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Can International Law Save the Planet from Climate Change?

Union of Concerned Scientists

For the first time, the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the world’s highest court—may be ruling on climate change. On March 29, the UN General Assembly will vote on a resolution to bring climate change before the ICJ.

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How Is Climate Change Affecting Winter Storms in the US? 

Union of Concerned Scientists

With extreme winter weather breaking out across the United States this week, a question in many people’s minds is—how is climate change affecting winter storms? Can you start with how climate change is generally affecting winter weather in the US? And this also connects to climate change.

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Danger Season in South America: Climate Change Brings Unbelievable Record Heat

Union of Concerned Scientists

And just like summertime in the US, this period (December, January, and February) has transformed into a “ danger season ” as a result of climate change, replete with deadly heatwaves, drought, and wildfires. Sixty times more likely is a remarkable figure to me. And there would be some justice.

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Climate Change and Indian Country

Legal Planet

In light of Native American Heritage Day last Friday, we should also be thinking about the future of the tribes in the era of climate change. Tribes face serious challenges from climate change, but also some potential opportunities. In terms of climate impacts, many tribes are at high risk. Download as PDF.

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Climate Change and Black History

Legal Planet

Since this is Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about some of the prominent contributions by Blacks to understanding and addressing climate change. He has pioneered computer modeling of climate change. Kari Fulton led the campaign for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative.

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McKesson Corporation Tackles Climate Change by Increasing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Environment + Energy Leader

McKesson Europe aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, while McKesson Corporation set in 2021 a science-based target initiative to keep temperature increases in check and aligned with the Paris climate agreement.

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The Impact of Climate Change on the US Healthcare System

Environment + Energy Leader

In the past decade alone, there have been more than 300,000 deaths from natural disasters caused by climate change — and those numbers are likely to increase in coming years. The post The Impact of Climate Change on the US Healthcare System appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Do Climate Change Cases Belong in Federal Court? The Biden Administration Weighs In.

Legal Planet

They generally include a claim that producing fossil fuels has created a public nuisance in the form of climate change. Download as PDF The post Do Climate Change Cases Belong in Federal Court? The lawsuits are based on a variety of state law claims. The Biden Administration Weighs In. appeared first on Legal Planet.

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With Climate Change, Nights Are Warming Faster than Days. Why?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Extreme heat and heatwaves are growing more frequent and more severe because of climate change. While climate change is making our days hotter, the fingerprints of climate change are even clearer for nighttime temperatures than for daytime temperatures.

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For a Scientist and Mother, Climate Change Is Generational ‘Robbery’

Yale E360

Hungarian scientist Diana Ürge-Vorsatz is concerned about how the climate change crisis is impacting children. She sees her research on renewable energy and energy demand as part of the essential work of protecting and restoring the future for the next generation. Read more on E360 →.

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Climate Change Threatens Already Poor Air Quality in California’s Central Valley

Union of Concerned Scientists

California’s Central Valley consistently experiences the country’s worst air quality, and climate change is poised to make air quality even worse. In a region known for its exceptional agricultural productivity, climate change is quickly amplifying a dangerous type of climate risk in California’s Central Valley: air pollution.

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Climate Change, Danger Seasons and the Need for Global Action

Union of Concerned Scientists

Deadly heatwaves, extreme drought, food and water shortages, catastrophic flooding, rapidly intensifying tropical storms, raging wildfires—around the world, climate change is exacerbating extreme conditions and their harsh toll on people and ecosystems. The fearsome toll of climate impacts is already clear, leading U.N.

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Climate Change and the Major Question Doctrine

Legal Planet

They seem to think that everything involving climate change automatically becomes a major question. It’s clear that the SEC’s mission is protecting investors and the operation of the securities market, not fighting climate change. The post Climate Change and the Major Question Doctrine appeared first on Legal Planet.

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Climate Change Threatens Africa’s Cultural Heritage

Union of Concerned Scientists

This year’s theme is “Arts, Culture and Heritage” and UCS is helping to raise up climate change in that context. Climate change is probably the fastest-growing threat to African cultural heritage, much of which was left in a parlous position because of the legacies and structural inequalities of past colonial rule.

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Climate Change in 2022: Multiple Billion-Dollar Disasters and Unbearable Human Costs

Union of Concerned Scientists

Many of these disasters—including floods, storms, wildfires and droughts—were worsened by climate change. . Climate change is not the sole causative factor, of course. That’s why the long-waited climate bill that the U.S. Source: NOAA [link].

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SBTi Approves NG Bailey’s Climate Change Plan

Environment + Energy Leader

The post SBTi Approves NG Bailey’s Climate Change Plan appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader. NG Bailey has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2031 from sources it directly owns and manages as well as those it indirectly contributes to.

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What today’s students think about climate change

Legal Planet

I feel like climate change is going to have to get worse before it gets better. Climate change has been a big, scary, looming problem for basically the entirety of my life; I cannot remember a time when it was not at least a background concern. This holiday season, I’m especially grateful for their tone of determination.

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Rare and Severe Weather Events Are Now More Common Thanks to Climate Change

Union of Concerned Scientists

And is that kind of description even relevant as the planet heats up and climate change changes everything? Thanks to climate change. Add climate change and we need to keep track of which decade these flood levels were determined. Extreme event probability and associated severity is changing.

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1990: The Year the Courts Discovered Climate Change

Legal Planet

In an earlier post, I tried to figure out when the legal academy first discovered climate changes. Those first climate change cases shed light on how new issues get litigated and how courts respond to new science. There were two cases where climate change was a central issue: City of Los Angeles v.

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For Gen Z, Climate Change Is a Heavy Emotional Burden

Yale E360

Britt Wray is a leading researcher on the mental health impact of climate change. In an e360 interview, she talks about the rise of climate anxiety in young people, how social media exacerbates this trend, and why distress about the climate crisis can spur positive change. Read more on E360 ?.

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Climate Change Is Turning California’s Wildfire Season into Wildfire Year

Union of Concerned Scientists

Climate change has sped up the arrival of spring, with major consequences for wildfires (Fig. Climate change has disrupted historical trends and created conditions for year-round wildfires. Together, these studies illustrate how climate change has elevated the threat of wildfires year-round.

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The Supreme Court’s Latest Decision Is a Blow to Stopping Climate Change

Union of Concerned Scientists

is a serious blow to the EPA’s ability to fight climate change—and could have dangerous repercussions beyond this case. The timing of the decision feels especially harsh, as the nation is in the throes of the “ Danger Season ” for hazards such as heat waves, drought, wildfires and hurricanes, all worsened by climate change.

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South Korea and Climate Change

Legal Planet

The post South Korea and Climate Change appeared first on Legal Planet. He is a strong believer in nuclear energy as a key part of the energy transition. What he does while in office remains to be seen. Download as PDF.

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Why Protecting Tribal Rights Is Key to Fighting Climate Change

Yale E360

Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, talks with Yale Environment 360 about how climate change is hitting Native Americans especially hard and why protecting tribal sovereignty is critical for tackling the climate crisis. Read more on E360 ?.

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AT&T Launches Climate Risk Data, Allows Communities to Prepare for Climate Change

Environment + Energy Leader

AT&T, FEMA and the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have announced the launch of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal. The post AT&T Launches Climate Risk Data, Allows Communities to Prepare for Climate Change appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Climate Change Is Intensifying the Water Cycle, New IPCC Report Finds

Circle of Blue

According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published Monday, Southeast Asia coastal zones are among the world’s most climate vulnerable regions. Graphic courtesy of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue.

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Divert Inc. Announces $1B Infrastructure Deal with Enbridge Inc. to Tackle Food Waste and Combat Climate Change

Environment + Energy Leader

to Tackle Food Waste and Combat Climate Change appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader. Divert has ambitious plans to scale its facilities to cover every major geographic region in the U.S. within the next eight years, ensuring that 80% of the population lives within 100 miles of its facilities. The post Divert Inc.

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Climate Change Grips Trout Streams Across the Nation:

Circle of Blue

Climate Change Grips Trout Streams Across the Nation: How Anglers Are Responding Across the country, anglers have watched as droughts, floods, and high temperatures batter the rivers they depend on. The issue has begun changing minds about climate change among recreational fishermen, a demographic that leans politically conservative.

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What Are Multiform Floods? One More Thing to Worry about with Climate Change.

Union of Concerned Scientists

We are in the thick of “ danger season ” (aka summer), that time of year when climate-related disasters such as droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes are more likely to happen. Not only that, but climate change has made many of these disasters more severe and more likely to occur.

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Is China Doing Enough on Climate Change? COP26 Version

Legal Planet

These are the first part of what China is calling its “1+N” program on climate change. I doubt if this signals any wavering of Chinese national policy commitment to climate change, but it does seem like a missed opportunity. Much more needs to be done, but China is also doing much more on climate change than many realize.

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AT&T Launches Climate Risk Data, Allows Communities to Prepare for Climate Change

Environment + Energy Leader

AT&T, FEMA and the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have announced the launch of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal. The post AT&T Launches Climate Risk Data, Allows Communities to Prepare for Climate Change appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Climate Change in the Law School Curriculum

Legal Planet

Someone asked me recently what I thought law schools should be teaching about climate change. Naturally, my first reaction is that everyone everywhere needs to put climate change at the top of their agenda. Land use law is another subject that may be transformed by climate change.

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National Parks, Climate Change, and Active Management

Legal Planet

Both of these are driven by the dilemmas that public land managers must address as a result of both wildfire and climate change – namely, that passive management alone may not be adequate to achieve our management goals for our public lands and natural resources. Both climate change and fire suppression are anthropogenic.

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Fighting Climate Change and Unhealthy Air, California Wants to Electrify Trucks, Too

Union of Concerned Scientists

This is an integral step towards cleaning our air and reducing climate-warming emissions. California’s fleet of commercial trucks and buses is responsible for an outsized impact on air quality and climate change. There are more than 1.8 pollution from vehicles. It’s time to electrify trucks and you can help.

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Wildfires, CEQA, Climate Change & the Courts

Legal Planet

Environmental and conservation groups have for a number of years attempted to convince California courts of the need to integrate climate change considerations into environmental analyses prepared under the state’s most important environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Download as PDF.

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HotSpots H2O: Ongoing Madagascar Famine Is Driven By Poverty, Not Climate Change

Circle of Blue

For months, international’s organizations have blamed the calamity on climate change. International organizations had blamed the calamity on climate change, but a new study rejects that assumption. And so [climate change] will only make things more difficult for these regions in the world.”.

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Four Pieces of 2021 Progress on Agriculture and Climate Change Worth Celebrating

Union of Concerned Scientists

The year 2021 showed (again) how vulnerable farming and food production are to climate change, but also how much potential there is for farmers to be part of the solution.

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What is jurisdiction, and why is it important to climate change litigation?

Legal Planet

Local actors seek climate change damages from the biggest fossil fuel companies through state law litigation. EPA and the Supreme Court’s deregulatory trend, state action remains an avenue for climate change adaptation and mitigation. In climate change cases, the defendants are the oil and gas companies.

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Divert Inc. Announces $1B Infrastructure Deal with Enbridge Inc. to Tackle Food Waste and Combat Climate Change

Environment + Energy Leader

to Tackle Food Waste and Combat Climate Change appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader. Divert has ambitious plans to scale its facilities to cover every major geographic region in the U.S. within the next eight years, ensuring that 80% of the population lives within 100 miles of its facilities. The post Divert Inc.

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Five Ways Climate Change Is Impacting Humanitarian Crises Around the World

3BL Media

The effects of climate change are all around us. Yet those most affected by climate change are already vulnerable populations, many of whom are living in some of the poorest countries in the world. Climate-driven extreme weather emergencies such as storms and droughts can damage crops and lead to massive food shortages.

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How Climate Change Might Impact Cold Weather Events

3BL Media

How Climate Change Might Impact Cold Weather Events. A Climate Theory on Cold Weather Event Attribution. After Hurricane Ian this fall, I wrote an Ecocentricity piece about how accurately we can attribute extreme weather events to climate change. Wed, 01/04/2023 - 13:00. By: John A. Type of Content.

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Solutions to Climate Change-Fueled Droughts in the Western US

Union of Concerned Scientists

The reason for this long drought has a lot to do with changes in precipitation patterns and rising temperatures linked to human-caused climate change, but it also has to do with human decisions that have led to the overexploitation of water resources of our rivers, lakes, and groundwater and a lack of sufficient policies to protect these resources.

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HotSpots H2O: In Madagascar, Droughts Caused by Climate Change Contribute to Famine

Circle of Blue

As famines historically are caused by conflict or political issues, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities, the famine in Madagascar–one of the lowest emitters of carbon and greenhouse gasses in the world–stands out as being heavily influenced by climate change.