How the EPA Saved America
If you don't follow political blogs, you may not have noticed Kevin Drum's outstanding story about how the decrease in crime over the last 20 years can largely be attributed to the sharp drops in lead ingestion. When I first heard the theory, I thought it was too good to be true, but Kevin's story has persuaded me. At the very least, the burden is on those who think that it is wrong, and so far, they have not put up anything. The theory isn't complicated: lead level...
CONTINUE READINGEarly Warning Signs
Change is (literally) in the air. For the U.S., last year broke heat records. "2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe drought in the Corn Belt and a huge storm that caused broad devastation in the Middle Atlantic States, turns out to have been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States." (NY TImes). This probably won't be true globally, however, because it was a La Niña year, but it's still likely to be in the top ten warmest years re...
CONTINUE READINGDeadly spike in Beijing’s air pollution
This graph shows recent air quality monitoring data (PM 2.5) from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. As the New York Times noted, this spike—seen as a thick haze in the city—has been described as "postapocalyptic." Thanks in no small part to the Clean Air Act, we have thus far avoided the need to walk around U.S. cities wearing Darth Vader masks. But perhaps we should send some masks to certain U.S. congresspersons who think the Clean Air Act should be repealed. The...
CONTINUE READINGSeaWorld Doesn’t Care THAT Much
As the father of an eight-year-old, I am painfully aware of the attractions of charismatic megafauna. Over the weekend, I took Rose to SeaWorld, pretty much the capital of charismatic megafauna, for an overnight with her YMCA youth group. We slept with the penguins, and saw lots of other -- well, charismatic megafauna. The highlight of the park is the killer whale show, at Shamu Stadium. I don't think I have been to SeaWorld in about thirty years, but one thing ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Shape of Things to Come
The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee has issued a draft of its next report on U.S. climate impacts. The draft will no doubt change as a result of the public comment period, but the broad outlines are likely to stay the same. Here are some of the key predictions: Higher temperatures. "U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few decades projected to see another 2°F to 4°F of warming in most areas. The amount of warming by ...
CONTINUE READINGPreviewing This Week’s Oral Arguments in the Supreme Court’s Most Important Property Rights Case This Term
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in what is shaping up as the Court's most important property rights case of the current Term: Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1447. What can we expect? Koontz is one of three Takings Clause cases on the Court's docket this Term. It decided a "physical invasion" involving federal flooding and consequential damaging of state-owned lands, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. U.S.,...
CONTINUE READINGHow certification could reduce the environmental impacts of marijuana farms
This article from the LA Times (a few weeks old) highlights an emerging environmental problem in California – and presumably, elsewhere around the country: The negative impacts on water quality and availability and habitat from marijuana farms. Farms often use enormous amounts of water to grow their crops, without getting the necessary permits for diverting water – placing endangered salmon runs on the north coast of California at risk. There is evidence the farm...
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court haiku blues
Who knew there was a Supreme Court Haiku Reporter? Here's its analysis of the LA County Flood Control District case decided earlier this week (h/t Megan Herzog): The flow of water No discharge of pollutants Within same river --which, I have to say, I find pretty disappointing. In response, I offer my own. Not quite the trenchant analyses of my co-bloggers on this topic, but here goes: Nine judges answer A stormwater question that No one had asked. Bleh. O...
CONTINUE READINGThe Last Rockefeller
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the current chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee has announced his retirement. Rockefeller is 75, and faced a tough re-election fight in West Virginia, which has gone from being the state of John L. Lewis to the state of Mitt Romney -- it went for Romney last year by 37 points. We probably should have figured that Rocky wasn't running again when he gave a brave speech on the Senate floor last year chastising the ...
CONTINUE READINGNew Symposium on Disaster Law
The Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum has just published a great symposium on disaster law. The authors include some leading lights in environmental law, and for good reason, since disaster issues and environmental law are closely related. Here are links to all of the individual articles: Articles Introduction: Legal Scholarship, the Disaster Cycle, and the Fukushima Accident PDF Daniel A. Farber 1 Disaster Justice: The Geography of Human Capabilit...
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