Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy

News: Canada a world leader in freshwater quality

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:46:23 +0000

Using this data, we can compare Canada’s performance with peer countries. Among the most widely respected and cited measures used in cross-country analysis of water quality is the Environmental Performance Index of Water Quality (EPI).

Blog: How eucalyptus trees are connected to denying climate change

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:20:10 +0000

I (Josh Galperin, Associate Director, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy) have two forthcoming publications that argue against the growing "eat the invaders" or "invasivore" movement. Invasive species are a serious ecological and economic problem. The invasivore movement supposes that we can control biological invasions with a fork and knife. My collaborators and I see several problems with this argument. One of the leading problems is that generating enough culinary interest in an invasive species to actually impact its population will lead to cultural endearment. There are examples of invasive species, despite manifest ecological and economic damage, becoming important cultural icons. Even though it has nothing to do with food, the eucalyptus tree in California is one such example.

The following post, written by Professor Eric Biber and originally published on Legal Planet highlights problems of cultural endearment of invasive species by focusing on attempts to remove eucalyptus from the campus of UC Berkeley.

News: Frontier Centre report says Canada’s environment has become healthier

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:43:21 +0000

In recent decades, ambient levels of several different types of harmful air pollutants have fallen significantly in Canada’s urban centres, according to the report.

According to the internationally respected Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Canada is a world leader in this area.

Blog: Blame the Bean?

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:13:25 +0000

The United States Supreme Court didn’t do anything particularly interesting on Monday, May 13. All they did was issue a sound ruling on a reasonably simple legal question. The problem is that the facts of the case deal with thorny social issues that fuel the blogosfire: genetically modified foods and the role of multinational corporations.

News: Shale gas a boon to energy world, but...

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:31:50 +0000

Shale gas is a black hole for water, argue Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchherr in a paper, carried by Huffington Post. Exploiting the resource requires and pollutes massive amounts. And because of this water footprint, France in2011 banned hydraulic fracturing. Today, the United States’ water resources are diminishing according to 2012 Yale Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Exploiting shale gas may exacerbate these problems, Biswas and Kirchherr underline.

Blog: Series Recap: Emerging Issues in Shale Gas Development

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:20:32 +0000

In the our second annual Policy Workshop Webinar Series, we looked at “Emerging Issues in Shale Gas Development” with the help of a distinguished group of experts from multiple sectors and fields. In case you missed any of our events this year, or would like to review a presentation, I have catalogued our shale gas webinars and interviews, including links to summary blog posts and video recordings.

Blog: Webinar Recap: An Environmental Perspective on Fracking

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:11:42 +0000

On Friday, April 12, Kate Sinding from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) discussed fracking from the perspective of an environmental organization as part the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy’s Policy Workshop Webinar Series on “Emerging Issues in Shale Gas Development.”

News: Environment is in ICU, says DENR

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

[The Phillippines' Environment Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio Jr.] said the [President's natural forsts log ban and National Greening Program] improved the Philippines’ ranking in the Environmental Performance Index from 50th in 2010 to 42th last year out of 132 countries.

The Philippines outranked South Korea (43rd), Australia (48th), the United States (49th), Singapore (52nd) and Israel (61st).

News: PH has SE Asia’s lowest forest cover

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

He added that such government initiatives had earned the country a high ranking as a strong environmental performer in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index Report of Yale and Columbia Universities. The Philippines ranked 42 out of 132 countries and outperformed South Korea, Australia, Singapore and the United States, Ignacio said.

Spotlight: Air Quality and Human Health: An Interview with Roger Peng

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:05:22 +0000

Blog: Air Quality and Human Health: An Interview with Roger Peng

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:24:52 +0000

Roger Peng, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recently sat down for an interview wtih YCELP's Angel Hsu on air quality indicators for human health and their policy relevance.

Spotlight: Parenting the Planet: A Conversation with Sarah Krakoff

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:57:16 +0000

University of Colorado Law School Professor Sarah Krakoff will be at Yale Law School Thursday, April 18, to discuss her upcoming book Parenting the Planet, which examines the different stages of the human relationship to nature.

Blog: Webinar Recap: Community Perspectives from Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Fields

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:48:59 +0000

On Friday, March 29, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy invited award-winning reporter Susan Phillips from WHYY in Philadelphia to discuss Marcellus Shale gas development in Pennsylvania as part of our Policy Workshop Webinar Series on Emerging Issues in Shale Gas Development.

Blog: Mike Thompson Receives Environmental Stewardship Award

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:30:37 +0000

Dean Mike Thompson received the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy’s Environmental Stewardship Award for his leadership in forging new frontiers in sustainability at Yale Law School.

News: Biggest Polluters in Ukraine Need to Modernize

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:34:09 +0000

As one of the ecological “antileaders” of Europe, Ukraine has a sad situation: dozens of large industrial companies work with outdated equipment lacking environmental safety controls. Managers at some of these companies say that they have already started to invest money for modernization, but the latest statistics show that things are getting worse.

Spotlight: Losing Nature: Environmental Imagination in the Anthropocene

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:48:00 +0000

Jedediah Purdy, bestseilling author and professor of law at Duke University, will speak about his upcoming book The American Environmental Imagination at Yale Law School Friday, April 5.

Spotlight: Daniel Yergin - The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:33:18 +0000

Please join the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP) and the Yale Climate & Energy Institute (YCEI) for a conversation with Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer-Prize winning author, about his recent book The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.

The talk will be at 6:10 pm in Yale Law School, room 127.

News: Closure of Experimental Lakes Area part of assault on science: Scharper

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:57:29 +0000

As biologist Norman Yan of York University noted at the panel, according to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index published by Yale University, Canada has slipped about 25 positions in the past five years in terms of its environmental protection and performance and is on track to slip below another 25 to 30 nations in the next five years. Canada is now on the level of Mexico and Brazil in terms of lax eco-protection, and is doing worse than every European nation.

News: ICYMI: World Water Day makes a splash, greener fracking and more

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:50:05 +0000

IBM today launches a new mobile app called "WaterWatcher," aimed at South Africa's water system. The majority of the country's population lacks access to water in their homes, and South Africa recently ranked 128 out 132 countries in the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy's 2012 Environmental Performance Index, gauging the world's water, air and overall environmental performance.

News: Paje rallies Filipinos to showcase environmental awareness at Earth Hour 2013

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:48:15 +0000

Paje reported that the Philippines has also successfully implemented clean development mechanism (CDM) projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of environmentally sustainable fuel technologies.

He said the country is ranked 10th in the world in terms of number of CDM projects, with 59 registered with the United Nations. The country's success in implementing these CDM projects was also the reason why the Environmental Performance Index gave the Philippines a perfect score of 100 percent under the indicator for carbon dioxide per capita, Paje added.