“Either we decide to change by choice, together, or change will be imposed by tragedy. We can change. But we must do it together” — Andre Correa do Lago, #COP30 president, in a letter to negotiators at the start of the UN meeting HT @coveringclimatenow.org

Many Americans today have no memory of the world that spurred modern environmental law. The Documerica project, housed at the National Archives, provides a vivid window into environmental destruction circa the 1970s and reminds us how far we’ve come," writes our Prof. Jim Salzman.

The motion to formally oppose the gondola was passed 12-1 with only John Lee voting in favor of the project. Katy Yaroslavsky and Imelda Padilla abstained because they’re on the Metro board

With 56,118 delegates registered, COP30 is expected to be the 2nd largest in history, says a @carbonbrief.org analysis. There’s a case for changing the format and the cadence of COPs. (Twice a year?) And this year there's a record-number of “virtual delegates.” www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-whi...

“COPs will not solve the climate crisis by themselves, but it looks unlikely that the problem can be solved without COPs” @fionaharvey.bsky.social writes. COP is still the one decision-making arena where all the players in climate politics are present and activated. legal-planet.org/2025/11/12/g...

“Is COP worthwhile?” Some Republicans and environmental justice organizers question the practical value of sending a delegation. The summit can be performative. But CA is filling a power vacuum, and legislators can see solutions that work abroad and bring them home. calmatters.org/environment/...

Newsom grabs the spotlight. Big money for methane reductions. China and Brazil fill the power vacuum. Here's the good and bad of COP30. legal-planet.org/2025/11/12/g...

Brazil launched a $125 billion tropical forest protection fund ahead of COP30, combining government money and private investors to counter the economic incentives driving deforestation. But the structure has a critical flaw, according to an environmental law scholar: buff.ly/J4jPDAZ

The just-launched Tropical Forests Forever Facility is a bold new investment fund that aims to channel billions into tropical forest protection – "One key change can make it better," writes our Jason Gray at @us.theconversation.com as #COP30 gets underway. theconversation.com/a-bold-new-i...

For all the advice about touching grass— touching dirt , and digging a bunch of holes and planting little shrubs like California sagebrush and Mountain Mahogany, is a lot more satisfying. Thanks @treepeople-org.bsky.social for letting UCLA get dirty volunteering.

The editor in me loves seeing a publication push out a story where an edit didn't get resolved correctly, like here where one word was inserted to replace the other. Which do you think was the reporter's? "Threatened" or "told"?

A good day to re-up this thread on why tariffs are a poor tax policy instrument. Also relevant today, this broad use of tariffs definitely exceeds the President's authority under IEEPA. Early indications suggest the court agrees.

Justice Neil Gorsuch: "Could the president impose a 50 percent tariff on gas-powered cars and autoparts to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat from abroad of climate change?"

Thanks to @blancabegert.bsky.social for covering this important topic and a bunch of work by my colleagues @uclalawemmett.bsky.social, @uclaioes.bsky.social looking at the LADWP/SoCal Edison comparison + insideclimatenews.org/news/0511202...

This headline asks a question that makes investor-owned utilities squirm. Nice work from my colleague @blancabegert.bsky.social: insideclimatenews.org/news/0511202...

Here's our new user-friendly ranking of super-polluting methane emissions across multiple sectors called STOP Methane (Spotlight on Top Plumes). Our UCLA experts will regularly publish lists as a new resource for journalists, industry leaders, policymakers, and the public. ucla.in/3JB9yBt

Climate change was rarely mentioned during Mamdani's campaign, but many of his biggest pitches like the free fare bus program and green schools have the co-benefits of climate action. time.com/7331331/mamd...

Huge deal! Democrats—with strong climate credentials—edge toward control of Georgia’s giant energy system

Your morning fix is becoming more expensive thanks to the dangerous duo of climate change and Donald Trump. This week: a look at climate impacts on coffee, COP30, Climate Leader lists, Billie Eilish, and a response to Bill Gates. 🧵 legal-planet.org/2025/11/04/c...

Your coffee is more expensive thanks to the dangerous duo of climate change and Donald Trump. But Trump tariffs — at SCOTUS this week — are tame compared to the climate crisis. I saw firsthand why this is happening on a trip to Acre, Brazil where I met coffee farmers legal-planet.org/2025/11/04/c...

Los Angeles counties have a higher % of households receiving SNAP benefits than the state AND national average and many families are about to go hungry thanks to the GOP shutdown. Would be great to see the Dodgers donate to the LA Regional Food Bank today while the city celebrates.

TFW your heart wants the Dodgers. But your head wants Canada to beat USA.

"As Hurricane Melissa raced toward Jamaica on Monday, CBS News senior coordinating producer Tracy Wholf sent an email to the newsroom, detailing the historic storm’s scientific connection to climate change. It was also the last." heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...

Great coverage from @emorwee.bsky.social of the first entire unit to be let go at CBS News under new management: the climate team 🙃 heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...

Hadn’t seen this coming but probably should have. CBS actually had a solid climate desk. Not under Bari Weiss who has defined her career on uplifting voices that buck consensus — even if that consensus is data-supported climate science. FP did a whole story on how climate played no role in LA fires

F’ing right! time.com/collections/...

We just filed an amicus brief defending the right of air pollution regulators to set important standards under the Clean Air Act to protect public health. Our executive director Cara Horowitz explains the strangely important case about boilers and water heaters. legal-planet.org/2025/10/30/a...

The burning of fossil fuels reached a new record last year. "Avoiding every fraction of a degree of warming is critically important." @williamripple.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social @petergleick.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/... @coveringclimatenow.org @sejorg.bsky.social

Very few of the stories, videos, investigative reports, and columns in The Los Angeles Times in the months that followed the January firestorms made any mention of climate change. I know because I counted. About 86% of the stories were silent on the climate. legal-planet.org/2025/10/29/w...

Great to see attention to this from @sammyroth.bsky.social. We surveyed 610 LA Times stories from Jan-Feb and found that only 13-15% of stories included a mention of “climate change” or “global warming” during those two months. Full survey is here: law.ucla.edu/news/missed-...

Dieter Ruehle is a national treasure

Fun World Series soundtrack trivia: the Dodgers’ organist plays the “Twin Peaks” theme when the count is 2-2-2. Love that!

Our 2-year-old cattle dog rescue, Deanie, finds all sorts of ways to cuddle.

This tent in Yosemite where National Park staff might normally be answering visitors’ questions had collapsed in on itself, proving that a picture is worth a thousand words: The federal government has folded up its tent and gone home. legal-planet.org/2025/10/22/i...

Here's why I left @latimes.com to start a newsletter about climate and culture. The story starts with Disneyland, Autopia and my grandfather, an incredible rabbi who passed away last year at 100. Hope you'll subscribe to Climate-Colored Goggles. www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/why-writin...

Trump has tried to take a chainsaw to the staffing, funding, and morale of our National Parks. Here's my report from inside the park during the annual 4-day Yosemite Environmental Law Conference, focused on CA’s path forward in the face of federal hostility. legal-planet.org/2025/10/22/i...

Is Yosemite OK? It is, for now. Despite the Trump administration taking a chainsaw to the staffing, funding, and morale of our National Parks. @evanlgeorge.bsky.social legal-planet.org/2025/10/22/i...

Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU

Lindsey Halligan—top prosecutor in E. District of VA—started texting @annabower.bsky.social about her criminal case against NY Attorney General Letitia James and never said the 2-day text thread was “off the record.” Except after the fact. Which is not a thing. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

Looks like the federal government has literally folded up its tent and gone home, here at Yosemite. But talk with a park ranger here and there and they’ll tell you, “We are working.”

Justice Kavanaugh assured Americans that when ICE officers learn that they’ve stopped a U.S. citizen “they promptly let the individual go.” Hardly.

What can burn will burn. Arsonists matter. Put them in jail. But fuels are the only thing we can control that drive the outcome. Fix the gardens. Fix the houses. Manage fuels within ember cast of the interface. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/o...

“What holdover fires teach us more than anything else is that the ignition doesn’t matter nearly as much as the buildup of fuel does.” @michaelwara.bsky.social in a good @dwallacewells.bsky.social story about the Palisades fire and the role of arson. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/o...

We @uclalawemmett.bsky.social just released a new report comparing cost and climate outcomes between the largest public utility, LADWP, and a major investor-owned utility, SCE, both operating in LA County law.ucla.edu/news/cost-ca...

Tonight, I cooked memelas, of queso fresco and homemade tortillas, on my Lodge cast iron SANS PFAS while reading that Gov. Newsom vetoed the bill to keep forever chemicals out of our cookware citing affordability. SMH www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/c...

"Data center operators should pay for residential upgrades to heat pumps, rooftop solar and storage— to secure the power they need right now, and establish the grid stability we all need for the future."

Arson alone does not explain the Palisades Fire. But you wouldn't have known it from the media coverage last week. This week at the Drain: legal-planet.org/2025/10/14/d...

Big deal! legal-planet.org/2025/10/08/s...

I see hawks in LA all the time, but rarely foraging on the ground, like here at Stoneview Nature Center.

DOE's ridiculous orders to keep uneconomic coal plants operating has brought together strange bedfellows to argue before energy regulators that they shouldn't have to pay to keep them running: www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-do...