CLIMATE CHANGE: Future Federal Adaptation Efforts Could Better Support Local Infrastructure Decision Makers, GAO-13-242 – April 2015 According to the National Research Council (NRC) and others, infrastructure such as roads and bridges, wastewater systems, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration…
Category: Climate Change
The Pontchartrain Levee District Progress Report – 2012
The Pontchartrain Levee District Progress Report – 2012 From the Report: The Pontchartrain Levee District (PLD) is the local sponsor for the projects referenced herein. Currently, there are projects in each of the six parishes comprising the PLD’s jurisdiction. As…
Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States – 2012
Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States National Climate Assessment, December 6, 2012. Global sea level rise has been a persistent trend for decades. It is expected to continue beyond the end of this century, which will cause…
Climate Change and Existing Law – CRS
Climate Change and Existing Law: A Survey of Legal Issues Past, Present, and Future This report surveys existing law for legal issues that have arisen, or may arise in the future, on account of climate change and government responses thereto.…
EU Floods Directive
Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks. More information
Louisiana DEQ Wetland Assimilation Projects
http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/DIVISIONS/WaterPermits/WetlandAssimilationProjects.aspx
5th Circuit Upholds Ruling in Katrina Levee Breaches Litigation – Update – Case rejected
Update: Court dismisses Katrina Levee Breach cases under FTCA – In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation, 696 F.3d 436 (5th Cir.(La.) 2012) Additional cases and commentary The 5th Circuit just affirmed the lower court decision in the Katrina Levee Breaches Litigation.…
Climate and large scale scale human crisis
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/docs/PNAS-2011-Zhang-1104268108.pdf (original link) Recent studies have shown strong temporal correlations between past climate changes and societal crises. However, the specific causal mechanisms underlying this relation have not been addressed. We explored quantitative responses of 14 fine-grained agro-ecological, socioeconomic, and demographic…
Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1517374 or https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/docs/ssrn-id1517374.pdf The path of environmental law has come to a cliff called climate change, and there is no turning around. As climate change policy dialogue emerged in the 1990s, however, the perceived urgency of attention to mitigation strategies designed to…
States plan to develop land most vulnerable to ocean rise
Rising sea level threatens existing coastal wetlands. Overall ecosystems could often survive by migrating inland, if adjacent lands remained vacant. On the basis of 131 state and local land use plans, we estimate that almost 60% of the land below…
GAO Reports on Geoengineering
Climate Engineering: Technical Status, Future Directions, and Potential Responses. GAO-11-71, July 28. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-71 Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1171high.pdf Podcast – http://www.gao.gov/podcast/watchdog_episode_69.html
EPA Green House Gas Regs
Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act Related Links Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the…
Climate Change: Adapt or Bust
The past few years highlight bluntly the cost of weather-related catastrophes for the global economy and the insurance industry in particular. The industry’s response has proven that it is financially strong and well-equipped to respond to these financial shocks.
It is equally clear that, so far, the industry has not taken changing catastrophe trends seriously enough. Climate change is likely to bring us all an even more uncertain future. If we do not take action now to understand the risks and their impact, the changing climate could kill us.
NOAA – State of the Climate in 2010
State of the Climate in 2010 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center As appearing in the June 2011 issue (Vol. 92) of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). Supplemental and Summary Materials Report at a Glance:…
NAS Climate Change Project
Convened by the National Research Council in response to a request from Congress (P.L. 110-161), America’s Climate Choices is a suite of five coordinated activities designed to study the serious and sweeping issues associated with global climate change, including the science and technology challenges involved, and to provide advice on the most effective steps and most promising strategies that can be taken to respond.[…]
Climate Change and Polar Ecosystems
“The polar regions are experiencing rapid changes in climate. These changes are causing observable ecological impacts of various types and degrees of severity at all ecosystem levels, including society. Even larger changes and more significant impacts are anticipated. As species respond to changing environments over time, their interactions with the physical world and other organisms can also change. This chain of interactions can trigger cascades of impacts throughout entire ecosystems. Evaluating the interrelated physical, chemical, biological, and societal components of polar ecosystems is essential to understanding their vulnerability and resilience to climate forcing.”
Ocean Rise in New York State
New York State Sea Level Rise Task Force, Report to the Legislature, December 2010.
The communities along New York State’s coastline, including their structures, their residents, their environment and the surrounding natural resources, are products of decisions made over the course of many years. These decisions shaped decades of investment, development and conservation. While the extent of the impacts to coastal communities from a rising sea are not fully known, even the most conservative projections make clear that there will be dramatic changes in this century.[…]
Climate Change and the National Flood Insurance Program – 1991
This study of the impact of relative sea level rise on the National Flood Insurance Program was authorized by Congress and signed into law on November 3, 1989. The requirements of this study as specified by the legislation are as follows:[…]
Against the Deluge: Storm Surge Barriers to Protect New York City
Program by the American Society of Civil Engineers, New York City Metropolitan chapter, on the use of hardened protections against storm surges and ocean rise.
Fewer but Bigger Hurricanes?
Some models of the effect of climate change on hurricanes predict fewer storms but stronger storms. While all storms are a threat to the Louisiana coast, it is the large storms that threaten the very existence of cities such as New Orleans. Dr.…
Waterworld
http://www.tnr.com/article/environment-energy/magazine/77388/waterworld
“This fall, construction is set to begin on a $4 million pop-up floodwall near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It’s designed to be assembled quickly in the event that torrential rains cause the nearby Potomac River to spill into the city[…]
Florida’s Beaches – Caught between the ocean and a hard place
Florida is facing the same problems with global warming that face Louisiana: as the beaches try to retreat inland with ocean rise, they are stopped by armoring on developments. For Louisiana, this means the end of the wet lands. For…
Climate Adaptation in the Caribbean
Grand Cayman, 18 August 2010 – The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has released the preliminary results of a study on the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) in the Caribbean. In releasing the results, CCRIF Chairman Milo Pearson indicated that they will “enable countries in the region to develop fact-based adaptation strategies that can be incorporated into national development plans to increase resilience against climate hazards.”[…]
Community Resilience – Lessons from Katrina
This report was published in 2008. While there are problems with some of the assumptions, New Orleans is no better prepared today than in 2008 because none of the sociological factors have changed – denial is still the operative planning…
Climate Change Threats to National Security
“Climate Change presents a national security threat that could undermine American interests at home and abroad. The effects of climate change are already degrading naval bases, drying up water resources, prompting mass migration[…]
NOAA State of the Climate 2009 – Getting Warmer
NOAA State of the Climate 2009 – government master site The key finding of this report is that 2009 continues the warming trend, and that most of the additional heat is in the oceans. Greenland and Antarctica ice continues to recede.
Eaarth – A mini-review
Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben, Time Books (2010) First, my prejudice in reading this book – I was looking for a book to introduce law students to global warming and to the idea of adaption,…
Ocean Rise and Alaskan Native Villages
June 2009. GAO was asked to report on (1) the flooding and erosion threats that Alaska Native villages currently face, (2) the federal programs that are available to assist villages facing potential disasters, (3) the status of village relocation efforts, and (4) how federal assistance to relocating villages is prioritized. GAO interviewed and gathered documentation from federal and state agency officials as well as regional organizations and village representatives.
June 2004. Report of Statements of Robert A. Robinson, Managing Director Natural Resources and Environment; Villages Affected by Flooding and Erosion Have Difficulty Qualifying for Federal Assistance.
A Deadly Coast
Southern Louisiana is the most endangered land in the United States. Some risk is due to man made factors, but much of the risk is secondary to long-term geologic and weather cycles that have periodically raised and then inundated the…