Climate Change

More on reengineering – what about the oceans?

Regarding Dan’s post on reengineering the planet, one more shortcoming of the commonly discussed geoengineering solutions (even assuming they work exactly as designed and have none of the unintended consequences Dan, and others, fear) is that they are far from complete, leaving out entirely any remedy for ocean acidification, the “other” greenhouse gas problem.  More info on …

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Should We Reengineer the Planet?

RealClimate has an interesting, detailed posting about geo-engineering as a response to climate change, mostly emphasizing the areas that would require more research before it could be seriously considered.  Here’s the conclusion paragraph: The real consensus, as expressed at the National Academy conference and in the AMS statement, is that mitigation needs to be our …

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China, Congress and Climate Change

This week brings two related and interesting stories on the prospects for domestic climate change legislation and progress in Copenhagen when the international community gathers in December to try to hammer out a post-Kyoto treaty on climate change.  The first is that China’s top climate negotiator is “optimistic” that the international community will reach agreement on …

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The need for, and challenges of, climate adaptation

When it comes to climate change, lawyers and policymakers (and scientists too) have been guilty of emphasizing greenhouse gas emission reduction, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Adapting to climate change has taken a distant back seat, even as it has become increasingly clear that the world is already committed to some pretty dramatic …

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Noah’s Art

Having just made my first trip to the Art Institute in Chicago, I was primed for this feature in Grist on the state of climate art.  If one can judge a movement by its artists, it seems we still have a fair ways to go–though I like this Venus. Also like this slideshow of climate activists around …

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Trade laws and climate change regulation

Co-authored by Jesse Swanhuyser, UCLA Law class of 2011, formerly a fair trade advocate in California and Washington D.C. A prior version of this article first appeared in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, on July 23. As discussed in other posts on this blog, last month was particularly challenging for those working toward national and international climate agreements. At …

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Managing Technology and Dangerous Climate Change

The risk of catastrophic climate change puts uncertainties associated with innovative energy and carbon sequestration technology in a new light, and the short time for effective greenhouse gas emission reduction challenges public decision-making processes. Interest in this topic has been spurred by the drive to bring new energy and green house gas emission reduction technologies …

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Offsets and Waxman Markey

Will the massive number of offsets allowed under the proposed Waxman-Markey climate change bill destroy its effectiveness?   Waxman-Markey allows for a huge number of offsets from both domestic and international sources – up to 2 billion tons.   Some analysts estimate that if all of these offsets are used domestic emissions will not begin to decline until …

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New Report on Infrastructure at Risk

Resources for the Future, one of the least partisan of Washington think tanks, has issued a new report entitled Adapting to Climate Change: The Public Policy Response – Public Infrastructure by James E. Neumann and Jason C. Price.   The report makes three major recommendations for how to improve infrastructure planning in light of climate change: …

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