The perfect political storm
Co-blogger Dan Farber points to a story in Tuesday’s NY Times about a new study by NOAA’s Susan Solomon and others of the environmental effects of allowing carbon dioxide to equilibrate at levels much above its current 385 ppm. As Dan points out, the prospects for already dry areas are frightening. There’s another important lesson …
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CONTINUE READINGDust Bowl Redux
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqiblXFlZuk]According to a story in Tuesday’s New York Times: The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, projects that if carbon dioxide concentrations peak at 600 ppm, several regions of the world — including southwestern North America, the Mediterranean and southern Africa — will face major droughts as bad or …
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CONTINUE READINGEngaging India on Climate
Via the Times of India, along comes the news that the state of Himachal Pradesh, just south of Kashmir, says that it will present a plan to become a carbon-neutral state. I’ll believe it when I see it, although the state seems to have a reasonable business strategy: reforest thousands of acres and sell carbon …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Awesome Power of the Blogosphere
Very early this morning, the good folks at the Northwestern Law Review published my article suggesting that the US Trade Representative serve as the lead agency for subsequent international climate change negotiation. A few hours later, President Obama announced that Todd Stern will serve as his international climate change representative, and work under Hillary Clinton …
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CONTINUE READINGNew federal appointees’ sharp differences will make EPA/OMB relationship one to watch
As Dan notes in an earlier post, Cass Sunstein has been selected to direct the White House office that oversees regulation by agencies, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and budget. An in-depth article in today’s Los Angeles Times discusses the controversy over his nomination among environmental and labor advocates. From the Times: …
CONTINUE READINGLisa Heinzerling to EPA
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has appointed Georgetown law professor Lisa Heinzerling to be her chief advisor on climate change. Heinzerling was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review and clerked for Judge Richard Posner. She co- authored Priceless, a critique of cost benefit analysis, and also wrote the lead brief for the plaintiffs in …
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CONTINUE READINGGood News for California
According to the Washingston Post: Obama will instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider whether to grant California a waiver to regulate automobile tailpipe emissions linked to global warming, sources said, and he will order the Transportation Department to issue guidelines that will ensure that the nation’s auto fleet reaches an average fuel efficiency of …
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CONTINUE READINGNew research points to the need to build resilience to climate change’s impacts
Except when he does not!
While many among us are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the climate is already changing and will continue to change for a long while even if we do everything we can to reduce emissions. As a result, we will need to adapt to our new reality, by building the resilience to deal with changing …
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CONTINUE READINGSunstein and the Environment
To the dismay of many environmentalists, President Obama has selected Professor Cass Sunstein to head a key department at OMB. This department has been in charge of applying cost-benefit analysis to environmental regulations. For example, the Center for Progressive Regulation (CPR) has issued a report expressing great concern about the selection. According to CPR: …
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CONTINUE READINGConservation in a warming world
The latest issue of the journal Science includes another reminder that our current approach to conservation is ill-suited to a world where the climate is changing rapidly. A study led by Phillip van Mentgem of the U.S. Geological Survey (323 Science 521 (Jan. 23, 2009), subscription required) finds that trees are dying more rapidly in …
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