As the world creeps closer to global temperatures surpassing a limit agreed to in the Paris climate accords, 16 high-level leaders — aided by UCLA-led research — have formed a commission to consider responses that would minimize risks to people and the planet.
This report describes and analyzes selected aspects of California’s statewide greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which went into effect in 2012. The system is one component of California’s overall strategy for achieving its state-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
Most appliances, like furnaces and water heaters, are powered by fossil fuels and emit nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other harmful pollutants in and near our homes. These emissions have serious public health and environmental consequences for Californians, contributing to approximately five hundred premature deaths every year and hampering California’s efforts to meet its ambitious climate goals. Governmental action is needed to facilitate more widespread adoption and development of these healthier alternative technologies available today.
On April 11, 2022, as part of the Frank G. Wells Clinic in Environmental Law, clinic co-director Cara Horowitz and Emmett/Frankel Fellow Heather Dadashi filed an amicus curiae brief to the California Court of Appeal in an appeal of a decision where LA Waterkeeper successfully challenged the granting of discharge permits for four Southern California water treatment plants using a “waste and unreasonable use” claim.
When you turn on the tap or twist the cap, you might not give a second thought to where your drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to your glass is far more complex than you might think. Is it safe to drink tap water? Should you feel guilty buying bottled water? Is your water vulnerable to terrorist attacks? With springs running dry and reservoirs emptying, where is your water going to come from in the future? What can we learn from the 2014 crises in Charleston, West Virginia, and Toledo, Ohio, or the more recent events in Flint, Michigan?
This article was originally published on the UCLA Newsroom website on March 9, 2022. We share it here with UCLA Newsroom's permission.
UCLA Law students work to help protect outdoor laborers from heat and pollution
by Daniel Melling