Academia

Educational Equality as an Environmental Issue

This is the first in an occasional series about surprising dimensions of environmental problems. Today’s thesis is that  promoting educational equality in developing countries would be a good thing for the environment.  In other words, environmentalists should favor directing more educational funds to girls rather than following the norm in many countries, which is to …

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Honorary Degree for Joe Sax

We were delighted to learn that Joe Sax, the eminent environmental law scholar, will receive an honorary degree on May 20 from Columbia University. Congratulations, Joe!

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Going to the Dogs? Unfair Attacks on Cass Sunstein

A lot of environmentalists are uncomfortable about Cass Sunstein’s appointment as “regulatory czar” at OMB.  Reasonable people may differ about the validity of those concerns.  But now he’s been attacked from another direction — conservatives eager to paint him as an animal-rights fanatic who wants to ban hunting.  For instance, For one particularly colorful attack, …

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Cap and Trade? Huh??

It turns out that hardly anyone except politicos and policy wonks knows what cap-and-trade means or that it relates to climate change.  According to Rasmussen, Given a choice of three options, just 24% of voters can correctly identify the cap-and-trade proposal as something that deals with environmental issues. A slightly higher number (29%) believe the …

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A New Website on Climate Economics

Real Climate Economics offers a wealth of information from a pro-regulatory perspective: The Real Climate Economics website offers a reader’s guide to the real economics of climate change, an emerging body of scholarship that is consistent with the urgency of the problem as seen from a climate science perspective. As the climate policy debate intensifies, …

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Another Batch of Free On-Line Classes

In case, the headline is misleading: no, we don’t give credit to on-line viewers.  Maybe someday soon Berkeley Law will get into the distance education business, but not yet.  So you won’t get credit, but you’ll still learn a lot. Law 271.71 – International Environmental Law – Cymie Payne (Spring 2009): http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2009-B-49982|2009-B-49985&semesterid=2009-B Law 272.1 – …

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California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard–& a Paean to Applied Scholarship

Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the California Air Resources Board’s pioneering decision last week to mandate carbon-based reductions in state transportation fuels. These regulations, known as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), are the first of their kind in the United States. More importantly, the LCFS is an integral part of CARB’s ambitious plan …

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More Free On-Line Courses

These classes are very popular with Berkeley students.  They’ve had thousands of downloads already. Law 270.7 – Renewable Energy & Alternative Fuels – Steve Weissman (Fall 2008): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=214AD3BA0B8D3FBA Law 270.6 – Energy Regulations and the Environment – Steve Weissman (Spring 2008): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8256AD22B9C1CE53 Law 271 – Environmental Law and Policy – Holly Doremus (Spring 2008): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4A26CE52D23C831D

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“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 …

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Make 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 …

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