NYT commentaries on the abandonment of climate change legislation

The New York Times recently included two notable commentaries on the abandonment of efforts toward climate change legislation.  Andrew Revkin takes President Obama to task for abdicating leadership on the issue.  Tom Friedman takes a broader view, highlighting the public’s failure to demand action and the the role of climate change deniers.  Both of these [...]

Casebook on REDD On-the-Ground Impacts

The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and WWF have recently released Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD):  A Casebook of On-the-Ground Experience, which offers analysis of key REDD issues through investigation of specific cases.  The report endorses REDD, frequently using the cases to demonstrate how potential probelems with REDD can be overcome.  It thus comes across as [...]

GHG Legislation Efforts Abandoned (again)

From today’s Washington Post:  “Conceding that they can’t find enough votes for the legislation, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to curb greenhouse gas emissions . . .”  Hardly surprising, but disappointing nonetheless.

Islands adapting to climate change?

Research by Arthur Webb (South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission) and Paul Kench (Auckland University) suggests that islands may be changing in reponse to sea level rise.  The study finds that 23 of 27 islands studied have either grown or remained constant despite significant sea level rise (nearly 5 inches on average).  AP reports the study here.  [...]

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 [...]

Today’s Gallup Poll

Blog readers might be interested to see the Gallup poll results released today showing that fewer people felt the environment was an “extremely important” or “very important” issue than any of the six other issues raised.  Among Republicans, only 16% said “the environment, including global warming” was “extremely important,” while 34% of Democrats ranked the [...]

Society for Law and Economics

The Second Annual Meeting of the Society for Law and Economics is ongoing.  This year’s conference is hosted by Emory Law School and includes several papers/presentations on climate change.  Details are available here.

NOAA Climate Service

A few days ago, the Obama administration announced plans to create a new Climate Service within NOAA.  The new Climate Service will initially concentrate on making climate science information more accessible and usable.  This strikes me as an eminently sensible plan that will both increase efficiency of governmental study of climate change and, hopefully, help [...]

Multimedia Addressing Carbon Market Issues

PBS Frontline & the Center for Investigative Reporting have launched a website linking to a variety of interviews, program segments and reports touching on some key issues emerging in carbon markets.  The materials are accessible and well-crafted, making them very suitable to provide students’ with an introduction to issues such as REDD’s potential impacts on [...]

Public Perception: Experts & Opinions

Last week Wil Burns commented on the “climate-gate” controversy noting that it is an important issue because “perception can be reality.”  A couple of recent news articles shed a bit of light on just how important this may be.  The Washington Post reports poll results showing that “four in 10 Americans now saying that they place [...]