Arctic shows no sign of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades Despite relatively cool summer temperatures, observations in 2017 continue to indicate that the Arctic environmental system has reached a ‘new normal’, characterized by long-term losses in…
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Category 6 Blog – Why Is It So Hard to Fix the National Flood Insurance Program?
A tangle of politics and problems may force yet another delay in long-sought updates to the broke, beleaguered U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Congress has the unenviable task of putting NFIP back in the black without raising rates too quickly on…
Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment
Highlights of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Science Special Report The climate of the United States is strongly connected to the changing global climate. The statements below highlight past, current, and projected climate changes for the United States…
From Bali To Marrakech: A Decade Of International Climate Negotiations
From Bali To Marrakech: A Decade Of International Climate Negotiations (2017) MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Since its entry into force in 1994, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been at the centre of international efforts to…
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Map
By Kmusser – Own work, Elevation data from SRTM, hydrologic data from the National Hydrography Dataset, urban areas from Vector Map, all other features from the National Atlas., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12520461
EPA – Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action. United States Environmental Protection Agency – 2015
EPA. 2015. Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Atmospheric Programs, EPA 430-R-15-001. About this Report This report summarizes and communicates the results of EPA’s ongoing Climate Change Impacts and…
Trump, The Koch Brothers and Their War on Climate Science
TRNN SPECIAL: Trump, The Koch Brothers and Their War on Climate Science
Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change
Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change. Report of the Committee to Prevent Extreme Climate Change (2017) Climate change is becoming an existential threat with warming in excess of…
Standing Rock/Dakota Access Pipeline Resources
PBS Newshour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/tribes-across-north-america-converge-standing-rock-hoping-heard-2/
The First Earth Day
The History of Earth Day
Unfinished Business A Comparative Assessment Of Environmental Problems Overview Report – 1987
This is a pivotal report in US Environmental Law. It looked at whether the EPA was spending too many resources on low level toxic exposures, at the expense of other environmental risks, including climate change. It later became a…
2017 – Draft of the US Climate Change Report
2017 – Draft of the US Climate Change Report A draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies, which has not yet been made public but was obtained by The New York Times, concludes that Americans are feeling the effects…
NRDC Report: How To Break The Cycle Of Repeated Flooding With Climate-Smart Flood Insurance Reforms
Seeking Higher Ground: How To Break The Cycle Of Repeated Flooding With Climate-Smart Flood Insurance Reforms (2017) The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was designed to help Americans recover from flood disasters, but it can also unintentionally trap homeowners who…
NEPA Lawsuit Argues that Immigrants to the US Increase Climate Change
This lawsuit by an anti-immigration group alleges that since Americans have among the highest carbon footprints, allowing immigrants into the US will increase GHG emissions and climate change. This means that immigration has environmental impacts and thus immigration policy changes…
Climate Change Law and Policy Project Reports
Why the Master Plan will not protect Louisiana and what we should do instead? Why was the Louisiana Flood of August 2016 so severe? Slides for ULL Presentation
Climate Change Communication and Denial
A primary issue in addressing climate change is that many people either deny its existence or deny or downplay man’s role in driving it. The usual answer is that we need more education about climate science. Cultural cognition research questions…
City of Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan
City of Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan The Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan serves as the City of Del Mar’s long-range planning guide to address future sea-level rise and its effects on storm surge and coastal flooding and…
THE ROAD TO ACTION: Financial regulation addressing climate change
THE ROAD TO ACTION: Financial regulation addressing climate change (original link) Our report finds that investors, asset managers and banks urgently need a way to identify and measure how companies are responding to the risks of climate change. The cost of…
The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax
The Climate Leadership Council: The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends (2017) There are many traditional conservatives who understand and believe in climate change. Consistent with their small government beliefs, they see a carbon tax as the best approach to reducing…
A bitter scientific debate just erupted over the future of America’s power grid
A bitter scientific debate just erupted over the future of America’s power grid Scientists are engaged in an increasingly bitter and personal feud over how much power the United States can get from renewable sources, with a large group of…
Climate Change Litigation Databases
Climate Change Litigation Databases About: This website provides two databases of climate change litigation, one for U.S. climate change litigation and one for non-U.S. cases.
Index Insurance – Event Based, rather than Claims Based Climate and Disaster Insurance
One the major problems with disaster insurance is the disruption in infrastructure and government function makes it difficult to process specific claims information in a timely manner. As the delays in processing claims after the 2016 Baton Rouge flood illustrate,…
Sustainable Humanity Sustainable Nature our Responsibility
Joint Workshop of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 2-6 May 2014 – Are Humanity’s dealings with Nature sustainable? What is the status of the Human Person in a world where science predominates? How…
Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic Landscape of the Anthropocene
From the Introduction: “Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic Landscape of the Anthropocene” is a multi-author, edited volume exploring a range of “epicenters” of climate and security and how they shape the geostrategic map of the 21st century.…
Scott Pruitt – EPA Secretary – Is Climate Change Real?
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Hearing entitled, “Nomination of Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” January 18, 2017 16. Are you aware that each of the past three decades has been warmer…
GAO – FLOOD INSURANCE Comprehensive Reform Could Improve Solvency and Enhance Resilience 2017
GAO – FLOOD INSURANCE Comprehensive Reform Could Improve Solvency and Enhance Resilience 2017 What GAO Found Based on discussions with stakeholders and GAO’s past work, reducing federal exposure and improving resilience to flooding will require comprehensive reform of the National…
Insurgency, Terrorism and Organised Crime in a Warming Climate
Insurgency, Terrorism and Organised Crime in a Warming Climate Analysing the Links Between Climate Change and Non-State Armed Groups (2017) Over the past ten years, both our understanding and awareness of the links between climate change and security have increased…
Actuaries Evaluate the National Flood Insurance Program
THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS. American Academy of Actuaries Flood Insurance Work Group (2017) The NFIP affects many constituencies, including property owners, local governments, builders, realtors, mortgage lenders, insurers, and taxpayers. The program differs from traditional private insurance…
Flood Map Zones
Glossary of NFIP terms – flood zones are on D-11 ZONE A The flood insurance rate zone that corresponds to the 100-year floodplains that is determined in the Flood Insurance Study by approximate methods. Because detailed hydraulic analyses are not…
From Civil Defense to FEMA – A History of Emergency Response
Civil Defense and Homeland Security: A Short History of National Preparedness Efforts (2006) This report is the result of a requirement by the Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Task Force to examine the history of national…