Oceans
Rescuing Baby Penguins
More than 2000 sea birds died following an oil spill off New Zealand. However, over forty blue penguins have been cleaned of oil and released. The photo shows little sweaters that people knitted to help keep them warm.
CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Looking Hard at Litigation Challenge to CARB Marine Fuel Regulations
The U.S. Supreme Court today asked the Solicitor General for his views as to whether the Court should hear and decide a controversial case from California challenging the California Air Resources Board’s authority to regulate ocean shipping. The specific CARB regulations at issue require marine vessels operating in state waters and ports to use …
CONTINUE READINGMore on California Environmental Leader & Coastal Advocate Peter Douglas
Legal Planet colleague Jonathan Zasloff has previously written about the recently-announced retirement of long-time California Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas. I’d like to add a few additional comments about Peter, my long-time mentor, client and friend. Peter Douglas has devoted the past four decades of his incredibly rich and active life to the cause of …
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CONTINUE READINGAn inconvenient truth
A new paper in the Marine Ecology Progress Series open access journal (peer-reviewed) tells it like it is in ways that environmental scientists are often reluctant to do. Authors Camilo Mora and Peter F. Sale took a very big-picture look at how well reserves are protecting biodiversity, on land and at sea. The analysis is …
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CONTINUE READINGBut Will You Love My Energy Source in the Morning?
In the wake of cataclysmic energy disasters occurring on opposite sides of the globe, some interesting regional and national reflections are currently underway that may–or may not–alter long-term energy futures in the U.S. and abroad. One development this week that drew surprisingly little public attention is that no less a personage than the Prime Minister of …
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CONTINUE READINGPaper or Plastic?
The California Supreme Court today issued a significant decision interpreting and applying California’s most important environmental law–the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The issues in Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach were: 1) whether a Southern California beach community was required to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) under CEQA …
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CONTINUE READINGYouTube persuasion
Why do some messages persuade, and others don’t? What is good science messaging? How can we reach new audiences about the importance of sustainable resource management? If you’re interested in these questions, you might like this video on overfishing, created by a couple of UCLA undergrads as extra credit for a class in oceanography. I …
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CONTINUE READINGRemembering Rachel Carson
Earth Day seems an appropriate time to recall past leaders in environmental thought. Few have played a greater role in the development of U.S. environmental law than Rachel Carson (1907-1964), whose books did much to spark the environmental movement. It is good to hear that her books have been reprinted as ebooks by Open Road …
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CONTINUE READINGThis week it’s bad news for the oceans
I try occasionally to report good news on this site, to counteract the tendency of most environmental lawyers to suffer periodic depression. But this week I can’t find anything but bad news in the marine context. Pour yourself a glass of wine, click, and cry: The World Resources Institute has published a new report, Reefs …
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CONTINUE READINGGreat Sources on the BP Oil Spill
The National Commission has added some valuable additional material to its cite: A multi-media resource, especially useful for students and journalists. For those who want to dive deeper, the Chief Counsel’s report is a great resource. It presents a good deal of evidence unfavorable to BP, but also significant criticism of Transocean and Halliburton. Of …
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