Act Locally, Affect Globally: How Changing Social Norms to Influence the Private Sector Shows a Path to Using Local Government to Improve Environmental Harms

There has been comparatively little exploration of the importance of local government in addressing large-scale environmental harms, in spite of much activity at the local level dealing with climate change. This Article posits that local governments can affect large-scale environmental harms because they can influence the private sector through tar-geted social norm creation that cannot be accomplished easily at other levels of government. The Article notes that efforts to induce the private sector to take actions without enforcement capability have been problematic, but that connections to private sector decisionmakers and influencing of their internal norms—which can occur more easily at the local level— can create action not just locally, but wherever corporations operate

Too Big to Jail or Too Abstract (or Rich?) to Care

Why has environmental enforcement waned as environmental harms continue to grow bigger? This article, part of a symposium on enforcement of laws in the environmental and financial sectors, posits that a change in perceived immediacy of environmental harm, coupled with a change in communitarian attitudes, contributes to the lack of enforcement rigor

Role of Endogenous GLP-1 and GIP in Beta Cell Compensatory Responses to Insulin Resistance and Cellular Stress.

Role of GLP-1 and GIP in beta cell compensatory responses to beta cell attack and insulin resistance were examined in C57BL/6 mice lacking functional receptors for GLP-1 and GIP. Mice were treated with multiple low dose streptozotocin or hydrocortisone. Islet parameters were assessed by immunohistochemistry and hormone measurements were determined by specific enzyme linked immunoassays. Wild-type streptozotocin controls exhibited severe diabetes, irregularly shaped islets with lymphocytic infiltration, decreased Ki67/TUNEL ratio with decreased beta cell and increased alpha cell areas. GLP-1 and GIP were co-expressed with glucagon and numbers of alpha cells mainly expressing GLP-1 were increased. In contrast, hydrocortisone treatment and induction of insulin resistance increased islet numbers and area, with enhanced beta cell replication, elevated mass of beta and alpha cells, together with co-expression of GLP-1 and GIP with glucagon in islets. The metabolic responses to streptozotocin in GLP-1RKO and GIPRKO mice were broadly similar to C57BL/6 controls, although decreases in islet numbers and size were more severe. In contrast, both groups of mice lacking functional incretin receptors displayed substantially impaired islet adaptations to insulin resistance induced by hydrocortisone, including marked curtailment of expansion of islet area, beta cell mass and islet number. Our observations cannot be explained by simple changes in circulating incretin concentrations, suggesting that intra-islet GLP-1 and GIP make a significant contribution to islet adaptation, particularly expansion of beta cell mass and compensatory islet compensation to hydrocortisone and insulin resistance

A microfabricated sensor for thin dielectric layers

We describe a sensor for the measurement of thin dielectric layers capable of operation in a variety of environments. The sensor is obtained by microfabricating a capacitor with interleaved aluminum fingers, exposed to the dielectric to be measured. In particular, the device can measure thin layers of solid frozen from a liquid or gaseous medium. Sensitivity to single atomic layers is achievable in many configurations and, by utilizing fast, high sensitivity capacitance read out in a feedback system onto environmental parameters, coatings of few layers can be dynamically maintained. We discuss the design, read out and calibration of several versions of the device optimized in different ways. We specifically dwell on the case in which atomically thin solid xenon layers are grown and stabilized, in cryogenic conditions, from a liquid xenon bath

Adapting Laws For A Changing World: A Systemic Approach To Climate Change Adaptation

This Essay suggests that policy responses in climate change adaptation must be addressed and that focusing on adapting laws may be a good way to undertake this work. Following a review of existing scholarship and normative theories concerning law generally, environmental law, climate change, and adaptation, this Essay then proposes a template for approaching the adaptation of laws. This template would (1) examine where climate change puts pressure on the operation of laws; (2) seek to alter the implementation of that law or to alter the law itself to hew closely to the law’s original purposes; and (3) make these alterations in the most efficient manner possible while also correcting any distributive reallocations. Where the law’s original purposes cannot be accommodated or are so broad as to fail to constitute a clear legislative principle, policy changes should be made in the democratic forum, not by an administrative process. The Essay concludes with examples from working groups implementing the template approach

“Offsetting” Crisis? - Climate Change Cap-and-Trade Need Not Contribute to Another Financial Meltdown

In 2009, the promise of a comprehensive federal cap and trade bill to address climate change fell apart. At least in part, this was due to the fears that exotic \u27carbon\u27 financial instruments might cause more financial crises. As California launches it economy wide carbon trading system, and other regional systems and the even possibly the EPA consider cap and trade, it is important to revisit what, if anything, about carbon denominated financial instruments might lead to financial market problems. The most problematic of the instruments, offsets, can be designed to lessen financial risk from underlying asset failure

Adapting Laws For A Changing World: A Systemic Approach To Climate Change Adaptation

This Essay suggests that policy responses in climate change adaptation must be addressed and that focusing on adapting laws may be a good way to undertake this work. Following a review of existing scholarship and normative theories concerning law generally, environmental law, climate change, and adaptation, this Essay then proposes a template for approaching the adaptation of laws. This template would (1) examine where climate change puts pressure on the operation of laws; (2) seek to alter the implementation of that law or to alter the law itself to hew closely to the law’s original purposes; and (3) make these alterations in the most efficient manner possible while also correcting any distributive reallocations. Where the law’s original purposes cannot be accommodated or are so broad as to fail to constitute a clear legislative principle, policy changes should be made in the democratic forum, not by an administrative process. The Essay concludes with examples from working groups implementing the template approach