Climate Change
Pricing Carbon: How Would It Affect the Poor?
We need to put a price on carbon, but there is no reason why we should do so in a way that harms the poor.
CONTINUE READINGSome Good News, For a Change
The NY Times reports: On Friday, when President Obama is scheduled to announce even stricter standards — in fact, the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970s — the chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three are expected to be in Washington again. But this …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Climate Denial Like Appeasing Hitler?
Britain’s Energy Secretary thinks so: World leaders who oppose a global agreement to tackle climate change are making a similar mistake to the one made by politicians who tried to appease Adolf Hitler before World War Two, British Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne said on Thursday…. “This is our Munich moment,” he added, referring to …
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CONTINUE READINGNew UCLA Report Takes on California’s Groundwater Management
It’s still the wild west in California when it comes to groundwater management. California depends heavily on groundwater as a source of water supply, but is one of only two western states–the other being Texas–that allows for the withdrawal of groundwater without a permit or any other means of tracking and regulating users. Perhaps not surprisingly, …
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CONTINUE READINGOn light bulbs, politics, and psychology
Dan has (understandably) been quite outraged at efforts in the Republican-controlled House to eliminate energy efficiency standards for light bulbs (which have been inaccurately portrayed as a flat ban on incandescent bulbs, even though new substitutes are being developed). While these efforts might be seen as purely ignorant orjust politically-opportunistic showboating, I think they in …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate protester DeChristopher gets 2-year sentence
Tim DeChristopher, the young man who bid on federal oil and gas leases as a form of protest against global warming, was sentenced yesterday to 2 years in prison, 3 additional years on probation, and a $10,000 fine. DeChristopher was convicted in March of placing false bids at a federal auction, after his attempt to …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Greening of South Korea
Lincoln Davies has a nice post over at Environmental Law Prof about clean energy in South Korea. He discusses a conference relating to Korea’s planned change from a feed-in-tariff to a renewable portfolio standard as means of promoting clean energy. Most Americans aren’t aware of this, but Korea has embraced “green growth” as a national …
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CONTINUE READING“Too Darn Hot”:The Summer of 2011 and the New Normal
DotEarth, the NY Times environmental blog, has a nice posting about how the current heat wave fits into climate-change predictions. It seems clear that the “summer of 2011 is emblematic of the new climatological norms that are emerging as conditions neatly echo longstanding projections of the consequences of steadily raising the concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.” …
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CONTINUE READINGWhitebark pine in ESA limbo
Cross-posted at The Berkeley Blog. Today the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the whitebark pine, an iconic tree of the high-elevation American west, qualifies for listing as an endangered or threatened species. The combined impacts of disease, insect infestation, climate change, and fire suppression mean that the whitebark pine could disappear within a couple …
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CONTINUE READINGFrogs, Boiling Water, and Climate Change: For the Record
Catching up on my LegalPlanet reading after being gone for a couple of weeks (and who doesn’t do that first?), I noticed Dan’s post referencing the famous story about frogs not jumping out of hot water if you put them in when it’s tepid. Referring to humanity’s inability to combat climate change, Dan asks: “are humans smarter than …
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