Category «Environmental Law»

Report – A Scarcity of Rare Metals Is Hindering Green Technologies

Nicola Jones: A shortage of “rare earth” metals, used in everything from electric car batteries to solar panels to wind turbines, is hampering the growth of renewable energy technologies. Researchers are now working to find alternatives to these critical elements or better ways to recycle them. “The move toward new and better technologies — from …

Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law

Invasive Species: Major Laws and the Role of Selected Federal Agencies

CRS – Invasive Species: Major Laws and the Role of  Selected Federal Agencies – M. Lynne Corn, Specialist in Natural Resources Policy; Renée Johnson , Specialist in Agricultural Policy . October 24, 2013 “An “invasive” species (alternatively known as an alien, exotic, injurious, introduced or naturalized, non-native, nonindigenous, nuisance, or noxious species) refers to an animal or plant that is introduced into …

Subjects: Congress, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research

UMD, Google and gov. create first detailed map of global forest change

News release: “A University of Maryland-led, multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent, loss and gain. This resource greatly improves the ability to understand human and naturally-induced forest changes and the local to global implications of these changes on environmental, economic and other natural and societal systems, members of the …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents

Critical Aspects of EPA’s IRIS Assessment of Inorganic Arsenic: Interim Report

“The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program develops toxicologic assessments of environmental contaminants. IRIS assessments provide hazard identification and dose-response assessment information. The information is then used in conjunction with exposure information to characterize risks to public health and may be used in risk-based decisionmaking, in regulatory actions, and for …

Subjects: Congress, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Health Care

Artist and architect Maya Lin’s interactive tribute to extinct animals, their songs and their names – a call to action

The Art of Missing – Encounters with the sights, sounds, and stories of the species we hardly knew, by James Guida What is Missing – the interactive website “But what of the site itself? As you enter to a concert of twittering and croaks, little dots move in a swarm across the screen, assume the forms of certain …

Subjects: Environmental Law, Internet, Knowledge Management

NOAA internet tool provides unique access to environmental data

“NOAA today unveiled the beta version of “NOAA View,” an online educational tool that gives educators and the public interactive access to NOAA environmental data, enabling unique views of the world’s oceans, land, atmosphere, cryosphere and climate. The NOAA View imagery portal provides a single point for experiencing NOAA data, including environmental information captured by …

Subjects: E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management

2012 sees slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions

Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2013 Report and the Link to the interactive presentation “Actual global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached a new record of 34.5 billion tonnes in 2012. Yet, the increase in global CO2 emissions in that year slowed down to 1.1% , which was less than half the average annual increase of 2.9% …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents

Towers Watson Report – Extreme Risks 2013

News release: Focus on the extreme risks ‘that can kill you’ Towers Watson warns institutional investors: “Towers Watson’s extreme risks ranking has a new top three: Food/water/energy crisis, Stagnation and Global temperature change – while Sovereign default and Insurance crisis have both fallen five places and Depression loses the top spot for the first time since …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybercrime, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents

Drinking Water From The Potomac River – An endangered watershed?

This is a podcast of the The Kojo Nnamdi Show, recorded on October 28, 2013 –  the conversation about the Potomac River and drinking water is here: “Three-fourths of our region’s drinking water comes from the Potomac, but there are new concerns about contaminants in the river. Kojo examines the challenges facing the source of our drinking …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

CU-Boulder-led study shows unprecedented warmth in Arctic

News release: “Average summer temperatures in the Eastern Canadian Arctic during the last 100 years are higher now than during any century in the past 44,000 years and perhaps as long ago as 120,000 years, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study. The study [Unprecedented recent summer warmth in Arctic Canada, in Geophysical Research …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Documents

Loss and damage from climate change

News release: “An open access special issue of the International Journal of Global Warming brings together, for the first time, empirical evidence of loss and damage from the perspective of affected people in nine vulnerable countries. The articles in this special issue show how climatic stressors affect communities, what measures households take to prevent loss …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents