Commentary from Community Health and Environmental Policy

It's Getting Harder and Harder to Live on Top of the World

Climate change has hit the Arctic hard, and communities like Barrow, Alaska, bear the brunt of it. Adaption measures will be essential to protect these vulnerable communities, as well as mitigation on a macro level.

Timothy William James Smith

COP 21 Not a Silver Bullet on Climate Change

The Paris climate conference cannot provide the engine that will drive a solution to the world's climate change challenge. Rather, it can best serve as a mediator that will help guide and structure the swirling, bottom-up process of radical change that is the best hope of preserving Earth's climate.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert

Ensuring Robust Water Management Strategies in Lima-Callão, Peru

Water resource agencies around the world are grappling with how to make smart investments to ensure long-term water reliability at a time of unprecedented water stress, growing demands, uncertain climate change, and limited budgets.

Laura Bonzanigo, Nidhi Kalra, et al.

Adapting to a Hotter World

Because climate change is largely irreversible, mitigation alone won't solve the problem. While mitigation will prevent even greater, future climatic changes, adaptation — efforts to adjust to climate change's effects — will prepare the world for a new set of living conditions, whatever they may be.

Evan D. Peet @evandpeet, Jaime Madrigano @JMadrigano

Why Selling Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is a Bad Idea

Some lawmakers are proposing a sell-off of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to finance highway and bridge work. This is a shortsighted strategy.

Keith Crane

Creating a Smart Market for California Water

A smart market approach could reduce the transaction costs of trading water in California, allow the price of water to better match its value, and bring that value to the state.

John F. Raffensperger, Craig A. Bond

Climate Targets: Values and Uncertainty

Policymakers know that the risks associated with climate change mean they need to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. But uncertainty surrounding the likelihood of different scenarios makes choosing specific policies difficult.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert

Breaking Down Nuclear Waste as a Two-Part Issue

The U.S. Department of Energy is now planning separate repositories for commercial waste and the waste from the military's nuclear weapons production instead of disposing of both in the same repository as originally intended. Decoupling different parts of the nuclear waste problem is a small but positive step forward.

Tom LaTourrette, Debra Knopman

How Smart Grids Can Change the Way We Live

A modernized, “smart” grid could change how much you pay for electricity, where it comes from, and how likely you are to lose it in a summer storm. But has the reality of the smart grid kept pace with the promise?

Future of Coastal Flooding

President Obama's executive order that directs federal agencies to plan and build for higher flood levels as they construct new projects in flood-prone regions will affect hundreds of billions of dollars of future public works projects. In an ideal world, planners would estimate the benefits and costs for each project, taking into account everything from the details of the local landscape to the potential for adaptive responses over time.

Debra Knopman, Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, et al.

China Can Fix Its Severe Pollution Problem

China's economic transformation over the last three decades has produced potentially deadly air pollution its people inhale every day. But an investment of $215 billion annually could substantially reduce pollution, lessen its drag on productivity, spare the lungs of countless people, and save lives.

Keith Crane

U.S.-China Global Warming Deal Could Signal Shift on Climate Change

The U.S.-China agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions represents a significant and welcome shift in the international approach to addressing climate change. For the first time, a large developing country has agreed to limit its greenhouse gas emissions—a crucial step since these countries have become the world’s largest sources.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert