Luther King DIDN’T Say
Issues like the environment and animal rights weren't on his radar screen.
Since tomorrow is Martin Luther King day, I was curious about whether Dr. King had ever said anything about the environment. When I did a google search, this quotation popped up over and over again: “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” But this seems to be a textbook case of how the I...
CONTINUE READINGNewsflash: Not All Climate Stories are Dismal, Scientists Actually Try to Discover the Truth
Methane Leaks Not Caused by Human-induced Climate Change,
NPR aired a story this week about what scientists thought, in 2008, were ominous signs of a warming ocean. Churning bubbles of methane -- a very potent greenhouse gas -- were pouring out of the ocean floor in Arctic Norway. Scientists theorized that as the globe and the oceans warmed, the methane trapped in the ocean floor was leaking out and could, potentially, accelerate global warming. Climate change deniers frequently accuse scientists and the United Nations...
CONTINUE READINGAn Ounce of Prevention
Can inherently safer technology save us from chemical accidents and terrorists?
As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Franklin’s comment, originally made in reference to home fire safety, is characteristically timeless. Today, many are looking to the principle of prevention as a way to reduce the incidence and severity of chemical plant disasters. The threat of chemical disaster is present and severe. Thousands of chemical plants endanger millions of American workers and community m...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Cooking Can Kill
Cookstoves are a major threat to health in developing countries, while also wreaking environmental damage.
Cooking dinner, as it turns out, is one of the most serious public health and environmental problems in the world. There's a common misperception that environmental concerns are just a First World luxury. But the cookstove example shows that the global poor, too, are in need of better, more efficient, less polluting energy sources. Here are some key facts, courtesy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: 1. More than half of the world's population—three bil...
CONTINUE READINGThe ballot-box and urban infill
How the initiative power affects land-use decisions in California
Here at Legal Planet we’ve been paying a lot of attention to how CEQA affects land-use decisions. So has the legislature. And that’s fair enough. CEQA is important. And CEQA may well be deterring an important range of urban infill development that is environmentally important. But it’s not the only thing that affects urban infill development, as Ethan points out in this post. Also important – perhaps more important – are the initiative and referend...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Standing with a Twist
Rather than prove they will be specifically harmed by increased carbon emissions, plaintiffs can use other kinds of harm as a basis for climate standing.
Plaintiffs got a Christmas present from the D.C. Circuit in the form of a pathway to prove standing in climate change cases. The Supreme Court has considered two cases dealing with standing to sue based on injuries caused by climate change. The Court found standing in one case 5-4 and split 4-4 in the second case. But in a case decided on Christmas Eve, the D.C. Circuit gave its blessing to an end-run around the entire dispute. This end-run is likely to be very usefu...
CONTINUE READINGTen Energy Stories to Watch in 2014
What will shake the energy world this year?
In our energy law classes at Cal, we like to start the day by talking about Energy in the News. The media never fails us. Every day, there are multiple energy-related stories of significance touching on resource development, new technologies, policy shifts, jobs, regional politics, prices, international relations, or the environment. Once you start looking for energy-related conversations, it seems like you can find them everywhere. The other thing we learn is that we ca...
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