Environmental Policy & Law

“Illinois is the largest source of both of the nitrogen and the phosphorus that causes the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Glynnis Collins with the Prairie Rives Network, “The industrial scale of corn and soybean production on our farmland is a major source of nutrient pollution, and secondly, Illinois is home to Chicago’s Water Reclamation District with seven large sewage treatment plants.” Read the full story

About the book: The United States produces over seventy percent of all its electricity from fossil fuels and nearly fifty percent from coal alone. Worldwide, forty-one percent of all electricity is generated from coal, making it the single most important fuel source for electricity generation, followed by natural gas. This means that an essential part of any portfolio for emissions reduction will be technology to capture carbon dioxide and permanently sequester it in suitable geologic formations.

While shrubs may shield bad behavior, mature, well-tended trees do just the opposite, said J. Morgan Grove, a social ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service and one of the study's three authors. That could be important for a city like Baltimore, where trees cover just 27 percent of its landscape and some neighborhoods are practically barren. Read the full story

The threat of a lawsuit spurred the government to look at the issue and begin the cleanup last year, said Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the Tucson, Ariz.-based center. The settlement requires the cleanup be completed by 2017 and allows the center or third parties potential access to test for contaminants in the Laysan duck. Read the full story

When I first joined the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, I was both inspired and slightly skeptical about its ambitious goals. The newly established Luskin Center sought to “create a new model of problem solving to permanently alter how scholarship impacts society.” Three years later we are still learning how best to translate research into real-world policy solutions in the areas of environment, energy and sustainability. Yet through it all, I am confident that our business model is both effective and replicable.

In August 2011, federal marshals raided the Gibson Guitar Corporation in Tennessee, apparantly preparing to charge the famous builder of instruments with trafficking in illegally obtained wood. In the aftermath of the raid there was intense media attention on the company and its sourcing practices. Andrea Johnson of EIA was interviewed by NPR because of her previous work on Gibson's allegedly illegal sourcing practices in Madagascar.