The impacts of climate change do not fall equally. That is obvious on a global level, where low-lying countries, like Bangladesh and small island states, face inundation, while poor equatorial countries face devastating heat and droughts. It is less obvious, but still true, in the United States, where poor and marginalized communities without sufficient financial and social resources will face significant challenges adapting to the changing climate. While catastrophes appear to affect everyone equally, they are much harder on those who lack the resources to prepare and to cope.
So writes Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholar Alice Kaswan in the latest CPR Issue Alert, an executive summary of two recent articles: “Seven Principles for Equitable Adaptation, published in the latest edition of Sustainable Development Law & Policy, and "Domestic Climate Change Adaptation and Equity," a more in-depth analysis published in the Environmental Law Reporter in December 2012. The articles examine the environmental justice implications of a wide range of current and coming impacts of climate change.
For example, Professor Kaswan writes, "Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the challenges poor families face in finding shelter and new housing after floods destroy their homes. Poor families are also less likely to have money to prepare for storms and wildfires, buy hazard insurance, or have the resources to relocate to less risky areas, where a persistent lack of affordable housing limits the mobility of vulnerable populations."
Professor Kaswan goes on to highlight seven principles policy-makers should adopt in addressing climate change impacts. They are:
Government has an important role to play, particularly in protecting those vulnerable populations without the knowledge or adequate means to act.
Design substantive adaptation measures that address vulnerability.
Provide culturally sensitive communications and services.
Develop participatory processes.
Reduce underlying non-climate environmental stresses.
Mitigate mitigation: address adaptation/mitigation tradeoffs.
Develop a comprehensive agenda.
You can read the Issue Alert, here.
Showing 2,819 results
Jake Caldwell | May 29, 2013
The impacts of climate change do not fall equally. That is obvious on a global level, where low-lying countries, like Bangladesh and small island states, face inundation, while poor equatorial countries face devastating heat and droughts. It is less obvious, but still true, in the United States, where poor and marginalized communities without sufficient financial and […]
Lisa Heinzerling | May 29, 2013
Cross-posted on ACSBlog. A panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has just taken under consideration the Food and Drug Administration’s motion for a stay of a district court order directing the agency to make levonorgestrel-based emergency contraceptives available to women and girls of any age without a prescription and without […]
Dave Owen | May 23, 2013
Reposted from Environmental Law Prof Blog. A standard environmental history of American dams unfolds something like this: As a nation, we had a long love affair with dams. And while they helped our nation grow into an industrial power, the environmental side-effects were immense: lost forests and farmland, drowned canyons, and, perhaps most importantly, devastated […]
Rena Steinzor | May 23, 2013
As the scandal du jour over the pure lug-headedness of some IRS staffers reminds us, any screw-up, anywhere in the government, will make its way to the White House press briefing room in about a nanosecond of Internet real time. Suspicion is deeply bred into the press corps, and appropriately so. For that reason, the 2,000 or […]
Holly Doremus | May 20, 2013
Reposted from LegalPlanet. People on both sides of the political spectrum agree that the boundaries of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act are murky, to say the least. But efforts by EPA and the Corps of Engineers to clarify those boundaries have been tied up in the White House for more than a year, […]
Holly Doremus | May 20, 2013
Reposted from LegalPlanet. People on both sides of the political spectrum agree that the boundaries of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act are murky, to say the least. But efforts by EPA and the Corps of Engineers to clarify those boundaries have been tied up in the White House for more than a year, […]
Daniel Farber | May 15, 2013
Reposted from Legal Planet. A couple of weeks ago, a major paper on the economics of government deficits turned out to have huge flaws. Matt Kahn and Jonathan Zasloff have already had something to say about this, but I’d like to add some thoughts about the implications for environmental issues.“Interesting,” you say, “But what does […]
Lisa Heinzerling | May 10, 2013
Cross-posted at ACSBlog. “The easiest way to save money,” President Obama declared in his 2012 State of the Union address, “is to waste less energy.” In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama took another step and issued “a new goal for America”: “let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes […]
Rena Steinzor | May 9, 2013
Today’s move by Senate Republicans to boycott a committee confirmation vote on Gina McCarthy to lead the EPA is just another in a series of shameless tactics aimed at hampering the Environmental Protection Agency and preventing it from doing the people’s business. The list includes endless filibusters; sequester cuts that make it harder to enforce […]