Why the Right Has Run Out of Ideas
Thomas Friedman's column laments that the Republican Party is no longer offering solutions to pressing national problems. It's also common to see similar laments about current conservative thinkers in contrast to an earlier generation like Milton Friedman. It seems to me that much of the problem is that most of the tools that can actually be used to address policy issues are no longer considered acceptable by many Republicans and conservatives. If you have no tools ...
CONTINUE READINGSvitlana Kravchenko
We are saddened by news of the death yesterday of Svitlana Kravchenko, the director of the LLM Program in Environmental and Natural Resources Law.at the University of Oregon Law School and wife of John Bonine, a distinguished environmental scholar. She was the author of 12 books and numerous scholarly articles and book chapters. Among her books was HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: CASES, LAW and POLICY (with John Bonine) (Carolina Academic Press, 2008), which was the...
CONTINUE READINGSenator Santorum and the Environmental Chalice of Evil
Here is what Santorum said yesterday (from Politico): “You hear all the time, the left: ‘Oh, the conservatives are the anti-science party.’ No we’re not. We’re the truth party,” the former Pennsylvania senator said at a campaign event in Oklahoma City. “Because the left is always looking for a way to control you. They’re always trying to make you feel guilty so you’ll give them power so they can lord it over you. They do it on the environment all the ...
CONTINUE READINGMaryland representative thinks law clinics should only represent the indigent
Maryland representative Patrick McDonough apparently believes that Maryland law clinics should be restricted to representing only the indigent. He just introduced a bill, HB 751, that attempts to legislate just that: Except for pro bono litigation on behalf of an indigent individual, a law clinic affiliated with a law school at a constituent institution of the University System of Maryland may not initiate or participate in litigation. (I grew up in Maryland, so I tak...
CONTINUE READINGInsurance Salesmen Should Be Selling The Public On Climate Change
As Dan's post described, the insurance industry has a major, profit-driven stake in stopping climate change. So given the high risks for these private companies as the Earth bakes, why aren't they the public face of the need to stop climate change, instead of controversial figures like Al Gore, environmental leaders, and scientists? Wouldn't the public be more likely to take climate change risks and impacts more seriously if they could clearly see the economic consequenc...
CONTINUE READINGHow “Moneyball” Can Make A Great Downtown
Michael Lewis's Moneyball was more than a book about how the small-market Oakland Athletics employed unconventional, statistics-based methods to beat bigger-money teams in the game of baseball. The genius of the book -- and I'm probably biased here as a lifelong Oakland A's fan -- was its ability to expose human beings' flawed sense of perception. When trying to observe trends, such as how well a batter hits with runners in scoring position, the human brain tends to priv...
CONTINUE READINGRanking the Presidents on the Environment
Keith Poole has spent years devising measures of political ideology. The late Phil Frickey and I used his scholarship in our work on public choice theory. He has now produced similar information about Presidents, incorporated in the following chart: It would be useful to have a similar measure for environmental policy. The early part of the graph would look much different. Until Reagan, the differences between Democrats and Republicans on environmental story were ...
CONTINUE READINGNo Free Lunch In The Desert
A tough, heartbreaking story from the Los Angeles Times about the painful choices environmentalists are faced with in combatting climate change. The issue is BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah solar power project, a massive, 6-square-mile city of 173,500 mirrors that will scar much of California's desert beyond recognition. This was a hard compromise, reports Julie Cart, as "the real political horse trading took place in meetings involving solar developers, federal regul...
CONTINUE READINGAir Pollution Levels in China
The Economist commissioned a study of particulate pollution in China, using estimates based on satellite data. The results are predictably grim: World Health Organisation guidelines suggest that PM2.5 levels above ten micrograms per cubic metre are unsafe. The boffins have found (as the map shows) that almost every Chinese province has levels above that. Indeed, much of the country’s population endures air so foul that it registers above 30 on the PM2.5 scale, with S...
CONTINUE READINGCurling Up In Front of the (Carcinogenic) Fireplace
Everyone loves to sit in front of a cozy fireplace -- not surprising, given the role of fire in the evolution of our species. Hominids who hated campfires probably didn't survive to leave many descendants. Sadly, our Stone Age instincts are leading us astray. Firewood should probably carry the same kind of warnings as cigarettes. Sam Harris at the Daily Beast summarizes the evidence: Here is what we know from a scientific point of view: there is no amount of wood sm...
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