Culture & Ethics
Remembering Warren Christopher
News of the recent death of Warren Christopher prompted memories of a meeting I attended in 1987 — several years before Christopher was appointed Secretary of State by Bill Clinton. A major California utility had hired Christopher’s Los Angeles law firm to take its side in a regulatory proceeding with several billion dollars at risk. …
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CONTINUE READINGWill the West Coast get hit with Japanese nuclear fallout?
No, says the South Coast Air Quality Management District. For reasons unknown to me, I’m on their e-mail list, and this just came through: You have probably heard news reports about harmful radiation escaping from damaged nuclear power plants in Japan following the recent tsunami. Some have even voiced concern that this radiation could travel …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Do People Care So Much About Nuclear Accidents?
Well, for obvious reasons. But Ann, citing Will Saletan, raises a good question: why are people so much more concerned about nuclear accidents than, say oil spills or other environmental disasters? If we accept Saletan’s figures of “direct fatalities” being 18 times more dangerous for oil production per energy unit (and there are reasons not …
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CONTINUE READINGJapan’s Nuclear Reactors, Risk Assessment & Accident Theory
In the wake of Japan’s developing nuclear crisis, people have begun questioning the future of US nuclear policy. Here is Sen. Lieberman, cautiously arguing for a review of nuclear power safety: I think it calls on us here in the U.S., naturally, not to stop building nuclear power plants but to put the brakes on …
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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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CONTINUE READINGSaving Redevelopment In California
As Rick chronicled, California Governor Jerry Brown has pushed for the elimination of redevelopment agencies to help close the state’s budget gap. While Rick alluded to the mismanagement problems that plague some redevelopment agencies, most advocates for infill development view redevelopment as critical for revitalizing neighborhoods and creating more walkable, transit-friendly communities. Without the upfront …
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CONTINUE READINGCounting the Time (A Whimsical Thought Experiment)
Our economic and political institutions press us to take the short view. So does our culture: our calendars go out only one year. Would our psychology of time change if we adopted another measure? As a thought experiment, imagine changing the basic unit from a year to millenium, which we could abbreviate as an M …
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CONTINUE READINGThe World in 2050: Demographics
I’ve just finished reading Laurence Smith’s The World in 2050. It’s a sober, non-sensationalist look at how current trends are projected to play out over the next four decades. Of course, there’s uncertainty, but the projections do give us some basis for thinking about the world’s future. Here are some important 2050 demographic projections: Two-thirds …
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CONTINUE READINGInterior adopts scientific integrity guidelines
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has formalized the Department’s guidelines on scientific integrity and created the new position of Scientific Integrity Officer, to be filled by Dr. Ralph Morgenweck, Senior Science Advisor at the Fish and Wildlife Service. The guidelines are the first agency effort out of the blocks after the White House Office of Science …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Environmental Blueprint: Environmental monitoring & modeling
This post is the second in our ongoing series on our Environmental Blueprint for California. In our Blueprint, we recommended that Governor Brown establish an independent, statewide agency or council devoted to compilation, modeling, prediction and presentation of environmental quality data. I want to elaborate on what this agency might look like and why we believe …
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