Chlorofluorocarbons and Ozone Depletion – A National Historic Chemical Landmark Molina, Mario J., and F. Sherwood Rowland. “Stratospheric sink for chlorofluoromethanes: chlorine atom-catalysed destruction of ozone.” Nature 249.5460 (1974): 810. (the first ozone hole paper) The Montreal Protocol on Substances that…
Author: richards
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Decarbonization
Legal Pathways To Deep Decarbonization In The United States: Summary And Key Recommendations (Publisher’s WWW site) Dernbach, John C., The Dozen Types of Legal Tools in the Deep Decarbonization Toolbox (September 10, 2018). 39 Energy Law Journal 101; Widener Law Commonwealth…
The Paris Climate Change Agreement
Paris Mismatches: The Impact of the COP21 Climate Change Negotiations on the Oil and Gas Industries Withdrawal from International Agreements: Legal Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Iran Nuclear Agreement – CRS 2017 President Trump’s Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement…
Sea-level rise Projections for Maryland 2018
In fulfillment of requirements of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change Act of 2015, this report provides updated projections of the amount of sea-level rise relative to Maryland coastal lands that is expected into the next century. These projections represent…
Climate Change Risks to Mountain Ecology and Communities
Alfthan, B., Gjerdi, H.L., Puikkonen, L., Andresen, M., Semernya, L., Schoolmeester, T., Jurek, M. (2018). Mountain Adaptation Outlook Series – Synthesis Report. United Nations Environment Programme, and GRID-Arendal, Nairobi, Vienna, and Arendal. www.unenvironment.org, www.grida.no – Original Link Also see: Alfthan, B., Gupta,…
Putting the Camp Fire in perspective
The Great Fire of 1910 (original link) This is a report on the Fire of 1910, which burned over 3,000,000 acres/4,700 sq. miles over a weekend. (Likely started by flaming cinders from a steam train.) The Camp Fire burned about 100,000…
Mississippi Supreme Court finds that artificial beach is public trust property
Harris v. State, 2018 WL 5839607 (Miss. Nov. 8, 2018). Abutting landowners brought an action against the State of Mississippi, a city, and a county to confirm title to waterfront properties. A trial court granted partial summary judgment in favor…
Climate-related risk to DoD Infrastructure
Department of Defense, Climate-related risk to DoD Infrastructure Initial Vulnerability Assessment Survey (SLVA S) Report, JAN. 2018, 6.
Hurricane Florence and Climate Change
The human influence on Hurricane Florence – a real time forecast based on climate change information For Hurricane Florence, we present the first advance forecasted attribution statements about the human influence on a tropical cyclone. We find that rainfall will…
Hurricane Michael – Aerial image of damage
One flight today covering the outer coast from St. George Island east to Cedar Key, FL as well as Bonifay, FL, Chipley, FL and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from West Bay, FL to Point Washington, FL. Web viewer: https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/michael/index.html#8/29.988/-84.532
Court Requires More Detailed NEPA Inquiry for Federal CAFO Loan
Food & Water Watch v. United States Dep’t of Agric., No. CV 17-1714 (BAH), 2018 WL 4283568 (D.D.C. Sept. 7, 2018) From the opinion: The plaintiff, Food & Water Watch (“FWW”), has filed a nine-count complaint against three defendants, the…
Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition
Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition (2018) From the Report WWW page: The Center for Climate and Security’s Military Expert Panel Report: Sea Level Rise and the U.S. Military’s Mission, 2nd Edition concludes that…
The effect of Mississippi River diversions on oyster production
The Mississippi River diversions are intended to build new land by diverting floodwaters from the river into open water, wetlands there. Since oyster cultivation depends on the oyster beds seeing a narrow salinity range, there is a concern that the diversion…
Stafford Act – Keystone of Federal Disaster Response
The Stafford Act provides the financial framework for the federal disaster response. It is implemented through presidential declaration of an emergency. The basics of this process are outlined in report from CRS:
Keith Bea, Federal Stafford Act Disaster Assistance: Presidential Declarations, Eligible Activities, and Funding, CRS-RL33053, March 16, 2010 (August 29, 2005 version)[…]
Hurricane Harvey Takings Cases
The Geology and Hydrology of the Mississippi Delta
Master WWW page Ellet, Charles. Report on the overflows of the delta of the Mississippi. AB Hamilton, 1852. Humphreys, A. A., & Abbot, H. L. (1861). Report upon the physics and hydraulics of the Mississippi river: Upon the protection of the alluvial…
California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment – Executive Summary (2018)
WWW site – http://www.climateassessment.ca.gov/ California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment – Statewide Summary (2018) The Statewide Summary Report presents an overview of the main findings from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, to translate the state of climate science into useful information for…
Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk Page
Hurricane Harvey: Texas at Risk, Texas General Land Office (2018) Recommendation #4 The state legislature should establish by state statute a Regional Building Code District (RBCD) with standard-setting authority in the high-risk hurricane region of Southeast Texas which would replace…
UNDERWATER Podcast – 2016 Louisiana Flood – created by students at the University of Louisiana
https://sites.google.com/view/underwaterpodcast/ Between August 11 and August 15, 2016 more than 3 times the amount of rainfall from Hurricane Katrina fell in a massive rainstorm, mostly over Southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. Student and Faculty researchers have collaborated to…
OHIO RIVER BASIN– Formulating Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation Strategies through Regional Collaboration with the ORB Alliance
Generally, modeling results indicate a gradual increase in annual mean temperatures between 2011 and 2040 amounting to one-half degree per decade, with greater increases between 2041 and 2099 of one full degree per decade. Hydrologic flow changes show substantial variability…
Judge Dismisses New York City Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Industry
City of New York v. BP Plc , S.D.N.Y., No. 1:18-cv-182, 7/19/18 .
The Children’s Climate Case – Juliana v. United States
Juliana v. United States, No. 6:15-CV-01517-TC, 2016 WL 6661146 (D. Or. Nov. 10, 2016) – Children have standing under public trust doctrine to bring climate action. The Economics of Climate Change – Expert Report Of Joseph E. Stiglitz, Ph.D.
South Asia’s Hotspots : Impacts of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards
The Report – Mani, Muthukumara, Sushenjit Bandyopadhyay, Shun Chonabayashi, Anil Markandya, and Thomas Mosier. “South Asia’s Hotspots.” (2018). From the World Bank site: South Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change. Average temperatures have been rising throughout the region, and rainfall…
Takings Cases Relevant to Climate Change
Miller v. Campbell Cty., 722 F. Supp. 687 (D.Wyo. 1989) – Temporary forced evacuation from home is not a taking for 42 USC 1983 Harris Cty. Flood Control Dist. v. Kerr, 499 S.W.3d 793, 795 (Tex. 2016), reh’g denied (Oct.…
Judge dismisses City of Oakland climate case based on nuisance – 2018
From the Opinion: It may seem peculiar that an earlier order refused to remand this action to state court on the ground that plaintiffs’ claims were necessarily governed by federal law, while the current order concludes that federal common law…
Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (2018)
This is a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists on the potential impact of various rates of sea level rise on residential and coastal real estate, using data on the coastal real estate from Zillow.
Federal Circuit Rejects Court of Claims finding that MRGO Caused a Taking by Flooding
(Post under revision) Draft article discussing the St. Bernard case: A Radical Proposal: Does St. Bernard Par. Gov’t v. United States allow the Federal Government to Step Away from Flood Protection and Create Wild Seashores and Wild Rivers? This case arose…
The Public Trust Doctrine and Sea Level Rise
Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, The Public Trust Doctrine: A Guiding Principle for Governing California’s Coast Under Climate Change (2017) This report looks at the legal implications as the mean high tide line – the…
Disaster Tourism: Honest Altruism or Vulgar Voyerism?
(Student post from my coastal law class, 2010) Dark tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and suffering. Thanatourism, derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more…