Region: International
Should Environmental Lawyers Care about the Alien Tort Statute?
The Supreme Court term tomorrow opens with a bang: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which has assumed very large significance in the international human rights community. But should Legal Planet readers care? I think that they should. The plaintiffs in Kiobel allege that Royal Dutch Petroleum (better known in the United States as Shell Oil) …
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CONTINUE READINGYour Legal Planet Weekend Movie: Watch the Greenland Ice Sheet Melt!
Forget the cinema or Netflix. Legal Planet can meet your movie viewing needs. This video highlights research done by Dr. Laurence Smith at the UCLA Department of Geography, who spent the summer on the Greenland ice sheet tracking its melting. Somehow seeing the melting happen from the ground has more of an emotional impact for …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and National Security
The two parties disagree sharply about whether climate change can be considered a threat to our national security. A recent paper by Andrew Guzman (Berkeley) and Jody Freeman (Harvard) summarizes the support for this idea among serious students of national security: In 2008, the National Intelligence Council produced the most comprehensive analysis to date of …
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CONTINUE READINGGreen Tradeoffs
The NY Times reports that Japan and France are phasing out their reliance on nuclear power. As an environmentalist, should this make me happy? It doesn’t. How confident are you that renewables such as wind and solar can replace nuclear power at roughly the same cost? In the short run, GHG emissions in …
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CONTINUE READINGParty Differences on Energy and Environment: A Side-by-Side Comparison
After I posted a description of the Republican platform, a reader suggested that a side-by-side comparison would be helpful when the Democratic Platform came out. Here it is, presented as objectively as I could. Subject Democratic Platform Republican Platform Regulatory reform Give president power to reorganize agencies. Congressional approval required for all major rules. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Irony of Todd Akin
Todd Akin’s views about rape and pregnancy are crazy, and he deserves his current political plight. The irony is that Akin is by no means the most extreme of the current crop of Senate candidates. In fact, in a recent blog post, I decided not to lump him with the other tea party candidates because …
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CONTINUE READINGThe ADB’s New Essay on “Green Urbanization in Asia”
Over the last few months, I’ve been working with economists at the ADB on the annual Key Indicators Special Chapter. “Green Urbanization in Asia” was recently published. This chapter covers a lot of ground but I think it does a very good job in presenting the core issues and challenges and discussing a …
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CONTINUE READINGCruz, Fischer and Mourdock: Three Tea Party Senate Candidates Versus the Environment.
Tea Party candidates defeated less extreme conservatives in three GOP Senate nominating contests. Their environmental views are ultra-Right Wing. These candidates should be right on your wavelength — if you think that there’s a plan for U.N. world domination, that EPA should be gutted or abolished, and that climate change is a deliberate hoax by …
CONTINUE READINGThe Dark Subcontinent
Chaos has reigned over massive swathes of India during the last few days, as much of the northern part of the country outside of major urban centers has been without power. The New York Times has excellent spot coverage, but a deeper analysis comes from John Elliott’s invaluable blog, Riding the Elephant. The government has …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Economist on Natural Gas: Slouching Toward Mediocrity
I was quite interested in finding last week that The Economist’s most recent major survey is about natural gas. Given the explosion of natural gas resources (uh…so to speak) and the world’s growing reliance on it, I needed to get up to speed. Besides, from a climate perspective, getting the fracking issue right is crucial. …
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