The Dangerous Embrace of Convenient Narratives Over Inconvenient Truths
As it turns out, Nature doesn’t care what stories you post on social media or spin on TV.
Conservative critics and others have argued for years that theories popular in universities such as critical legal theory undermine the idea of truth in favor of storytelling. Ironically, it has turned out that the problem is far greater on the Right than the Left. This is not only destructive to democracy. It also encourages conspiracy theories and hate speech, like a recent spate of antisemitic attacks on officials at FEMA. The problem on the Right has long been...
CONTINUE READINGGovernors Present Bold Vision for Investing in a New Forest Economy
As global leaders gather in Cali for COP16 and devastating fires continue across the Amazon, we should look to subnational groups for solutions to both the climate and biodiversity loss crisis.
The world has continued to watch as fires burn – yet again - across much of the Amazon basin. With historic droughts and ongoing lack of resources to tackle these fires and their underlying causes, they have ravaged millions of hectares of forests, communities, and wildlife habitat in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and beyond. These fires, often deliberately set as part of land clearing efforts for cattle or agriculture, are becoming even more intense in the face of the climat...
CONTINUE READINGWe Need a Circular Economy for EV Batteries
California got close to making suppliers ensure EV batteries are managed responsibly at end of life. Here’s why 2025 should be the year California creates a circular economy for EV batteries.
California continues to make significant headway toward its target to eliminate in-state sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. About one in five new cars sold in California are battery-powered. And it’s not just California: Battery-powered car sales are up globally, with projections showing 17 million will be sold worldwide in 2024. As EVs proliferate, so will demand for the critical minerals that power their batteries. But mining for those e...
CONTINUE READINGStill Crazy After All These Years
There's been an alarming growth of conspiracy theories, often antisemitic ones, to explain extreme weather events.
Was a powerful political conspiracy behind Hurricane Helene? You might think that no one would believe anything that crazy. You would be wrong. This post by a conspiracist about Hurricane Helene got 11 million views: “Don’t worry guys, weather modification isn’t real! It’s just a coincidence that Hurricane Helene is one of the most devastating 'inland damage storms' in history and that hundreds of pro-Trump counties are being massively impacted during the m...
CONTINUE READINGProject 2025 Envisions Eliminating Civil Service Protection for Thousands
Paper #1 in Monograph Series
UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & Environment (CLEE) is sponsoring a series of papers evaluating aspects of Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation publication, entitled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” which has received attention in the Presidential election campaign. CLEE published excerpts from the 922 page Project 2025 document related to climate change and environment, here. The first paper in our Monograph series focuses on...
CONTINUE READINGGrid Experts Weigh in on EPA’s Power Plant Emissions Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency stay in West Virginia v. EPA, a challenge to EPA’s rule. Our UCLA Law clinic submitted a brief on behalf of grid experts in the case at the D.C. Circuit.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized emissions standards for greenhouse gases from power plants under Clean Air Act, Section 111(d). The rule sets pollution limits for existing coal plants and some new gas plants based on carbon capture and sequestration. In West Virginia v. EPA, a spate of states and industry parties have challenged these new standards. One argument made by petitioners involves reliability of the nation’s powe...
CONTINUE READINGWhy is EPA “Faceless”?
People complain about faceless bureaucrats. At least in part, that could be fixed.
How many people can name the head of EPA or even know the official title of that office? About 5% of the population, would be my guess. Apart from Scott Pruitt, who became famous for his $20,000 phone booth, few people outside of the field could name any previous holder of the office. Michael Regan seems to be doing a great job there right now, but hardly anyone knows his name, and hardly anyone had heard of him before his appointment. I’d bet that even among membe...
CONTINUE READINGReflections on “Yes they can control the weather.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene is wildly wrong about government scientists controlling hurricanes. There is a rich history of weather modification experiments that make that false claim more dangerous.
Since U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted earlier this month that “Yes they can control the weather” — a bunch of commentators have pointed out that she’s wildly wrong. Yes, she’s wildly wrong. No one can make, intensify, or steer hurricanes. No ability to do anything like this is even on the horizon. Her comment obviously got traction because it plugged into a deep strain of populist paranoia, including active, current conspiracies. But it’s also...
CONTINUE READINGModel Uncertainty in Politics and Climate Policy
The polls could be systematically off, not just due to random error. That’s a worry with climate models as well.
The polls are predicting very tight election results. The state results could turn out to be within the margin of error, with half going one way and half the other. But there’s another plausible outcome: a sweep by one side or the other because the polls were all off a few percent in the same direction. If you could get a large and truly random sample of the population and get them to answer all questions truthfully right before they voted, the life of a pollster wo...
CONTINUE READINGClimate, Energy, and Environment on the Ballot
Ballot measures in Washington and California are especially important but others are worth noting.
Elections are primarily about electing candidates, but many states have adopted some form of popular democracy. This year, the highest-profile state initiatives are about abortion. But there are also seven state initiatives relating to energy and environment. Of those, the two biggest are a $10 billion green bond proposal in California and a proposed rollback of Washington State’s new cap-and-trade program. The outcomes of these and other initiatives will provide a...
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