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Environmental Pollution

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Commentary

How Could the United States Incentivize Investors to Decarbonize the Economy?

May 12, 2022

While mandatory climate-related disclosure may improve information and decisionmaking for investors, it alone is unlikely to accelerate investment in decarbonization at the rate needed. To motivate private investment in climate mitigation, policymakers could explore additional policies.
Essay

Environmental Racism: How Historic Redlining Continues to Affect Communities

Jun 27, 2022

Starting in the 1930s, neighborhoods across America were redlined—marked on government maps as too hazardous, as in, too Black or too immigrant, for federal home loans. When zoning officials needed somewhere to put a new factory or freeway, those redlined neighborhoods were like a bullseye that they hit again and again.

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Blog

Abortion Misinformation, Deepfakes, Environmental Racism: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on abortion misinformation in a post-Roe world, the threat of deepfakes, environmental hazards in historically redlined communities, and more.

Jul 8, 2022
Blog

Helping Ukrainian Refugees, Truth Decay, Algorithmic Inequity: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how to help Ukrainian refugees, the link between cognitive processes and Truth Decay, tracking wastewater to understand the spread of COVID-19, and more.

Apr 1, 2022
Commentary

How We Might Better Live with Oil in California

As California grapples with the question of balancing environmental stewardship with the recent renewed focus on “local oil,” lawmakers could look to local communities for the best answers to avoid future petro-disasters.

Apr 1, 2022
Project

Environmental Racism

Past housing policies—such as redlining—have an enduring legacy on urban neighborhoods today, and have contributed to which communities enjoy more trees, less traffic, and better air quality, and which face hazards such as pollution, toxic waste sites, and flooding risk.

Mar 31, 2022
Tool

Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments

Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).

Mar 31, 2022
Report

Poor indoor climate: Its impact on health and life satisfaction, as well as its wider socio-economic costs

This study looks at the prevalence of poor indoor climate in Europe, its impact on health and well-being, as well as its wider socio-economic costs.

Mar 22, 2022
Project

Costa Rica's Carbon-Neutral Future

In her final piece for RAND Art + Data, Gabrielle Mérite brings one country's vision for a carbon-neutral future to life. Her designs are based on RAND research that analyzed the potential outcomes of Costa Rica's National Decarbonization Plan.

Feb 23, 2022
Blog

Addressing Anti-Asian Racism, Stabilizing U.S. Rivalries, the Debt-Ceiling Fight: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on countering anti-Asian racism, the instability of U.S. rivalries with Russia and China, the rise in extremist online activity, and more.

Dec 3, 2021
Blog

Measuring Greenhouse Gases in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles, once the U.S. capital of smog and sprawl, has vowed to lead the nation into a cleaner, greener future by stamping out carbon pollution. A small array of sensors installed on the roof of RAND's Santa Monica headquarters could help it get there.

Nov 30, 2021
Blog

Boosting Vaccine Acceptance, Afghanistan's Refugee Crisis, Environmental Racism: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on addressing vaccine hesitancy, preventing an even-bigger humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and how to develop antiracist environmental policies.

Sep 10, 2021
Q&A

Mapping Environmental Racism: Q&A with Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston

Environmental policy experts Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston are leading an effort to highlight how discriminatory policies have shaped environmental health disparities. Their goal: create an interactive map of the United States to motivate environmental policy that advances antiracism.

Sep 7, 2021
Periodical

RAND Review: September-October 2021

The cover story highlights strategies to mitigate homegrown terrorism and ideologically inspired violence in the U.S. A second feature describes Costa Rica's ambitious decarbonization plan and its implications for nations around the world.

Sep 7, 2021
Report

Developing the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response: An Opportunity to Reduce Risk and Impacts of Future Spills in Freshwater

In 2016, Congress directed the U.S. Coast Guard to establish the Great Lakes National Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response. This report makes recommendations for the center, its staffing, potential partnerships, and location.

Aug 31, 2021
Essay

Costa Rica Leads the Way in Cutting Carbon Emissions

Almost every country has pledged to slash carbon emissions to slow the gears of global warming. Costa Rica's plan provides a glimpse of what a carbon-neutral future will look like. It shows how nations can take action and make investments that hold up, regardless of what future comes to pass.

Aug 30, 2021
Journal Article

Data-driven Decision Support Tools for Assessing the Vulnerability of Community Water Systems to Groundwater Contamination in Los Angeles County

This research aims to develop an easy to deploy, data-driven method to identify community water systems that are vulnerable to drinking water quality degradation from groundwater contamination.

Jul 28, 2021
Report

Indonesian Fires and Haze

Fires in Indonesia contribute to severe air pollution that causes public health, environmental, and economic degradation across Indonesia and across equatorial Asia. What are the drivers of fire activity in Indonesia? And what are some the health impacts of air pollution exposure?

Jul 20, 2021
Commentary

Arming the Department of Defense's Environmental Liabilities Program

A new U.S. emphasis on sustainable environmental conditions is emerging just as budget pressures are increasing. The DoD could use this as an opportunity to develop a systematic approach to addressing its environmental liabilities.

Jun 23, 2021
Report

The Globalization of Mass Civil Litigation: Lessons from the Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" Case

This report describes the Volkswagen "clean diesel" emission fraud litigation to illustrate the features of global mass litigation and the problems that arise in the resolution of these types of claims across transnational jurisdictions.

Jun 22, 2021

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