Environmental Issue Brief and Resource Page

(This issue briefing was prepared by John D. Wilkerson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, and is presented here as a resource for audience members at our May 9, 2007 symposium on Global Warming and for interested members of the community at large. We will continue to update it as more information and resources come to our attention.)

Barry Commoner, a respected ecologist, once observed that in ecology - everything is connected to everything else. The same can be said for environmental issues. Energy policies, transportation policies, and even crime policies have environmental implications. For this reason, it is impossible to provide a comprehensive resource for environmental issues. Instead, we have chosen to focus primarily on the issue of climate change.

There is a strong scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human activities are contributing to it. The public also strongly shares the view that it is occurring, but is more divided on whether it is human caused, and what should be done to address it.

The Congressional Research Service prepares reports for Congress, and has constructed a website that probably provides most of the information required to get up to speed on this issue

http://www.ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/briefingbooks/climate/ebgcc20.cfm

In addition, the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the U.S. Environmental Protection agency have compiled an organized extensive information about this subject.

http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/crosscutting/climate.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html

The Library of Congress website THOMAS allows you to search or browse legislation in a Congress. Legislation related to the environment introduced in recent Congresses can be found at the following links:

http://thomas.loc.gov [can be searched by keyword or subject]

http://www.opencongress.org/issue/show/4086_environmental_protection [long list of 'Environment' bills in the current Congress]

And if the subject of what the public or scientists really think comes up, here are some resources for information about those subjects (including one that disputes the consensus view).

http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

http://www.marshall.org/subcategory.php?id=9 [contrarian perspective]