Flexing 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...
CONTINUE READINGWaxman-Markey hearings
As Dan mentioned in his post yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding hearings through Friday on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, dubbed The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Climate Progress has the schedule here. The hearings can be viewed live or after the fact at the Committee's website, here....
CONTINUE READINGGetting to the root of recurring water conflicts
This post is co-authored by A. Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and cross-posted by permission from the Island Press Eco-Compass blog. The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water systems. Today, those systems face two challenges that were not anticipated when they were developed decades ago...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Legislation: Is the Train (Finally) Leaving the Station?
I posted yesterday about Rep. Boehner's bone-headed statement about climate change. My first thought was that this was completely idiotic, making a childish argument that even George W. Bush would have scorned. The fact that some CO2 is normal and even necessary proves nothing about what happens when concentrations go beyond the normal level: salt is essential in small doses but you'd die of thirst drinking sea water. Even apart from the demonstration of abysmal ...
CONTINUE READINGFlunking Climate 101
John Boehner, the House Republican leader, explains his view of climate change to George Stephanopoulos: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen, that it's harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, uh, well, you know when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide. You can see the video here....
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