Academia
The environmental community mourns the passing of climate science giant Stephen Schneider
Dr. Stephen Schneider, the pioneering Stanford climate scientist whose passion for the topic and concern for the earth’s future led him to become an outspoken public advocate for the role of scientific evidence and scientific judgment in shaping climate policy, has died at age 65 of an apparent heart attack. Andy Revkin of the New …
CONTINUE READINGA new environmental law prof blog
Jason Czarnezki, who teaches environmental and natural resources law at Vermont Law School, has a new blog, Czarnezki.com: Life, Law, and the Environment. Jason often has interesting things to say about the relationship of everyday life to environmentalism and environmental law. His blog is sure to be worth checking out.
CONTINUE READINGPhilip P. Frickey — A Life in the Law
I am sad beyond words to have to report the death of my friend and colleague Phil Frickey. His death is a great loss to Berkeley and the legal academy more generally. In terms of his scholarship, Phil was a major figure in constitutional law, but was probably best known among legal academics for his …
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CONTINUE READINGClimategate Bites the Dust
It was a faked, trumped-up scandal from the beginning, and now it’s official nonsense: An American scientist accused of manipulating research findings on climate science was cleared of that charge by his university on Thursday, the latest in a string of reports to find little substance in the allegations known as Climategate. This comes on …
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CONTINUE READINGNews Flash: Richard Lazarus to be Executive Director of Deepwater Horizon Team
DOE has announced: The co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling have selected a highly regarded Georgetown University law professor to serve as the commission’s executive director. Richard Lazarus, the Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Professor of Law at Georgetown, will lead the staff of the …
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CONTINUE READING“Facing Catastrophe”: A Roadmap to a Safer Future
Rob Verchick’s new book, “Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World,” might help avoid future disasters like the Deepsea Horizon blowout. Verchick views wetlands, lakes, forests, and rivers as a kind of infrastructure, providing ecosystem services that are just as important as the services provided by other infrastructure such as roads and dams. For …
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CONTINUE READINGKitcher on climate change debates
For those of you with an interest in climate change and access to the journal Science, I recommend Philip Kitcher’s “essay review,” The Climate Change Debates. Kitcher, a philosopher of science at Columbia University, uses a review of eight recently-published books about climate science, policy, and politics as the basis for an essay about the …
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CONTINUE READINGUVA Defends Academic Freedom
The Virgnia Attorney General, taking a little time off from his frivolous litigation against healthcare reform, is engaged in a fishing expedition against the University of Virginia. He has issued a sweeping civil investigative demand (CID) for university records relating to climate researcher Michael Mann, for no evident legitimate purpose. After some equivocation, the University …
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CONTINUE READINGIn Memoriam: Jamie Grodsky
We learned this weekend of the tragic death of Jamie Grodsky, a rising star in environmental law who taught at George Washington University. She died after a brief illness. Jamie joined the GW faculty in 2006, after serving as an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Jamie was a meticulous scholar …
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CONTINUE READING…in which I become petty and backbiting — sort of
Elena Kagan might not be the greatest scholar in the world — and that might be why President Obama appoints her to the Supreme Court.
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