In 2010 and 2011 the climate science community was rocked by the release of e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit showing that climate scientists can be just as petty, political and (at times) unethical as any other group. To this day, it has not been determined who obtained the e-mail files […]
Archive | Climate Change
ClimateGate Part Deux – Continued
The NYT on the new release of climate scientists’ emails: The new e-mails appeared remarkably similar to the ones released two years ago just ahead of a similar conference in Copenhagen. They involved the same scientists and many of the same issues, and some of them carried a similar tone: catty remarks by the scientists, […]
ClimateGate — Part Deux?
On the eve of another UN climate summit, it appears that another batch of potentially embarrassing e-mails by various climate scientists have been released to the public. The Guardian reports: The emails appear to be genuine, but the University of East Anglia said the “sheer volume of material” meant it was not yet able to […]
A Prize for Ocean Cleanup
Last month, the X-Prize Foundation announced the winners of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup Challenge. The challenge was created to spur the development of more effective oil spill cleanup methods. Specifically, the challenge offered $1.4 million in prizes for the development of removing oil from the ocean’s surface. The aim was to double the industry’s […]
Does the EPA Need $21 Billion to Hire 230,000 More Employees?
A Daily Caller story claiming the Environmental Protection Agency is “asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion” in order to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act has caused a bit of a stir on the internet (see, e.g., here, […]
EPA Postpones Another Air Rule
Two weeks ago, President Obama asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to shelve plans to tighten the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone, leaving any reconsideration of the current standard until 2013. This past week, the EPA announced it was delaying the planned release of proposed regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions from power plants […]
A Tale of Two Cases
The Yale Law Journal‘s new “Summary Judgment” online series features a set of essays on the Supreme Court’s decision in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, in which the Court held unanimously that suits against utilities alleging their emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to the “public nuisance” of global warming under federal common law were displaced […]
An Inconvenient Truth: Christie Is Right on Climate
Until last week, many conservatives considered New Jersey Governor Chris Christie a hero. Some were even clamoring for him to enter the presidential race. Now, however, some of the same conservatives are branding him a heretic, even as he embraces policy decisions they support. What’s going on? Last week, Christie vetoed legislation that would have […]
Global Warming Could Trigger Alien Attack
The Guardian reports on a scenario analysis conducted by several scientists considering possible scenarios resulting from contact with alien life forms. The analysis covers many basic scenarios, such as basic communication or the possibility of disease transmission from physical contact, but also suggests global warming could give aliens an excuse to attack. The authors warn […]
Utter Climate Ignorance
I have my share of disagreements with Jonathan Zasloff, particularly on matters of environmental law and policy (see, e.g., here), but his attack on Fox News’ alleged climate “expert” Joe Bastardi hits the mark. There are reasonable bases upon which to question some aspects of global warming, including some of the more dire computer model […]
Montesquieu on Climate
From Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, Book XIV: Cold air constringes the extremities of the external fibres of the body; this increases their elasticity, and favours the return of the blood from the extreme parts to the heart. It contracts those very fibres; consequently it increases also their force. On the contrary, warm air relaxes […]
Considering the Costs of Climate Adaptation
Yesterday afternoon I attended a lecture by Michael Greenstone, the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics and former chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers during the first year of the Obama Administration, addressing the question, “Will Adaptation Save Us from Climate Change?” This lecture was the keynote address at a PERC workshop on “Human […]
Climate Change, Cultural Perception, and Scientific Literacy
Yale’s Cultural Cognition Project, led by Dan Kahan, has a new working paper examining public perception of the risks posed by climate change: “The Tragedy of the Risk-Perception Commons: Culture Conflict, Rationality Conflict, and Climate Change.” The results are interesting, and perhaps a bit counter-intuitive — particularly the finding that those who are more scientifically […]
District Court Upholds Polar Bear Listing
Yesterday, the federal district court in D.C. upheld the federal government’s decision to list polar bears as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act against challenges from all sides. Environmentalist organizations argued the government should have instead listed the polar bear as “endangered” (a more protected status), while Alaska and industry groups argued the polar bear […]
Thoughts on AEP v. Connecticut
As I noted below, today in American Electric Power v. Connecticut the Supreme Court held unanimously that the Clean Air Act displaces federal common law public nuisance claims against emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. It was easy for the justices to agree on this point. Indeed, this outcome was clearly compelled by applicable precedent given […]