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A new twist in the Christmas tree debate — GloTrees!
(Warning — tongue firmly in cheek.) Megan and Dan have written on how an environmentally-minded winter holiday enthusiast should choose between a real and an artificial Christmas tree. The comparison already isn’t easy, but it could get even more complicated. What if the “natural” tree were genetically engineered to glow in the dark? Two UK …
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CONTINUE READINGResolving the Artificial vs. Natural Holiday Tree Debate
Three years ago, Dan posted about the Great Environmental Christmas Tree Debate: Which has greater environmental impacts, a real or artificial holiday tree? As of his 2009 post, Dan was unable to find a life-cycle analysis (LCA) comparing the “cradle-to-grave” (pinecone-to-mulch? petroleum-based plastic polymers-to-photo-degraded plastic gyre particles?) impacts of holiday tree alternatives. Fortunately, we now …
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CONTINUE READINGEcology Law Quarterly’s 2012 Annual Review issue is out
ELQ has just published its Annual Review of Natural Resources and Environmental Law. Check out these articles: Alexander J. Bandza, Epidemiological-Study Reanalyses and Daubert: A Modest Proposal to Level the Playing Field in Toxic Tort Litigation Gabrielle Cuskelly, Factors to Consider in Applying a Presumption Against Preemption to State Environmental Regulations Catherine Groves, To Promote …
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CONTINUE READINGRedeeming FEMA: How the Agency has Been Strengthened Since Katrina
Today’s FEMA is a lot different from the organization that flubbed the Katrina response. There have been a number of positive changes, mostly during the past four years. First, as the Washington Post explains, FEMA’s authority has expanded: Congress has broadened FEMA’s authority so that the agency can respond in advance of major storms, instead …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental and Urban Economics in Six Minute Videos
This is an infomercial. On youtube, I will be posting 70 short videos focused on key ideas in environmental and urban economics. I’m hoping to reach a wide audience. All of the videos in order are posted here. Download as PDF
CONTINUE READINGCanada’s ocean fertilization flap, and its significance
There’s a ruckus going on over an experiment in ocean fertilization conducted off the coast of British Columbia in July and disclosed this week (see here, and here). The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, an enterprise of the Haida village of Old Massett, used a large fishing vessel to spread 100 tons of iron sulfate-rich dust …
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CONTINUE READINGBarry Commoner and Our Interconnected World
Barry Commoner was born in Brooklyn in 1917 and died there yesterday, having helped conceptualize environmentalism in the meantime. You can learn more about his life from the NY Times obituary. Commoner is probably best known today for his four environmental “laws”: Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. …
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CONTINUE READINGRoger Cohen Has a Lazy Day
I suppose that it’s tough writing two 750-word columns each week; that’s why the NYT’s Roger Cohen decided to rehash his hatchet job on organic foods in today’s paper. In a previous column, Cohen ridiculed fans of organic food, pointing to a Stanford study finding that organic foods were no healthier for human beings than …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat foie gras and low carbon fuels have in common
Many of you may have heard of California’s ban on foie gras. The ban was signed into law in 2004 by that notorious hippie, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but did not take effect until 2012. Fewer of you may be aware of the current litigation over California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) program. Litigation concerning both …
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CONTINUE READINGOrganic Farming and the Environment
A Stanford study of organic food garnered lots of media attention last week (here’s coverage on NPR, in the New York Times and on CNN). The bottom line: organic foods, by and large, according to the Stanford researchers, confer few health advantages when compared to their conventional counterparts. Critics of the study — or at least of the media coverage …
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