The last day of the conference began with a panel that analyzed the adaptation needs and strategies for threatened islands. Professor Klaus Jacob of Columbia University presented a risk assessment model using the variables of hazards, assets, and vulnerability. He outlined two approaches to the model: 1) using loss estimates […]
Day 2 of the Threatened Islands Conference focused on the displacement, resettlement, and migration issues that will inevitably ensue from global climate change. The first panel, moderated by Professor John Van Dyke of the University of Hawaii Law School, focused on the larger themes of resettlement and migration. Professor Brad […]
The Threatened Island Nations commenced this morning co-chaired by Professor Michael Gerrard (Director of the Columbia Center for Climate Change Law) and Ambassador Phillip Muller (Republic of the Marshall Islands). Gerrard provided a brief introduction about the inspiration for the conference and thanked the Earth Institute at Columbia University, World […]
By Danielle Sugarman Fellow The glaciers in Patagonia provide Argentina with 70% of its safe drinking water. Yet, alarmingly, this vital resource is facing dual man-made threats; one from the persistent effects of climate change and another, less well known, from the foreign companies who mine for gold under the […]
Laura Mulry Fellow April 2011 was an eventful month for massive solar projects in California and their unlikely opponent: the desert tortoise. As climate change, overpopulation, and development place ever more plant and animal species at risk of extinction, prominent environmental groups, Native Americans, and local residents have brought a […]
Gregory E. Wannier Deputy Director One of the most controversial questions to be discussed at CCCL’s upcoming conference, Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate, will be whether efforts should be made to create a new convention dedicated to climate-related displacement and resettlement activities. Taking […]
By Julia Ciardullo Fellow On April 19, 2011, the same day the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in American Electric Power Co. Inc., et al., v. Connecticut, et al., the Supreme Court of Virginia heard oral arguments in a less well known climate-related case, AES Corp. v. Steadfast […]
By Danielle Sugarman Fellow On Wednesday May 11, 2011 the New Hampshire State Senate voted to remain in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The move followed months of speculation after the passage of House Bill 519 in February, in which the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to withdraw […]