Environmental Law Prof Blogtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1278042023-12-04T11:00:26-08:00A Member of the Law Professor Blogs NetworkTypePadThe Complicated Equities of Localized Energytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a4e6a3200d2023-12-04T11:00:26-08:002023-12-04T11:00:26-08:00This post is cross-posted at Legal Planet. For many decades, most people in the United States have obtained their electricity from a large investor-owned utility company (IOU). They had no real choice. Much of U.S. energy law was built on...Environmental Law ProfAccessioning Joytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a09c6d200d2023-11-02T10:10:00-07:002023-11-02T10:10:00-07:00We need your help, and it should be fun. But first, some scene setting. It is summer 2023, but it could be last summer, or the next, or the one after that. People are dying in droves from unprecedented heat,...Environmental Law ProfInequity, Excess Commercialization, and Overconsumption in the Anthropocene: Two Very Modest Regulatory Proposalstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d39c2f85200c2023-11-01T10:00:00-07:002023-11-01T10:00:00-07:00Scottish author Alistair McIntosh, reflecting on the climate challenge that our communities collectively face, sagely wrote in “Where Now ‘Hell and High Water’?” that “consumerism is a false satisifier—just another form of addiction that masks the emptiness.” He called upon...Environmental Law ProfWhat Is the Good Life in the Anthropocene?tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a09c3b200d2023-10-31T10:00:00-07:002023-10-31T10:00:00-07:00The End of the Good Life In July 2023, twenty environmental law professors gathered beside the Hood River in Oregon to discuss patterns of consumption and how humanity can move forward in this time of polycrisis to have the benefits...Environmental Law ProfBreaking Our Consumption Addictionstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a09c2b200d2023-10-30T10:00:00-07:002023-10-30T10:00:00-07:00Americans are addicted. We see this all around us. Our addictions range from the pleasurable but mostly innocuous (coffee and caffeine) to more concerning on a society-wide scale (think overeating and obesity) to the pathological and clearly harmful (such as...Environmental Law Prof"Green Colonialism"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a047d2200b2023-10-29T10:00:00-07:002023-10-29T10:00:00-07:00In 1972, a group of MIT economists published The Limits to Growth, a study that used computer models to analyze the future of our planet under twelve possible scenarios. In the 50 years since the book’s publication, the authors’ “business-as-usual”...Environmental Law ProfConsumption All the Way Downtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a047ca200b2023-10-28T10:00:00-07:002023-10-28T10:00:00-07:00Anthropogenic change on Earth is occurring on a scale never seen before. Mounting evidence shows that humans are pushing the planet beyond its systems capacities due to growth of production, consumption, and population. To understand Earth’s systems, and to develop...Environmental Law ProfRationalizing Water Consumption in the United States: Hydrogeological Reality vs. The Constitutional Right to Traveltag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a09bf5200d2023-10-27T10:00:00-07:002023-10-27T10:00:00-07:00Human consumption of water imposes externalities on planetary systems, and at all scales. Globally, for example, human impoundments of surface water in reservoirs account for a significant fraction of observed polar drift and have shrunk day length by a few...Environmental Law ProfEating Cheetos in the Anthropocene: Governing the Good Life at a "Whole of Consumption" Scaletag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d3a047b4200b2023-10-26T10:00:00-07:002023-10-26T10:00:00-07:00Cheetos are undeniably yummy—so much so that I walk quickly past their section in the grocery snacks aisle, eyes locked on the cart. It’s not a pretty picture once I succumb and rip open a bag, the Puffs being my...Environmental Law ProfImagining Climate Havens in a Boiling Worldtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341bfae553ef02c8d39c2f06200c2023-10-25T10:00:00-07:002023-10-25T10:00:00-07:00These blogs seek to conceptualize what the good life means in a consumption-obsessed, planetary-boundary constrained era. Here we suggest that cities and towns are our epicenters for imagining what a good-life means in an era where climate change increasingly determines...Environmental Law Prof