Whatever you want to say about climate change, you can’t say we’ve been blindsided. The US has had decades to take action against climate change, and we spent nearly half that time deliberately making things worse. Scientists have had reasons for concern about climate change for over a century, and the first government report on […]
Dan Farber, Legal Planet
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Dan Farber: Rescuing FEMA (and ourselves)
December 28, 2021 – 2021 was a year of disasters, with extraordinary heat waves, fires, a string of hurricanes, a cold snap that left Texas in the dark, winter tornados, and torrential rains. FEMA has been left badly overstretched. That’s an urgent problem, and it’s likely a foretaste of the future. This is not just a problem […]
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Dan Farber: What to Be Thankful For (2021 edition)
November 24, 2021 – If there is a single thing for environmentalists to be thankful for this year, it is simply this: the virulently anti-environmental Donald Trump is no longer in the White House. My Thanksgiving post last year began, “Nearly four years into the Trump Administration, we’re now accustomed to waking up every morning […]
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Dan Farber: A Bad Week for Biden, and for Climate Action
November 1, 2021 – President Biden hoped to go to the international climate summit in Glasgow with momentum behind him. He wanted to reestablish US credibility with concrete progress on climate change. Instead, the ability of the US to take action on climate change is shrouded in doubt. Biden suffered an embarrassing defeat at the […]
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Dan Farber: Report from Planet X
October 7, 2021 – A long time ago, in another galaxy far far away . . . Dear Galactic Governance Collaborative, Those of us who colonized Planet X now find ourselves in dangerous straits. We request urgent assistance due to escalating environmental instability. You’re thinking it’s not easy to screw up an entire planet. You’re […]
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Dan Farber: Disaster Management
The Trump Administration’s bungling of the coronavirus pandemic surely should feature in management textbooks. Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Some of the problems derived from having a top manager who was fundamentally indifferent and seemingly incapable of grasping basic facts. But other problems were due to inability to manage the […]
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Dan Farber | 2020: The Year in Review
December 28, 2020 – In terms of the environment, the big news was the election. Biden swept the popular vote and won a solid victor in the Electoral College. At this point, the Republicans have retained control of the Senate, though runoff elections in Georgia could change that. On another front, US carbon emissions were […]
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Dan Farber: For U.S. Climate Policy, It’s Oct. 2016 All Over Again
October 8, 2020 – Four years ago this week, I wrote about environmental stakes in the presidential election. The environmental stakes are equally high this time. If anything, Trump’s rollbacks of environmental regulations have been more thorough and severe than anticipated. He has also worked hard to open up federal lands and waters to more drilling and […]
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Dan Farber: Herd Immunity
September 1, 2020 – “Herd immunity” seems to be gaining ground in the White House as a coronavirus strategy. The idea is to protect the vulnerable population, while letting the virus run its course among the rest. The disease then dies out because so many people are immune. What could possibly go wrong? In theory, this idea […]
Posted inCalifornia
Dan Farber: California’s Spiking Coronavirus Cases
July 1, 2020 – The number of reported COVID-19 cases in California has risen dramatically. What’s going on, and what should be done about it? The situation has changed so rapidly that I’ve had to rewrite this story repeatedly since I began work on it last week. Early Last Week When I started work on […]
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Dan Farber: Coronavirus Tests and Their Limits
May 28, 2020 – Many of us anxiously scan coronavirus statistics, looking at trends and cross-country comparisons. Warning: We need to be cautious in interpreting those numbers. There’s lots of noise in the data, meaning that it’s not always an accurate measure of what we want to know about the disease. Even death counts are […]
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Dan Farber: After the Peak, the Worst Could Still Be Yet to Come
April 15, 2020 – There are some indications that we may be getting closer to the peak of new coronavirus cases in New York, and with luck the national peak may not be too far off. That would be welcome news when it comes. But it would be dead wrong to declare victory or assume […]
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Dan Farber: The Decade in Review
December 19, 2019 – “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” That pretty much sums up the ten years from January 2010 to January 2020. As the decade began, Barrack Obama was in the White House and the Democrats controlled Congress but were one vote short of a filibuster-proof majority […]
Posted inCalifornia
Dan Farber: Trump’s Legal Challenges to California’s Car Deal
September 10, 2019 – Prompting rage by President Trump, California and several carmakers entered a voluntary agreement on carbon emissions from new cars that blew past the Administration’s efforts to repeal existing federal requirements. Last week, the Trump Administration slapped back at California. Although there’s been a lot of editorializing about that response, I’ve seen very little […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Dan Farber: Elections Matter – Even More Than You Thought
Aug. 13, 2019 – I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it hard to keep focused on November 3, 2020, given the confusing welter of candidates on one side and the daily bombshells issuing from the other. So maybe this is a good time for a reminder of a why elections matter. In fact, […]
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Dan Farber: Breaking Up With Fossil Fuels This Valentine’s Day
Feb. 14, 2019 – WORLD: Thanks for the card. . . . But I think we need to talk. FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY: About what? W: About us. FFI: About us?? Can’t it wait until some other time? This is Valentine’s Day, and I’ve made plans for us. Big plans. W: No, I think we need […]
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Dan Farber: Enquiring Minds Want to Know (Scott Pruitt edition)
April 6, 2018 – Control of the House matters for a number of reasons. It would allow the Democrats to block any further “reconciliation” bills (budget bills that can’t be filibustered). It would increase their leverage in negotiations. But at least as importantly, it would empower them to conduct investigations. Here’s a list of some […]
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Dan Farber: The Disagreeable Mr. Pruitt
March 15, 2018 – I’m sure that Scott Pruitt has his good side. Probably he loves dogs. But his bad traits are, well, pretty hard to overlook. Here are some of the main characteristics of the man who is now charged by statute with protecting our environment: Paranoia. As Grist says, “in just his first […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Dan Farber: Politicizing Science
Oct. 6, 2017 – We knew about the Administration’s disdain for scientific evidence from the beginning but the situation has only continued to deteriorate. The campaign against objective science is now becoming embedded within the government. Far more than its predecessors, the Administration has embarked on a campaign to impose political control on science within […]
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Dan Farber: Our Broken Flood Insurance System
September 7, 2017 – When people have gotten past the emergency of Hurricane Harvey, thoughts will turn to rebuilding. That requires money. Some of it may come in direct grants from the federal government, but flood insurance is the core source of funding for many people. Private insurance policies generally exclude flooding, so the main […]