Ocean Acidification and Non-Calcifying Organisms

While the vast majority of research to date on ocean acidification has focused on potential impacts of rising levels of carbon dioxide on ocean calcareous organisms. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B (subscription required) suggests that ocean acidification may also have serious implications for some non-calcareous species also, with [...]

The Arctic Council and Geoengineering?

As the case for a concerted research and development program for climate geoengineering grows, questions of how to govern such initiatives, as well as potential future deployment, have grown. An interesting new piece suggests a possible role for the Arctic Council, Egede-Nissen & Venema, Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Advancing the Geoengineering Debate at the Arctic [...]

New Directions in Climate Policy: Special Journal Issue

Publication announcement: “NEW DIRECTIONS IN CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS” Special issue of the St Antony’s International Review (STAIR, vol. 5, no. 2, 2010) Contributors: – Robert O. Keohane – Jonathan Gaventa – Michael MacLeod – Frances C. Moore – Anne Hammill & Richard Matthew – David Benson & Andrew Jordan – Christopher W. Boerl The issue [...]

Biomass: miracle or monstrosity?

Evidence of the limited short lifetime expectancy for fossil fuel exploitation makes biomass projects attractive again but faced many socio-ecological and cultural challenges. How should biomass production and the related market activities be organized to minimize environmental harmful impacts and maximize social welfare as well as taking into account cultural aspects? Limited economic goods stress [...]

Video on ocean acidification

Here’s an excellent new video on the impacts of ocean acidification on oysters: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsmedia/oysters/index.html

Australian trading system proposal goes down under

A new post on the U.S. Law’s environmental law blog site reports that Australia’s Labor government has dropped its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until at least the next election, or possibly the one after that. It’s the second discouraging legislative setback this week, with the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill in the United States imperiled by Senate Graham’s [...]

U.S. EPA Fact Sheets on CC

EPA Posts Four New Fact Sheets on Climate Change The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has posted four two-page fact sheets on climate change based on recent scientific data and findings. These documents may be useful to state and local governments looking for public outreach materials on climate change. The four new fact sheets are: [...]

Health Impacts of Climate Change

Readers may find the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recent publication, A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change, noteworthy. It provides an accessible discussion of existing knowledge and research needs pertaining the strikingly wide array of health impacts related to climate change, organized into 11 broad topics. Greater awareness of the probable direct impacts [...]

Ocean Acidification and Benthic Organisms

Another excellent piece on the potential impacts of ocean acidification on ocean ecosystems was published recently in Nature Geoscience, Andy Ridgwell & Daniela N. Schmidt, Past Constraints on the Vulnerability of Marine Calcifiers to Massive Carbon Dioxide Release, 3 Nature Geoscience 196-200 (Feb. 2010) (subscription required). The researchers in the study employed an Earth system [...]

Curriculum video on teaching environmental law in an era of climate change

The one and a half hour video recording of the 12th Annual Professors’ Workshop, Curriculum Adaptation: Teaching Environmental Law in an Era of Climate Change and Other Global Challenges held at Pace Law on February 19, 2010 is now available! Go to www.law.pace.edu/nelmcc and click Professor’s Workshop on the left. Attended by over 30 faculty members [...]