Search Results for: climate change

Abstract: In principle, especially during a rare historical moment of extra-terrestrial exploration and immunological control, our species ought to render itself capable of managing nuclear threats. Prima facie, after all, the difficulties of transporting complex instrumentation to Mars and simultaneously fashioning effective vaccines against deadly pathogens should exceed even the most complex challenges of international peace. Nonetheless, [...]

Author’s Note: a longer alternative version of this article with footnotes and instructions for use as an education module is available here. Law students should consider the nature of the common law and why it failed to curb the advance of slavery in America. This suggestion follows both recent discussions in higher education about how [...]

The European Court of Human Rights on Friday dismissed an attempt by 33 defendant governments to challenge the accelerated status of a climate change case brought against them by six Portuguese youth activists. The activists claim that the countries signed the 2015 Paris Agreement but have failed to “comply with their commitments in order to [...]

Judging by much of the debate over the Senate filibuster rule, you’d think it was some honorable tradition worth keeping — “an elegant weapon of a more civilized age,” as Obi-Wan Kenobi described the lightsaber to Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars. Not so. The filibuster is a dangerous relic with a deeply destructive [...]

The Administrative Court of Paris on Wednesday held that the French state is “responsible” for failing to take sufficient measures to halt climate change and for failing to meet its greenhouse gas emission targets. This judgment is a result of an application to the Administrative Court of Paris from four non-governmental organizations (NGOs), namely Oxfam [...]

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a series of executive actions focused on combating climate change. According to a White House statement, the orders will empower American businesses and workers to lead a “clean energy revolution that achieves a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and puts the United States on an irreversible path [...]

US President Joe Biden signed four executive actions Tuesday aimed at addressing systemic racism and enhancing racial equity. Building on last Wednesday’s executive order, which introduced his administration’s plans to pursue racial equity, Biden first disavowed discrimination against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community over the coronavirus pandemic. “The Federal Government has a responsibility [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) v. Prometheus Radio Project and BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. In Prometheus Radio Project, which was consolidated with National Association of Broadcasters v. Prometheus Radio Project, the court has to consider whether it was permissible for the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday struck down the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, ending the Trump administration’s efforts to relax rules regarding the emission of greenhouse gases from power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under former president Donald Trump had promulgated the ACE rule in an attempt [...]

US President Joe Biden issued 17 orders Wednesday, reversing many Trump administration policies. The orders range from making changes to the US response to COVID-19 to undoing former president Donald Trump’s actions on the environment, immigration, the US census and regulatory changes. Just minutes after the inauguration, Biden tweeted from the official POTUS account to [...]