Climate Change
Dear 2026 1L
Today’s entering law students are preparing to start careers at a critical time for the environment.
Welcome to law school. You’re beginning your life in the law at a critical time. What we do together between now and 2035 will determine what your lives look like in 2050 and 2080, and what your children and grandchildren will see in the next century. So, grab your books, get yourselves ready, and be prepared to head for the legal trenches when you graduate. No time to waste!
You May Have Forgotten About Climate Change. But It Hasn’t Forgotten About You
Denial is a great coping mechanism. Until reality turns around and bites you.
Climate change is, apparently, passé. Democratic politicians are avoiding the topic and dialing back ambitious plans to reduce emissions. The President apparently doesn’t think it exists, and the government’s official position is that its effects are too uncertain to worry about. Denial isn’t the world’s best coping mechanism, but it works, at least temporarily. The problem is that, while sometimes that lump you were worried about does go away, sometimes it keep growing and getting harder to treat. In the end, reality doesn’t much care whether you believe in it.
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What the Disappearing Danube Could Tell Us About the Colorado
Today’s drought may not be the worst-case scenario for the Colorado
What’s happened to the Danube is a scary reminder that what we’re seeing today on the Colorado isn’t necessarily the worst case. The situation on the Danube is truly dire. The “Blue Danube” memorialized by the Strauss waltz is now only nine inches deep in Budapest. Cargo ships have come to a halt. Nuclear reactors have shut down for lack of cooling water. Meanwhile, the Colorado is suffering from the worst drought in at least 1200 years, raising fears about the fate of its shrinking reservoirs. And things could get worse.
CONTINUE READINGStrategies for the 2030s
We lost the Battle of 2025. But we haven’t last the fight for sustainability.
Two recent models have some welcome news: Trump’s rollbacks and assault on the Inflation Reduction Act have not been as cataclysmic as feared. At least not yet. The models come from different sources — an MIT researcher and the Rhodium firm — using different methodologies. The models also have implications about the next steps in climate policy. Both models highlight the critical need to rip down barriers to clean energy and transmission build out.
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Clinic Files Brief Supporting DC’s Clean Buildings Act in DC Circuit
Energy law experts explain local governments’ longstanding primary authority over local gas distribution and use.
Last Friday, UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic filed a DC Circuit brief in support of the District of Columbia’s Clean Buildings Act on behalf of 11 leading energy and environmental law professors: UCLA’s own William Boyd, Lincoln Davies at the University of Utah, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Alexandra Klass …
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CONTINUE READINGEscalating the War on Science
Now the National Academies are in the cross-hairs.
The National Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine are at the pinnacle of American science. Recently, President Trump President Donald Trump ordered a so-called suspension and debarment investigation into the National Academies for what a supposedly “fraudulent, biased, and misleading” report on climate change. The Academies, he said, are “run by Radical Left Dumocrats,” which is apparently more than enough reason to ban them from government funding.
CONTINUE READINGCanada in Flames
What’s causing the fires? What harm do they do? What should we do?
One of the world’s great disasters is unfolding, as fires have covered millions of acres in Canada, destroying pristine ecosystems and poisoning the air for millions of people. Something like seven million acres have already burned. The U.S. government’s response is to threaten Canada with tariffs, apparently as punishment for allegedly having poorly managed its forests. Instead, we should be partnering with Canada on forest management, and we should cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are ramping up the fire risk.
CONTINUE READINGCan We Avoid Another Day Zero?
From Texas to the Global South, Local Governments Need New Tools To Protect Their Water
You might recall “Day Zero,” when in 2018, the City of Cape Town came perilously close to running out of water entirely. Only severe rationing and a good rainy season saved the Mother City. Now it looks like Corpus Christi Texas might be the next victim. Two years ago, I received a Fulbright Scholarship to …
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CONTINUE READINGBring Back “Trump Classic”
The original version of Trump was bad. The current version is much worse.
Trump has succeeded in his second term in making every past President including even himself look better. We’re now almost a year and a half into Trump’s second term. From almost every point of view, it’s worse than his first term. It reminds me of the “New Coke” that Coca Cola once introduced, which was a disaster that led to the reintroduction of what was then dubbed “Coke Classic.” Trump Classic was committed to fossil fuels and eliminating environmental protections. But in almost every respect, his policies were less radical and his methods were less drastic.
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