Extreme Heat
California — The Resilient State. Really.
In the midst of a historic heat wave, the state’s power grid has so far passed with flying colors
Remember rolling blackouts in California? At least at this point, they appear to be a thing of the past. Earlier today, I noticed a tweet from Cody Hill, who refers to himself as a “batteries and clean energy infrastructure developer,” pointing to a rather stunning development. Despite a massive heat wave that has put more …
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CONTINUE READINGPaying More to Stay Cool, Super El Niño, Solar Politics
The Drain is a roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Every time I walk by my mailbox these days I dread receiving my electricity bill for this summer, because it’s been hellishly hot and I know our bill is going to be higher than usual. I try to tell myself the good news: After installing an energy-efficient heat pump this year, our home has been …
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CONTINUE READINGYou May Have Forgotten About Climate Change. But It Hasn’t Forgotten About You
Denial is a great coping mechanism. Until reality turns around and bites you.
Climate change is, apparently, passé. Democratic politicians are avoiding the topic and dialing back ambitious plans to reduce emissions. The President apparently doesn’t think it exists, and the government’s official position is that its effects are too uncertain to worry about. Denial isn’t the world’s best coping mechanism, but it works, at least temporarily. The problem is that, while sometimes that lump you were worried about does go away, sometimes it keep growing and getting harder to treat. In the end, reality doesn’t much care whether you believe in it.
CONTINUE READINGWhat the Disappearing Danube Could Tell Us About the Colorado
Today’s drought may not be the worst-case scenario for the Colorado
What’s happened to the Danube is a scary reminder that what we’re seeing today on the Colorado isn’t necessarily the worst case. The situation on the Danube is truly dire. The “Blue Danube” memorialized by the Strauss waltz is now only nine inches deep in Budapest. Cargo ships have come to a halt. Nuclear reactors have shut down for lack of cooling water. Meanwhile, the Colorado is suffering from the worst drought in at least 1200 years, raising fears about the fate of its shrinking reservoirs. And things could get worse.
CONTINUE READINGNever Give Up! Every Ton of Carbon We Can Cut Still Matters
It’s easy to be disheartened when we miss climate targets. But climate change isn’t a yes/no thing. It’s a matter of degree.
It’s easy to lose heart about our prospects for limiting climate change. The US has pulled out of international climate negotiations. Most of the countries that joined the Paris Agreement have missed targets , targets that weren’t aggressive enough in the first place. The 1.5 °C target is already basically out of reach. Is time to give up on slowing climate change and focus on adapting to it? The answer is no. Here’s why.
Climate change is a matter of degrees. That sounds like a truism or a pun, but it’s true in a deeper sense. There is no point past which further warming becomes irrelevant. degree, and every fraction of a degree makes things that much worse.
An “Unprecedented” Heat Wave is Just the Start
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Dust off your fan or set the thermostat for your heat pump. A heat wave is in the forecast for the western U.S., bringing 90-plus degree heat to much of California and records are likely to fall. Temperatures that are 20-30 degrees above normal for this time of year are on tap starting today. It’s …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Inaction is an Affordability Problem
The costs of climate change, especially those from climate-related natural disasters, are already substantial for US households.
This post is authored by UCLA Law’s Kimberly A. Clausing along with guest contributors Christopher R. Knittel and Catherine Wolfram. Many of us have seen large increases in our homeowner’s insurance premia in recent years – yet another cost increase that is putting strain on homeowners and driving up rents. In forthcoming work for the …
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CONTINUE READINGHow to Dissent? Learn American History
LA Public Library
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It sounds cliché, but when you face a crisis, it helps to remember times that you’ve overcome adversity. That’s the power of history. And it’s one of the reasons I think the new PBS documentary “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” is crucial to share right now. In the 1940s, dark, smoky clouds crept …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy is EPA at War with Its Own Employees?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
While many of us prepared to celebrate Independence Day last week, a group of employees from the Environmental Protection Agency were bravely speaking out about what they see as their boss “recklessly undermining the EPA mission” of protecting human health and the environment. In a now-infamous letter sent to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, hundreds of …
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CONTINUE READINGA Landmark Geoengineering Conversation in the Global South
The UCLA Emmett Institute helps sponsor and organize the Degrees Global Forum, the largest event of its kind to date.
I post periodically about developments in the debate over solar geoengineering (SRM) and its potential role in response to climate change. News accounts may suggest that this debate moves fast, but it has three enduring, large-scale themes. First, SRM presents high stakes for climate risks and response – which most governments thus far have been …
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