Senator Rubio Goes to Moscow
In Internet time, it's already an old story, but worth repeating. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Tea Party guy, was asked in a GQ interview how old he believes the earth is. His reply: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the...
CONTINUE READINGWhat to expect in the logging roads case
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. This coming Monday, Dec. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the logging roads case. The case involves two consolidated petitions, Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Georgia Pacific v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center , both challenging the same decision of the Ninth Circuit, Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown, 640 F.3d 1063 (9th Cir. 2011). (Decker is brought on behalf of the state of Oregon...
CONTINUE READINGOn the Irrelevance of Doha: The Demand for an Absence of International Regimes
Just compare for a moment the high expectations around Copenhagen in 2009 and the obscurity of Doha today, and you can quickly get a sense of the basic contemporary irrelevance of UN bodies in the creation of climate policy. (At the New York Times website as of this writing, Doha doesn't even merit a mention in the "World" section; on the site's general front page, however, there is a link to news from the Los Angeles Auto Show.). Importantly, though, this means littl...
CONTINUE READINGChasing 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...
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