We provide a new and more complete analysis of the origins of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, one of the most severe environmental crises in North America in the 20th Century. Severe drought and wind erosion hit the Great Plains in 1930 and lasted through 1940. There were similar droughts in the...

This article is a study of the then proposed 1971 U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the long history of developing U.S.- Canadian cooperation that preceded it. The article suggests that this experience: (1) offers guidance for the solution of problems that other programs of...

This article explores how deeply held philosophies and environmental risk allocation are "real" values in terms of enivronmental impacts, and as such should be considered under NEPA. If this were the case, this would make the operation of NEPA more transparent and efficient

In "The Tragedy of the Commons," Garrett Hardin argues that those who can use a resource for free consume more of it than they would if they had to pay for it. Public resources eventually collapse because people overuse them. Hardin’s widely accepted argument seems correct as far as it goes,...

This article outlines what sustainable development means when applied to industry, the necessity for sustainable industry, and how sustainable industry can change and is already beginning to change the debate about pollution control. While it is possible for industry to have a positive impact,...

This Article posits that in its role as the lead agency among the United States' natural resources trustees, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's piecemeal assessment of natural resources damages, i.e., valuing one dead bird at a time or the death of just a tract of marsh, fails...

The environmental system is characterized by an interplay of geophysical and geochemical processes that provide a setting for life. Now that human interventions are affecting the global system as a whole, it is important to distinguish between changes of natural origin and changes brought about...

Anthropogenic Environmental Degradation describes environmental degradation caused by effects or processes derived from human activities, as opposed to effects or processes that occur in the natural environment without human influences. There are a plethora of laws and regulations both, local...

China is appraised to have the world's largest exploitable reserves of shale gas, although several legal, regulatory, environmental and investment-related issues will likely restrain its scope. China's capacity to successfully face these hurdles and produce commercial shale gas will have a...

The Earth's climate is warming. This is the unequivocal conclusion of climate scientists. Despite the complexities of climatology, certain consistent trends emerge with implications for water availability: as the world gets warmer, it will experience increased regional variability in...