Culture & Ethics
Stopping High Speed Sprawl
California Governor Jerry Brown has doubled down on his support for the state’s proposed high speed rail system, despite the uncertainty about how to pay for it and growing public opposition. But who can blame him? If the rail system does get built, it will be the defining infrastructure project in the state for generations …
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CONTINUE READING“Developing Nations Can’t Afford Environmentalism”
At least that’s what you hear a lot from some environmental skeptics. Because poor countries are so desperate for economic growth and to lift their people out of poverty, they cannot be expected to protect their environment. (You hear that from a lot for developing nations, too). They might want to take a look at …
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CONTINUE READINGDoes Anti-Environmental Literature Exist?
Paradise, For Some If you check out any list of top environmental writing (ours, for instance), you’ll notice that it is less a list of writing about the environment, and more a list of writing concerning how to protect the environment. In other words, at some level it takes an explicit normative view. Now, that normative …
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CONTINUE READINGEncouraging Green Supply Chains
The recent news reports about Apple’s supply chains raises similar issues about “green supply chains”. Modern products, such as a hybrid vehicle or a cell phone or a computer or solar panels and batteries, are complex creatures. In producing such products through a global supply chain, what environmental harm has been created? Do major …
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CONTINUE READINGHow “Moneyball” Can Make A Great Downtown
Michael Lewis’s Moneyball was more than a book about how the small-market Oakland Athletics employed unconventional, statistics-based methods to beat bigger-money teams in the game of baseball. The genius of the book — and I’m probably biased here as a lifelong Oakland A’s fan — was its ability to expose human beings’ flawed sense of …
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CONTINUE READINGCurling Up In Front of the (Carcinogenic) Fireplace
Everyone loves to sit in front of a cozy fireplace — not surprising, given the role of fire in the evolution of our species. Hominids who hated campfires probably didn’t survive to leave many descendants. Sadly, our Stone Age instincts are leading us astray. Firewood should probably carry the same kind of warnings as cigarettes. …
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CONTINUE READINGInformation or Ideology? The Dilemmas of a Property Professor
It often occurs in teaching law school classes that opportunities present themselves for discussing current issues. And that presents a problem: how can a teacher do it without engaging in ideological indoctrination? The easiest way is to avoid the issue entirely. But is that also avoiding the responsibility to actually address important topics? I ran …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Incomplete Information Still Be Cause For Alarm?
How much comfort should people take from the remaining gaps in our knowledge of climate change. Not much, is the answer. Scientists have learned a lot about climate, but there are still pieces of the puzzle that are yet to be filled in. Here’s a nice picture that Nobel Laureate Mario Molina uses to show …
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CONTINUE READINGQuote of the Day: Edward Abbey
A weird lovely fantastic object out of nature, like Delicate Arch, has the curious ability to remind us — like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness — that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men …
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CONTINUE READINGAmbivalence Toward Environmental Scientists
Two seemingly unrelated stories on the NY Times webpage reveal the strangely conflicted place of scientists in today’s society. One story reveals our respect for those who, despite difficult circumstances, dedicate themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. That story is about Samantha Garvey, a homeless teenager who has found recognition for her study of the …
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