Climate Change
Two Cheers for Environmental Justice Cynicism
Ann is a little puzzled about what the environmental justice community hopes to achieve by suing the state over cap-and-trade: why would a carbon tax be better? she asks. Sean says that we need to understand that the EJ community is deeply committed to a series of process-oriented goals, and believe that these goals have …
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CONTINUE READINGReflections on environmental justice and AB 32’s emissions trading program
I have a few thoughts on environmental justice and the new court decision halting implementation of the AB 32 scoping plan, inspired by my colleague Ann Carlson’s post, and the comments on that post. Reflecting on the environmental justice community’s successful (at least temporarily) attack on greenhouse gas emissions trading in California – and on the …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Dump Trucks v. CARB
The California Dump Truck Owners Association (“CDTOA”) filed suit in February 2011 against the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”). The suit alleges that CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation, which is part of the suite of regulations under AB 32 to address greenhouse gas emissions, is unconstitutional. CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation sets stricter emissions standards for …
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CONTINUE READINGEducation and Views About Climate Change
A political science blog called the Monkey Cage (the name is a reference to an irreverent remark by H.L. Mencken) has an interesting post about education and views about climate change. As you would expect, education is positively correlated with a better understanding of the science — but only for liberals. Educated conservatives are no …
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CONTINUE READINGAB 32 Lawsuit: Assessing the Environmental Justice Arguments Against Cap and Trade
As Cara wrote yesterday, a California court has put AB 32 on hold temporarily on the grounds that in preparing its scoping plan, the California Air Resources Board failed to assess alternatives to its plan with appropriate detail. In particular, the court took issue with CARB’s failure , under the California Environmental Quality Act, to …
CONTINUE READINGClimate Adaptation Across the Pond
In the U.K., climate adaptation is mandated by statute, with primary responsibility in a single government agency and specific implementation requirements for local authorities. In the U.S., we can only envy the extent to which even the current Conservative government is taking the issue of climate change seriously. A 2005 Climate Change Programme report helpfully …
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CONTINUE READINGCourt issues final ruling in AB 32 challenge — enjoins implementation of AB 32 scoping plan pending CEQA fixes
On Friday, a California superior court judge handed down his decision in the challenge, brought by environmental justice advocates, to the state’s implementation of AB 32, California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. The decision is available here. More analysis to come. On first read, the decision looks very similar to the tentative decision issued by the …
CONTINUE READINGMelting the Ice
Real Climate has an informative post on melting in Greenland and Antarctica, which seems to be higher than projected by the last IPCC report. This could add about another 15 cm (about six inches) to sea level rise by the end of the century: [A]t the continental scale, there is a new assessment of the …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Impacts in China
The received wisdom used to be that climate change would have relatively little impact on China. But that views seems outdated. Like the United States, China is large and geographically diverse; as such, the impacts of climate change vary across the country. For example, the Chinese government reports that the “frequency of heat waves in …
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CONTINUE READINGNot even NASA rockets are cooperating with climate scientists these days
I heard renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen speak at UCLA last week, and one of his key messages was that we need to get a better handle on the importance and effect of aerosols on the Earth’s warming. He was quite excited about the launch of a new NASA satellite that would gather data to tell …
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