Climate Change

A quick review of the basics: human-caused pollution in the form of carbon dioxide and other emissions is collecting in the atmosphere, trapping heat from the sun and gradually warming the planet. The impact is already observable in a variety of ways: warmer average temperatures, more severe weather patterns, changes in migratory patterns of various animals as they seek cooler temperatures, abandoned habitat of many animal and plant species as conditions change, melting glaciers, and more. Down the road – and not that far down the road at current rates of polluting emissions – the effects will grow more severe: rising sea levels will reclaim land, displacing people and forever altering ecosystems; disruption of snowmelt cycles and melting glaciers will likely cause severe water shortages; warmer ocean water will give added punch to hurricanes; changing weather patterns and ocean temperatures will likely devastate existing ecosystems, kill coral reefs, and introduce new insects and other pests to cities and farms alike; and more. Indeed, all of these trends are already beginning.

The two principal U.S. sources of “greenhouse gases” are coal-burning power plants and gas-burning automobiles. Their annual carbon dioxide emissions are measured in the billions of tons, overwhelming the ability of carbon-dioxide-absorbing plants to convert the gas to oxygen.

The good news about climate change is that we have technologies on hand to take an enormous bite out of the current load of greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid cars and other cleaner vehicles, together with cleaner energy generation hold great promise. And conservation of energy – appliances and vehicles that require less fuel – can make a huge difference, as well.

• Op-Ed on Conservative Opposition to Cap and Trade.  Read "Conservatives Flip-Flopped on Cap and Trade," by CPR Member Scholar Robert L. Glicksman, in the June 28, 2008 Wichita Eagle.
• Federal Preemption of State and Local Climate Change Laws.  One of industry's objectives in the debate over federal climate change legislation is preemption of state and local laws and policies on the topic.  Would that make for good policy?  Read CPR White Paper #803 by Cooperative Federalism and Climate Change: Why Federal, State, and Local Governments Must Continue to Partner, by William Andreen, Robert Glicksman, Nina Mendelson, and Rena Steinzor and CPR Policy Analyst Shana Jones, published May 2008.
• Editorial Memo.  Read Rena Steinzor's June 2008 Editorial Memo on Federal Preemption.
• California Waiver. Read William W. Buzbee's December 28, 2007 op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the Bush EPA's denial of California's request for a Clean Air Act waiver that would allow it and 16 "piggybacking" states to fight global warming with stricter automobile emissions standards.
• Climate Change Conference. See the media advisory and agenda for "Facts, Ideas, and U.S. Climate Change Policy: A Conference on Climate Change," an October 20, 2007 conference sponsored jointly by CPR, the University of Kansas School of Law, and the Commons at the University of Kansas.
• Responding to Lomborg. Read "Hot Air," Eban Goodstein's review of Bjorn Lomborg's Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, published on Slate.com, August 29, 2007. For another look at the quality of Lomborg's scholarship, read Joel Mintz's review, published in The Environmental Lawyer, in 2002, of Lomborg's earlier book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. (Reprinted by permission of the American Bar Association.) Or read Frank Ackerman's 2002 review of Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, in the March 25, 2002 edition of The Nation.
• On the Radio. Listen to CPR's Frank Ackerman debate global warming with Heritage Foundation scholar Ben Lieberman on "Kresta in the Afternoon," May 23, 2007.
• The Court, Clean Air, and Global Warming. Read CPR Member Scholar Joseph Feller's op-ed on why the Supreme "Court must conclude that global warming gases are a real danger," published in the December 26, 2006 Arizona Daily Star.
• A CPR Persepective.  Read the CPR Perspective, International Justice and Climate Change.