Climate Change
The Fire This Time
Here in southern California, we are currently living through our annual late August-early September ritual of wildfires. In the San Fernando Valley, where I live, the air is heavy with smoke, and people are staying inside. It was worse in Pasadena, where I attend a Quaker meeting, and where the houses of several Friends are …
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CONTINUE READINGInsurance in a Complex World
Roger Cook and Carolyn Kousky make some intriguing points in an article in the Summer issue of Resources. They discuss three problems confronting insurance companies, all of them probably exacerbated by climate change: fat tails, tail dependence, and micro-correlations. Although the names may not be self-explanatory, these are phenomena with great significance for society’s management …
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CONTINUE READINGUCLA environmental law journal publishes new work on personal norms and carbon emissions, and on other interesting topics
Following in Dan’s footsteps as promoters of our respective schools’ excellent environmental law journals, I’m proud to announce that the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy Volume 27, #1 was published this summer. This journal issue features several interesting pieces. They include a thought-provoking Comment by second-year UCLA law student Jed Ela, Law and Norms …
CONTINUE READINGMore on the Chamber of Commerce’s extraordinary demand for a “Scopes trial” on climate change
UPDATE: regarding the standard of judicial review of any on-the-record hearing (discussed below), see the comments: commenter Steve Taber disagrees with my initial analysis, and he may be right (though I don’t have time to look into it further today). ORIGINAL POST: Holly has written a thoughtful post discussing the meritlessness and cynicism of the …
CONTINUE READINGNews of the Day
There’s a lot of interesting stuff out there. Not as interesting as Legal Planet, maybe, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Here’s some of the latest: What Happened to Acid Rain? How we (partially) solved a major environmental problem. China is Taking over the Solar Energy Market. Apparently somebody thinks there’s money in …
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CONTINUE READINGPavley-Waxman Hearing at UCLA
As Cara posted yesterday, California State Senator Fran Pavley and Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) hosted a joint Climate Change forum today at UCLA. As predicted, protesters gathered outside the event but the anti-cap and trade crowd was quite small. Here are photos showing a few protesters: In contrast to the small number of Waxman opponents, a larger crowd turned …
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CONTINUE READINGExxon-China Natural Gas Deal
Greenwire reports: PetroChina Co., a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., today signed a 20-year, $41 billion deal to buy gas from ExxonMobil Corp., Australian Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said. Exxon will mine the gas from its 25 percent share of Australia’s Gorgon gas field, Ferguson said, moving the offshore project one step …
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CONTINUE READINGNew Issue of Ecology Law Quarterly is Available On-Line
Creating Flexibility in Interstate Compacts Emily Jeffers Read Article (PDF) Environmental Conservation Organization v. City of Dallas Creates Unnecessary Burdens for Citizen Suits under the Clean Water Act Catherine Mongeon Read Article (PDF) Making Snow in the Desert: Defining a Substantial Burden under RFRA Jonathan Knapp Read Article (PDF) Taking a Hard Look at Agency …
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CONTINUE READINGAnd You Think Health Care Is Controversial?
In watching the insanity of the debate over health care reform in the past couple of weeks I can’t help but wonder what the debate over climate change legislation will bring. Lest you think the right wing opponents of health care reform can’t be beat in their intensity and rhetorical outrage, consider the following two …
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CONTINUE READINGMeat and climate change redux
Back in January, I blogged about the link between meat production and GHGs. Grist.org has taken up this issue recently, with an interesting article by Tom Philpott making the case that U.S. livestock production is a significant contributor to GHG emissions, and a rebuttal from farmer Eliot Coleman. As Philpott’s article notes, a U.N. FAO …
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