Save the Mountain Gorilla!
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, gorillas are a focus of this year's World Environment Day. There are only about seven hundred mountain gorillas in the wild - fewer than the number of students at most law schools. They're split between a group in the Virunga range of volcanoes and one in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Lowland gorillas seem to be in better shape. Little is known about the Eastern lowlanders, but the western ones (with the wonderful scie...
CONTINUE READINGTime to resuscitate the Office of Technology Assessment?
Ninety organizations, including many with an environmental protection focus, have called on Congress to revive its Office of Technology Assessment. OTA was established in 1972 by the Technology Assessment Act to provide Congress with "competent, unbiased information concerning the physical, biological, economic, social, and political effects" of changing and expanding technology. It was defunded in 1995 by the "Contract with America" Congress, but has never been formal...
CONTINUE READINGWorld Environment Day
It may well have escaped your notice -- I have to admit it had escaped mine -- but today is World Environment Day. UNEP has chosen Rwanda as the main site for this year's celebration, which is one reason you might not have known about this if you're in North America. You may also be unaware that Rwanda is a biodiversity hotspot. It boasts 151 different types of mammal species, eleven of which are currently threatened and none of which are endemic. Among them are ...
CONTINUE READINGPew calls for federal leadership on climate adaptation
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has issued a report on Adapting to Climate Change: A Call for Federal Leadership. As its title suggests, the report calls for the federal government to take the lead on climate adaptation efforts, creating a national adaptation program with three major elements: strategic planning, information provision, and research. The authors concede that state and local efforts are important, and indeed their suggestions are largely drawn from...
CONTINUE READINGA Picture Speaks a Thousand Words
Do we now have the iconic image of the BP oil spill? The photo above -- of a laughing gull soaked in oil -- appeared in newspapers, on line and on the air yesterday. It seems to capture, as no words can, the tragedy we face as millions of gallons of oil continue to spew from the bottom of the gulf. Is it 2010's Cayahoga River burning? Will the image of the oil soaked gull lead to public cries for action to do something big? Ramp up significantly the regulatio...
CONTINUE READINGKitcher on climate change debates
For those of you with an interest in climate change and access to the journal Science, I recommend Philip Kitcher's "essay review," The Climate Change Debates. Kitcher, a philosopher of science at Columbia University, uses a review of eight recently-published books about climate science, policy, and politics as the basis for an essay about the role of democracy and expertise in policy. After reading it twice, I'm still not sure I understand exactly what Kitcher's views a...
CONTINUE READINGDC Circuit upholds air pollution standards for lead
The Legal Planet team has been so busy fretting over the Gulf oil spill (not to mention getting our grading done) that we've skipped over some important environmental law developments. Here's one. In May, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, upheld EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for lead against an industry challenge. Although the decision doesn't break any new legal ground, its important as an affirmation that the DC Circuit understands the ...
CONTINUE READINGIs BP a Criminal?
Can a corporation, an artificial legal entity, be a criminal? In an op ed. in this morning's NY Times, David Uhlmann argues that BP deserves criminal sanctions: Prosecutors must examine all witness statements, internal documents and any physical evidence that remains after the explosion. But if the news articles are accurate, the Justice Department should bring criminal charges against BP, and possibly Transocean and Halliburton, for violations of the Clean Water Act, t...
CONTINUE READINGUp-to-the-Minute Oil Spills News
Yesterday, I posted a link to websites that are providing good information about the spill. Those sites provide rich sources of information, but they won't necessarily tell you what's happened in the last half hour. Talking Points Memo has a really helpful "news wire" if you want the very latest news. TPM is a "progressive" website, but so far as I can tell there's no political spin to the news links that they post here....
CONTINUE READINGNot So Good At Safety But Great Lobbyists
It's no surprise that the petroleum industry has political heft, but the number (courtesy of the Times) are impressive: The oil and gas industry is a formidable presence in Washington. It spent more on federal lobbying last year than all but two other industries, with $174.8 million in lobbying expenditures, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. Political action committees set up by the oil and gas producers contributed an additi...
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