‘Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change’ by Andrew Guzman

Andrew Guzman’s book reviewed by The Washington Post, May 3, 2013

With lines like “The changing climate will create a world of people dying of thirst and hunger,” ‘Overheated’ can be a hard book to read. But its strength lies in its clear-eyed assessment of the costs involved in various policy responses to the issue. “There should be no mistaking the fact that this will involve some economic sacrifice,” he writes…. Unless we impose a higher price on carbon, he warns, “we will trigger human tragedy on a scale the world has never seen.”

Tsarnaevs’ cousin avoids the spotlight

Elisabeth Semel quoted in POLITICO, May 3, 2013

“In a capital case where there’s more than one defendant-suspect, it’s always important to investigate what the relative roles of each of the actors was,” said Elisabeth Semel of the University of California Berkeley law school’s Death Penalty Clinic. She declined to comment on the specifics of the Tsarnaev case.

Oakland: More police = less crime, Cal prof argues

Justin McCrary quoted in Oakland Tribune, May 2, 2013

Put in dollars and cents, he argued, a 10 percent increase in police staffing would cost close to $13 million but would return anti-crime benefits of close to $40 million. That’s a good investment by most private industry standards, McCrary added. “If you owned a business and someone said that if you invested $13 million and got back $40 million, every single businessman would say ‘sold,'” he said.

Industry self-governance: a new way to manage dangerous technologies

Stephen Maurer and Sebastian von Engelhardt write for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June, 2013

Private standards don’t have the power of government behind them—they can’t send offenders to prison—but they can threaten something that businesses fear almost as much: bankruptcy. And these new private standards can usually be implemented faster than government regulations. Better still, they ignore national borders.

On California prisons, it’s the governor vs. the courts

Barry Krisberg quoted on NPR, April 30, 2013

“The legal arguments that the state is putting forward make no sense,” says Barry Krisberg, who teaches law at the University of California, Berkeley. He says it was unlikely that the same appellate court that ordered the state to reduce its prison population would have a change of heart. “And I don’t see what’s the logic in picking a fight now, particularly a fight you can’t win.”

Men in uniform

Robert MacCoun quoted in Slate, April 29, 2013

Robert MacCoun, who contributed to a RAND Corp. study that the Pentagon commissioned when it first considered openly gay service in 1993…. concluded that “it is task cohesion, not social cohesion or group pride, that drives group performance. This conclusion is consistent with the results of hundreds of studies in the industrial-organizational psychology literature.” In other words, it’s a myth that group members have to share the same values, or even like each other, to work together effectively.

Legal options were few in handling of Boston bombing suspect

Charles Weisselberg quoted in Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2013

Charles Weisselberg, a UC Berkeley law professor, said the Miranda decision stands mostly as a symbol for legal rights. “Miranda provides very little protection for suspects,” he said. “But it has become shorthand for saying: Are we going to treat him with the rights that we give people in the United States, or is he going to be treated as an enemy combatant with no rights?”

Earth Day: 12 intriguing new environmental books

Andrew Guzman’s book reviewed by USA Today, April 25, 2013

This book is a cautionary tale of what will happen if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius, a fairly optimistic scientific prediction. Guzman, a law professor at the University of California-Berkeley, says it could incite terrorism as groups fight for scarcer resources, cause island nations to disappear, and displace millions of people to refugee camps where infectious disease could spread.

Poor rural residents in China seen as easy target for environmental lawsuits

Rachel Stern writes for China Dialogue, April 24, 2013

China today boasts a collection of 95 environmental courts, all of which were set up over the past six years. It is a trend that promises to re-shape Chinese environmental law. But simply trumpeting this initiative is no guarantee the environmental courts will live up to their name by making pro-environment decisions. Indeed, initial evidence from Guiyang city in south-west China suggests that ordinary people are pursued by the courts far more often than major polluters are held to task.