Episodes
Monday Oct 04, 2021
The Amazon is burning – is Paris too?
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews law professor and Brazilian attorney Dr. Carolina Arlota of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, who compares climate change action in Brazil to that in the United States. Among other things, she promotes the view that litigation may help advance the agenda even if positive outcomes are not achieved at the judicial scale because of, among other things, the “poltical question doctrine.” Professor Arlota also discusses the Brazilian Constitution, which promotes environmental protection.
This interview is based on Dr. Arlota’s article "The Amazon Is Burning—Is Paris, Too? A Comparative Analysis Between The United States And Brazil Based On The Paris Agreement On Climate Change" published in the Georgetown Journal of International Law, Vol. 52, 2020.
The findings demonstrate that, given the silence of the U.S. Constitution on environmental matters and the decades-long congressional inertia on climate issues, an effective way to update the U.S. constitutional text will be through judicial review. As the comparative analysis unveiled in this article shows, standing is a major barrier to judicial review on climate change claims. Accordingly, this article includes a recommendation for the flexibilization of the traditional standing requirements for the United States to achieve effective environmental protection and related mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Monday Feb 08, 2021
The Keystone Pipeline System: An Exercise in Futility
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Hear law professors Sean Kammer (PhD) and Myanna Dellinger (PhD candidate) discuss why the corporate and conservative attempts at keeping the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline will inevitably fail and why, then, it would be more expedient from an environmental and business point of view to face reality sooner rather than later. This holds true despite the fact that any president does have the power to issue an Executive Order regarding the project.
Under the Paris Agreement, we must, among other things, reach net zero emissions by 2050 to help the world – and ourselves – limit catastrophic climate change. UN and other experts have made it clear that we must take sufficient action within the next decade. For that reason, it also makes not sense to create and continue vast oil distribution networks.
Sunday Feb 11, 2018
The Green Amendment - Securing our right to a healthy environment
Sunday Feb 11, 2018
Sunday Feb 11, 2018
Attorney and activist Maya van Rossum, author of The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment discusses a pioneering new legal strategy to fight growing pollution problems, including drinking water contamination, air pollution, deforestation and climate change, by adopting constitutional green amendments that guarantee a safe and healthy environment.
Van Rossum is also the leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, an organization that has successfully stalled fracking and pipeline development in the Northeast. The DRN initiated For the Generations, a project that provides a guide to creating an environmental rights amendment in every US state.
This veteran environmentalist used the constitution in Pennsylvania to take on and beat big fossil fuel industries, and how these amendments could change the legal landscape to crises such as Flint, Keystone, ad beyond.
Van Rossum believes that environmental rights are a fundamental human right, just like free speech and the right to private property.
Wednesday Aug 09, 2017
Sustainability and Governance - Taking Steps for the Future
Wednesday Aug 09, 2017
Wednesday Aug 09, 2017
Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews Christine Harada, the former Federal Chief Sustainability Officer under the Obama Administration. Ms. Harada is currently working with the XPRIZE Foundation as a Bold Innovator, developing the next XPRIZE for Clean Air. Christine is also a Senior Fellow with the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator, where she helps build out the cleantech economy in Los Angeles, CA.
Christine explains what her duties were under the Obama Administration, and how those duties are (hopefully) being carried out under the Trump Administration.
This episode was recorded at Occidental College in Los Angeles.