The Top 10 Environmental Developments of 2009

10. Cass Sunstein becomes regulatory czar. Sunstein is a true believer in cost-benefit analysis, the bête noire of many an environmentalist.  Obama’s appointment of Sunstein to oversee health and environmental regulations may put the brakes on regulatory initiatves. 9.  California passes AB 758. The first mandate for energy efficiency standards for existing buildings. 8. Water wars moving east. We tend to think of water disputes as Western.  But that’s hanging:...

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60 Minutes flubs the California water story

Last night, 60 Minutes had a long story on the California water crisis, featuring Lesley Stahl interviewing (among others) Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC Davis professor Jeff Mount. On the positive side, the story accurately portrayed the vulnerability of California's fragile through-Delta water delivery system to a major earthquake or catastrophic levee break. But CBS News flubbed the overall storyline. In typical media fashion, it oversimplified the story to "Delta smel...

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Copenhagen– The NRDC View

David Doniger, of NRDC, has posted his assessment of the Copenhagen Accord.  It's more positive than a lot of what we heard right after the conference ended.  His conclusion: So give up the sour and grudging reviews.  The Copenhagen Accord is a significant breakthrough that signals a new era of effective cooperation between all major emitters, and opens the door to finally enacting U.S. climate and energy legislation next year. Doniger started work with NRDC thirty ...

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Legal Scholarship on Climate Change

I did a survey of all articles with "climate change" in the title in the past couple of years, and then did a rough breakdown of topics.  Although the survey was  unscientific, the results were intriguing: Topic Number of Articles Adaptation Biodiversity and public lands 11 Governance 5 Public health 1 Water 6 Economics 9 Ethics 10 General 41 Mitigation Energy 20 Instrument choice and design 19 Federalism 36 Land use 5 Litigation 29 ...

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Another enviro law prof in the administration

It's a time for catching up, so here's an appointment I'm embarrassed to admit I missed when it was announced. Marcilynn Burke has taken a leave from the University of Houston Law Center to become Deputy Director (Programs and Policy) of the Bureau of Land Management. This is a terrific appointment. The BLM is the nation's largest land manager, but its more than 250 million acres, lacking the charisma of the national parks or the national forest system, have too often be...

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Christianity and Environmental Stewardship

The title of this post refers to a subject that I lack standing to discuss.  But this being Christmas, I thought it might be appropriate to link to the Evangelical Environmental Network, which has this to say: The earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land...Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in...

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The Great Environmental Christmas Tree Debate

Real or artificial? I haven't been able to find a full lifecycle analysis of the environmental impacts.  The real trees don't release carbon when they're growing, but it does take carbon to get a fresh tree to market every year.  The artificial ones require carbon but only have to be shipped once.  In addition, there are possible health effects from the artificial tree.  And so on and so on.  One site recommends the real tree primarily because it can be recycled an...

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Copenhagen in a Nutshell

Rob Stavins has a good, concise overview of the session and the outcome on the Belfer Center website.  Not as negative as some other observers, he highlights the extraordinary procecess that resulted in the Copenhagen Accord: It is virtually unprecedented in international negotiations for heads of government (or heads of state) to be directly engaged in, let alone lead, negotiations, but that is what transpired in Copenhagen. Although the outcome is less than many peo...

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After Copenhagen — Where Do We Go From Here?

Copenhagen was a letdown, and it would have been a complete disaster without President Obama's last-minute efforts.  Where do we go from here?  How do we get the climate change effort back on track? We'll be holding a conference at Berkeley on January 28 to explore those issues.  "Beyond Copenhagen: Forging a Global Response to Climate Change," will feature a spectrum of Berkeley experts, nearly all of whom were at Copenhagen: Panel 1: The International Dynamic Wha...

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Copenhagen: The Story Isn’t Over Yet

For those who are interested, the text of the accord can be found here.  There's an important feature that does not seem to have gotten much attention, found in paragraphs 4 and 5.  Paragraph 4 says: Annex I Parties commit to implement individually or jointly the quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted in the format given in Appendix I by Annex I Parties to the secretariat by 31 January 2010 for compilation in an INF document. Annex I Partie...

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