Chasing Ice, For Now
Last night I watched glaciers more than 30,000 years old break open and crash into the ocean - disappearing in mere seconds. In photographer James Balog’s new documentary, Chasing Ice, he and a small team embark upon a multi-year “Extreme Ice Survey” to document 18 glaciers in remote regions of the world, including Iceland, Greenland and Alaska. The film serves as a visual record of our rapidly changing world and its powerful, violent impact on our most ancie...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental law jobs blog
Tseming Yang, distinguished Berkeley Law alum and currently professor of law at Santa Clara University, is offering a great public service for environmental law students and lawyers who may be looking for a job shift. His Environmental Law and Other Jobs/Opportunities blog collects information from a range of sources in one convenient location. Check it out if you're in the job market....
CONTINUE READINGRenewing Britain’s Clean Energy Vows
The British are ramping up their efforts on renewable energy. The NY Times reported a few days ago that the new plan will "gradually quadruple the charges levied on consumers and businesses to help support electricity generation from low-carbon sources, to a total of about £9.8 billion, or $15.7 billion, in the 2020-21 fiscal year, from £2.35 billion now." In a Britain's version of parliamentary government, there is normally little gap between decisions by the ruling...
CONTINUE READINGShould we revive an extinct Galapagos tortoise?
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. The Washington Post reports today that scientists think they can resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoise whose last remaining member, "Lonesome George" (pictured), died this summer. Scientists at Ecuador's Galapagos National Park say they have found enough Pinta Island genetic material in tortoise on another nearby island that an intensive breeding program over 100 to 150 years could regenerate the pure Pinta Island subspec...
CONTINUE READINGHeating Up the Eurozone
The EU has issued a new report about climate impacts. The picture is mixed, with some good news (warmer winters in the Northern and Eastern Europe) but bad news in other respects. The report has this to say about some disaster risks: Increases in health risks associated with river and coastal flooding are projected in many regions of Europe due to projected increases in extreme precipitation events and sea level. Length, frequency, and intensity of heat-waves are v...
CONTINUE READINGHighly Uncertain But Not in Doubt
It seems paradoxical to say that climate change is uncertain but not in doubt. At this point, we can be highly confident that greenhouse gases are disrupting the climate system and that the disruption will be very serious unless we act. But there's considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of climate change and its local impacts. A second paradox is that the uncertainty is far from comforting -- instead, it just aggravates our problems. In terms of the uncer...
CONTINUE READINGGiving Thanks to Whom? And How?
Thanksgiving is often thought of as America's unique secular holiday. That's somewhat ironic, because the very name of the day suggests an external power, force, or being to whom we give thanks. But Thanksgiving also carries with it important environmental implications, because we are also celebrating the bounty of the earth. In a recent essay, Rabbi Natan Margalit of Organic Torah unifies the two, from within the Jewish tradition. He notes that originally God gav...
CONTINUE READINGWarren B. Rudman, 1930-2012
Former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman, who served from 1981 to 1993, has died at the age of 82. Lawyers and law professors throughout the country should mourn, although they probably will not. Hundreds if not thousands of men (and women) have served in the United States Congress since the creation of the Republic, and the vast majority have now gone on to (probably well-deserved) obscurity. Rudman should not be one of them, because he was an enormously ef...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia electricity consumers may receive cap-and-trade dividend
As I mentioned on Monday, the 23.1 million greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances (current-vintage) sold at the cap-and-trade auction on Monday were all consigned to auction by utility companies. The $233 million generated by that sale must now be used by those utilities to the benefit of ratepayers. Last Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued its draft ruling on how to use that revenue. (See the press release and the ruling.) According to Clima...
CONTINUE READINGEcology Law Quarterly’s 2012 Annual Review issue is out
ELQ has just published its Annual Review of Natural Resources and Environmental Law. Check out these articles: Alexander J. Bandza, Epidemiological-Study Reanalyses and Daubert: A Modest Proposal to Level the Playing Field in Toxic Tort Litigation Gabrielle Cuskelly, Factors to Consider in Applying a Presumption Against Preemption to State Environmental Regulations Catherine Groves, To Promote Compliance with the Clean Water Act, the EPA Should Pursue a National Enfor...
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