Climate Change
Should Obama Go To Copenhagen?
President Obama has, of course, already been to Copenhagen once this year — in his quest to bring the Olympics to Chicago — and brought nothing home to show for it. The stakes for the December United Nations Climate Change Conference are obviously much higher: the negotiation of an international agreement to govern greenhouse gas emissions …
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CONTINUE READING101 (Or So) Useful Responses to Climate Skeptics
I know a lot of people who have occasion, for one reason or another, to deal with climate skeptics. Sometimes this happens at public events, sometimes at Thanksgiving dinners. There are a lot of arguments that skeptics use, and it’s hard to carry around the responses to all of them in your head. I’ve just …
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CONTINUE READINGCommon Sense is Bipartisan
The WaPo story speaks for itself: “Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming,” admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I’d buy some fire insurance.” An oil-state senator, David …
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CONTINUE READINGCorporate Law and Climate Change
In an important but under-reported development, the Obama has shifted policy on corporate reporting of climate risks. According to Greenwire, In a policy reversal long sought by shareholder advocates, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled yesterday that investors can directly call on public companies to describe the financial risks they face from global warming. …
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CONTINUE READINGNews on the Political Front
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post had lead stories on the politics of climate change legislation. The Post’s story centered on the increasing focus of the debate on the economic impact of climate legislation and on the difficulty of establishing the facts: In anticipation, groups on the left and the right — as …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Nuisance Suits Heat Up: Fifth Circuit Follows Connecticut v. AEP
Well, I didn’t expect this one. The Fifth Circuit, in Comer v. Murphy Oil Co., has agreed to follow the Second Circuit by construing Massachusetts v. EPA’s standing holding very broadly. It has allowed a class action by private plaintiffs on a common-law public nuisance claim, for damages occurring from greenhouse gas emissions, to move …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy You Should Worry About Climate Change Even If You Don’t Think It Is Going To Happen
Even if you think that carbon emissions won’t cause uncertainty, you should think seriously about hedging that bet.
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental “Poetry” (Yet Again)
There once was a coal company, Which fought cap-and-trade mightily. “Costs too much,” they complained, “Emissions can’t be contained, Or our profits will face jeopardy.” There once was a scientist (or two), Whose work couldn’t pass peer review: “It’s all cosmic rays, Or perhaps high-level haze, Or something else besides plain CO2.”
CONTINUE READINGOptimism on a Climate Bill?
At least, optimism seems to be the White House message, according to a TPM report: On Friday the president urged speed in the broader shift in U.S. energy priorities and said he believed lawmakers — many of whom are skeptical of the energy bill — are following. “It is a transformation that will be made …
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CONTINUE READINGMore Environmental “Poetry”
A couple of ditties sent to us by some friends: There once was a climate denier Who said, “Let the carbon go higher. From the facts let us run, ‘Cause coal’s cheap by the ton, And who cares if the planet’s on fire?” There once was a man named Inhofe, Whose knowledge of science was …
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