Are we too obsessed with climate change?
Slate has an interesting piece by Brendan Borrell arguing that the current laser-like focus on climate change may be getting in the way of effective conservation measures. As he tells it, being green today "is all about greenhouse gases," to the point that people have forgotten about plain vanilla habitat destruction. That, he thinks, is still by far the greatest threat to biodiversity. Some of Borrell's claims seem a bit overblown, or perhaps misdirected. He complains ...
CONTINUE READINGSome good news from Afghanistan
With the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and others, Afghanistan is in the process of creating its first national park, Band-e-Amir, a region of lakes and waterfalls among the mountains in Bamiyan province. The effort is not without challenges, including an extraordinarily remote location, leftover land mines, and local residents nervous about potential restrictions on fishing and grazing. But park advocates hop...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Adopts Low-Carbon Fuel Standard
Good. The California Air Resources Board has adopted the nation's first mandate to lower the carbon in fuel. As these things go, it's pretty mild: a 10% reduction in carbon footprint by 2020. That hasn't stopped the oil industry from complaining, of course, stating that CARB is "moving too fast." When will it not be moving too fast? When the Gulf Coast is underwater? I expect that there will be lawsuits, but at first blush, pre-emption does not seem to be a problem: th...
CONTINUE READINGCars, Obama and Climate Change
There's big news coming out of Washington and Detroit this week about the fate of U.S. automakers. Rumors surfaced yesterday that G.M. will furlough its U.S. factories for most of the summer due to declines in auto sales. And the Obama Treasury Department is said to be pressuring Chrysler to prepare for bankruptcy, to be filed as early as next week. I have long wondered whether the financial woes of the auto industry would lead the Obama Administration to back a...
CONTINUE READINGFlexing Obama’s administrative muscle (& a victory on home furnaces)
Just after the election, the environmental group Earthjustice published a list of six easy things the Obama administration could do to help the environment. On the list was the suggestion that Obama back off from defending Bush-era failures to ramp up the efficiency of home furnaces--a topic that sounds narrow but has remarkable implications for saving consumers money, reducing nationwide energy demands, and improving greenhouse gas emissions. Several states, enviro...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Mitigation and U.S. Self-Interest
Jody Freeman and my colleague Andrew Guzman have posted an important paper, "Sea Walls are Not Enough." The paper is particularly significant because Jody is now a senior White House advisor on climate policy. The gist of the paper is this: We demonstrate that even if one accepts that the premises of the climate change winner argument - that impacts on the United States will be less severe than elsewhere and that the United States is not morally obliged to help foreign...
CONTINUE READING“Nature,” not nature, makes us happier
Yale professor of psychology Paul Bloom published an essay this week in the New York Times Magazine arguing that the pleasure that "real natural habitats" provide to humans is a significant argument for "preservation" of these habitats. The essay was deeply unsatisfying to me, as it avoided all the hard questions that anyone grappling with the question of what we should preserve, and why, and how, ought to grapple with. As a teacher of natural resources law and polic...
CONTINUE READINGThe death of Macho B
Jaguars, the largest new-world cat species, are extremely rare in the United States. The US-Mexico border region marks the very northern edge of their range. They were thought to have been extirpated from the US until one was seen in Arizona in 1996. That, together with a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, prodded the US Fish and Wildlife Service to finally issue a long-delayed rule listing the jaguar as a domestic endangered species in 1997. Since then, fo...
CONTINUE READINGMake a Gift for Mother Earth
This blog is a joint product of six centers. Each of the centers does pioneering work on the legal and policy issues that need to be solved if our planet is going to have a sustainable future. Consider commemorating Earth Day by making a gift to support our work. It's easy to do. The list of centers is on the right hand side of this page. Just pick one and look for the appropriate link to make an on-line gift. You'll have our fervent thanks -- and your grand...
CONTINUE READINGNanopolicy Bumps in California
California continues to lead the way nationally on nanotechnology regulation, despite some bumps along the way. Most recently, the Department of Toxic Substances Control issued a request for information regarding analytical test methods, fate and transport in the environment, and other relevant information from manufacturers of reactive nanometal oxides. Substances covered include aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide. The request is j...
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