Digital Commons Network^™

The Insolence Of Office: Exposing The Politics Of Perception In Copenhagen, Richard Faulk

Richard Faulk

Despite the malaise that seemed to overlay the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference before opening day, the summit opened with a flourish of rhetoric and apparent optimism by a host of attendees. In a statement titled “Governments set to seal ambitious international climate change deal in Copenhagen,” UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, practically overflowed with enthusiasm, sounding supremely confident that an international climate change deal was within reach.

The Queer Case Of The Quarelsome Convocation: Allies, Adversaries, Indifference And Exaggeration In Copenhagen, Richard Faulk

Richard Faulk

There’s no doubt, insofar as the UN is concerned, that the island nations are in desperate plight. In fact, the UN seized yesterday as an opportunity to unveil a barrage of new scientific information directly affecting the islanders’ interests. The day climaxed with an appearance by Al Gore himself, who relayed a disturbing forecast of vanished polar ice within five years. All of the disclosures were orchestrated masterfully, presumably in an attempt to create an irresistible cascade of information which, in turn, would motivate negotiators to reach a global agreement. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, all of this …

The "Climategate" Controversy: A Tree Falls In The Forest -- But Is Copenhagen Listening?, Richard Faulk

Richard Faulk

An old philosophical riddle asks "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The “Climategate” tree has fallen, and there were plenty of people around, both in Copenhagen and Washington, to hear it. The question is, however, was anyone listening? For the sake of the Copenhagen conference, and our Republic, one hopes so.

The Sorcerer Ii Expedition: Intellectual Property And Biodiscovery, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This article considers the significance of a leading marine biodiscovery initiative. In March 2004, Dr. J. Craig Venter announced the official launch of the Sorcerer II Expedition, a scientific expedition of discovery, which would survey marine and terrestrial microbial populations. The Expedition has the potential to uncover tens of thousands of new microbial species and tens of millions of new genes. Venter has disavowed that the Sorcerer II Expedition has any commercial ambitions. However, some have viewed the Sorcerer II Expedition with suspicion. Various civil society groups have accused the Expedition of engaging in ‘biopiracy’. This article investigates the Convention …

Who's Afraid Of The Precautionary Principle?, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

The precautionary principle – the notion that lack of scientific certainty should not foreclose precautionary regulation – has become enormously popular in recent years, as reflected by its endorsement in many important international declarations and agreements. Despite its growing influence, the precautionary principle recently has come under fire by critics who argue that it is incoherent, potentially paralyzing, and that it will lead regulators to make bad choices. They maintain that society faces greater peril from overly costly regulations than from exposure to sources of environmental risks whose effect on human health and the environment is not fully understood at …

The Emergence Of Global Environmental Law, Tseming Yang, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

With the global growth of public concern about environmental issues over the last several decades, environmental legal norms have become increasingly internationalized. This development has been reflected both in the surge of international environmental agreements as well as the growth and increased sophistication of national environmental legal systems around the world. The result is the emergence of a set of legal principles and norms regarding the environment, such that one can arguably describe it as a body of law. After exploring the diverse forces that are contributing to the emergence of what we call “global environmental law,” this Article considers …

Bad Science, Linda Greer, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Plachimada Problem, Nishita Vasan

Nishita Vasan

Groundwater is a precious natural resource for a community. The acute water shortage and pollution hazard created by the actions of the Coca Cola Company in Perumatty Grama Panchayat, Kerala has grave implications for Kerala’s farming community. Concomitantly, the decision of the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court will critically impact environmental jurisprudence in India. The Division Bench, while considering multifarious issues involved, adopted a narrow approach and failed to take into account material factors which could have substantially altered the result of the case. The Judiciary and the State failed to recognise the principle of public trust that …

Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, And Political Interference Cripple The 'Protector Agencies', Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz

Rena I. Steinzor

In the last several years, dramatic failures of the nation’s food safety system have sickened or killed tens of thousands of Americans, and caused billions of dollars of damages for producers and distributors of everything from fresh vegetables to granola bars and hamburger meat. In each case, the outbreak of food-borne illness triggered what can only be described as a frantic scramble by health officials to discover its source. Inevitably, the wrong lead is followed or a recall is too late or too narrow to prevent further illnesses, and the government has to defend itself against withering criticism. Americans expect …

A Return To Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, And The Environment Through 'Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis', Rena I. Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney A. Shapiro, James Goodwin

Rena I. Steinzor

Health and safety regulations have a more powerful impact on the quality of life in America than any other affirmative decision the government makes, except perhaps decisions to go to war or pull in the social safety net. To a great extent, the purity of the food we eat and all the medicines we take, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, the safety of industrial workplaces, and the preservation of the myriad natural systems that support life as we know it are dependent on how effectively government polices the side effects of manufacturing. Yet …

Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Back To The Past By Way Of The Future, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Environmental Regulation Through The Government Performance And Results Act: Are The States Ready For The Devolution?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Reinvention And Project Xl: Does The Emperor Have Any Clothes?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Epa And Its Sisters At 30: Devolution, Revolution, Or Reform?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Reauthorization Of Superfund: Can The Deal Of The Century Be Saved?, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Corruption Of Civic Environmentalism, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Toward Better Bubbles And Future Lives: A Progressive Response To The Conservative Agenda For Reforming Environmental Law, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Part Ii, Rena I. Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling

Rena I. Steinzor

The Environmental Protection Agency's recent proposal to regulate mercury emissions from power plants, and its final rule on mercury emissions from chlor-alkali facilities, suffer from serious scientific, legal, economic, and distributional flaws. The first installment in this series examined the strong scientific basis for regulating mercury emissions and critiqued the agency's decisions from a legal perspective. This second (and final) installment finds that EPA's decisions also fail from the perspectives of economics and environmental justice. EPA and the Office of Management and Budget's economic analysis of the proposal to regulate mercury from power plants was shoddy and one-sided. EPA and …

A Perfect Storm: Mercury And The Bush Administration, Rena Steinzor, Lisa Heinzerling

Rena I. Steinzor

In December 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule for mercury emissions from power plants and issued a final rule for mercury emissions from chlor-alkali facilities. Regarding power plants, EPA had previously found that mercury posed the most serious threat among the hazardous air pollutants emitted by power plants, and also that regulation of mercury from power plants was appropriate and necessary under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, which requires stringent technology-based regulation for hazardous air pollutants. Despite section 112's clear rejection of emissions trading as a compliance option, EPA has proposed to allow commercial trading …

Spirit Food And Sovereignty: Pathways For Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Subsistence Rights, Allison M. Dussias

Allison M Dussias

Abstract: SPIRIT FOOD AND SOVEREIGNTY: PATHWAYS FOR PROTECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ SUBSISTENCE RIGHTS

By Professor Allison M. Dussias

This article examines three pathways recently followed by Native American tribes and other Native communities in seeking protection of their rights to culturally valuable and legally protected subsistence resources – wild, renewable resources on which Native peoples have traditionally relied to sustain themselves. They have pursued their claims not only through litigation in U.S. courts, but also through claims to international bodies and through the regulatory process. The sources of law and rights on which they have relied as they followed these different …

Solar Energy Policy In Canada: An Overview Of Recent Legislative And Community-Based Trends Towards A Coherent Renewable Energy Sustainability Framework, Kamaal Zaidi

Kamaal Zaidi

This paper outlines solar energy policy in Canada, in the hopes of advancing renewable energy policy. More specifically, the most recent advances in public policy relating to renewable energy are examined in selected provinces to show how solar energy is on the rise in Canada. The technology behind solar energy is briefly analyzed, while the legal aspects of solar energy are covered to build upon the discussion in various provinces. Since much of Canadian solar energy policy draws from Germany, Japan, and the United States, these three jurisdictions are mentioned to show their solar energy policies. The paper ends with …

State Authority To Regulate Toxins In Children's Consumer Products, Doug Farquhar

Doug Farquhar

The rapid rise over the last several years in the number of recalled children's toys along with media coverage of foreign-manufactured products containing lead and other toxins created a public groundswell demanding stricter controls on toys and other children's products. In response, lawmakers have tightened existing toy safety standards, increased enforcement capability of state and federal authorities, and expanded the number of regulated substances, first by state lawmakers, followed by Congress with the enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This article explores the extent to which the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 preempts existing …

Review Of Mary Doyle And Cynthia A. Drew, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration (Island Press, 2008), Joel A. Mintz

Joel A. Mintz

This book review critically examines Mary Doyle and Cynthia A. Drew's, Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration. The book is a set of case studies of five watershed-wide ecosystem restoration projects, written from the perspectives of institutional/political history, economics, and ecology. This review assays the work's strengths and shortcomings, both as a source of information about the restoration efforts it covers and as a guide to the evaluation of other similar attempts to restore degraded watersheds.

Shifting The Paradigm: Broadening Our Understanding Of Agriculture And Its Impact On Climate Change, Annise Maguire

Annise Maguire

Scientists have determined that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Governments around the world are in near unanimous agreement about the existence of climate change and the threat it poses. Further, there is a growing consensus within the global scientific community that the primary cause of climate change is increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) related to human activities. At best, it appears that human actions are exacerbating the natural heating of the earth; at worst, humans are the primary cause of the rapid rise in temperatures.

Unfortunately, policies enacted to date have failed to take into account …

Pcbs In Schools And Corporate Responsibility For Remediation: Yorktown Central School District V. Monsanto Company, Valerie J. Watnick

Valerie J. Watnick

From 1950 to 1977, thousands of school buildings in the United States were constructed or renovated using materials containing man-made materials called poly chlorinated bi-phenols, commonly known as “PCBs.” In 1977, Congress banned most uses of PCBs in construction, recognizing the adverse health effects of these man-made compounds. Despite this ban and the now widely held belief that PCBs are known animal carcinogens, probable human carcinogens and have other toxic effects on the human reproductive, immune, endocrine and neurological systems, these compounds are still commonly found in school buildings throughout the United States. This article asserts that just as concerns …

More About Oysters Than You Wanted To Know, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.

Chesapeake Waters: Pollution, Public Health, And Public Opinion, 1607-1972, John Capper, Garrett Power, Frank Shivers

Garrett Power

Preface The Chesapeake Bay is the most studied and best understood estuary in the United States. Yet, it is practically unexamined in the areas of the social sciences and the humanities. While millions of dollars have been spent on producing the thousands of studies that examine the physical, biological, chemical, and engineering aspects of the Bay, little attention has been given to understanding the political, cultural, and economic character of Bay governance. The relationship of the governments of Maryland and Virginia to the Bay is imperfectly documented. Government documents which do exist are scattered in various libraries in both states …

Meaningful Participation In A Global Climate Regime, Bryant Walker Smith

Bryant Walker Smith

An effective climate regime must be global rather than merely international and must contemplate the significant involvement of actors other than states. “Meaningful participation” in a global climate regime is already occurring in the Global South. That participation helps to satisfy the existing international legal obligations undertaken by developing states and merits greater recognition in future legal regimes. Moreover, that participation constitutes a form of global governance separate from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and, regardless of its legal status, deserves greater attention in practical efforts to address climate change.

The article has several parts. First, …

Misunderstanding Models In Environmental And Public Health Regulation, Wendy E. Wagner, Elizabeth Fisher, Pasky Pascual

Wendy E. Wagner

Computational models are fundamental to environmental regulation, yet their capabilities tend to be misunderstood by policymakers. Rather than rely on models to illuminate dynamic and uncertain relationships in natural settings, models are too often used by policymakers as “answer machines.” This fundamental misperception that models can generate decisive facts leads to a chain reaction of problems that begin with policymaking itself, but then radiate into the science of modeling and into regulatory deliberations where regulatory participants can exploit the misunderstanding in strategic ways. This paper documents the pervasive misperception of models as truth machines in U.S. regulation and the multi-layered …