Critical Analysis: The International Efforts to Protect Marine Biodiversity

For four days in the first week of April, the United Nations held meetings to negotiate the possibility of a new international treaty to protect marine biodiversity. The UN working group, High Seas Alliance (HSA), a partnership of 27 non-governmental organizations, plus the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), discussed creating a new … Read more

Smart Grid: How the International Community Is Combatting Climate Change (Part 3 of 3)

This is the final blog post in a series of three blog posts proposing that the Smart Grid is a possible contributing remedy to fighting global climate change.  This post addresses potential obstacles and developments of the Smart Grid within the United States, the European Union, and China and touches on international collaborations amongst those … Read more

The Smart Grid: How the International Community is Combating Climate Change (Part 2 of 3)

This is the second blog post in a series of three blog posts proposing that the Smart Grid is a possible contributing remedy to fighting global climate change.  This post analyzes the Smart Grid on a more country-specific level and discusses how the United States, the European Union, and China define and value the Smart … Read more

The Smart Grid: How the International Community Is Combating Climate Change (Part 1 of 3)

This is the first blog post in a series of three blog posts proposing that the Smart Grid is a possible contributing remedy to fighting global climate change.  This post provides context about global climate change in general and details what the Smart Grid is.  The second blog post discusses the Smart Grid on a … Read more

Critical Analysis: Energy’s Impact on Millenium Development Goals

On November 9, 2013, panelists of the 45th Annual Sutton Colloqium discussed how energy plays into economic development and sustainability in developing countries, which comes at a time when many doubt the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”) by the 2015 target date.  The MDGs aim to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, provide universal … Read more

Putting a Price on Carbon

This July, Australia abandoned its plans to implement a carbon tax. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated that the reason was to reduce the burden on consumers and small businesses. This news would seem to suggest that Australia wanted to avoid the repercussions of reducing carbon dioxide emissions; however, the tax was instead replaced by a … Read more

Sustaining Society in the Anthropocene Epoch

We are living in a new geological epoch where humans are the foremost changers of the environmental systems upon which we depend.  Nicholas Robinson, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Legal Studies at Pace Law School, kicked off the 45th Annual Leonard v.B. Sutton Colloquium in International Law at the University of Denver Sturm College … Read more