[MCN] Supreme Court and the environment

[Lance Olsen]

Concluding paragraphs: 

It remains to be seen exactly what the new justice will think of the EPA, clean air protections, and climate change, but the conservative-liberal split on the court will significantly change <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/justice-kennedy-the-pivotal-swing-vote-on-the-supreme-court-announces-retirement/2018/06/27/a40a8c64-5932-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?utm_term=.d7fda17179f6> for the first time in decades. Environmentalists may have gotten lucky with Kennedy’s moderate support of CO2 regulation and protecting wetlands — and chances are their luck has run out.

“I’m fearful,” Blumm, the law professor, told Grist. “And I think all people who watch the court and care about the environment should be fearful.”

https://grist.org/article/supreme-court-justice-kennedy-is-retiring-heres-what-that-means-for-the-environment/ <https://grist.org/article/supreme-court-justice-kennedy-is-retiring-heres-what-that-means-for-the-environment/>

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"What we are witnessing is major hydrologic change," said co-author Jay Famiglietti. 

"We see a distinctive pattern of the wet land areas of the world getting wetter -- those are the high latitudes and the tropics -- and the dry areas in between getting dryer.”

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2018-102

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“The changes experienced by the biosphere over the past century ... have raised concerns about the possibility of rapid shifts from green to desert states.” 

Richard Sole'. Scaling laws in the drier. Nature 13 September 2007

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"The big challenge is still to deliver emissions reductions at the pace and scale needed, especially in a world where economies are driven by consumption.”

Sonja van Renssen.The inconvenient truth of failed climate policies. Nature Climate Change  MAY 2018

Published online: 27 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4 

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