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The caption’s wallpaper depicts the demolition of the East Wing, clearing space for a privately-funded, gilded ballroom. It is an instance of a central theme: short-sighted or chaotic despoliation of the public trust, in service to power (or vanity), in patent violation of the law. Last week, the White House’s pursuit of that theme reached… Continue reading Remain in the Climate Treaty

One astoundingly bright development stands out, upon review of the international scene during 2025. If nurtured and utilized in the new year, moreover, it could help turn the tide with respect to our ruptured climate. But the required nurturing will be tough, involving as it does a return to (or rise of) the rule of… Continue reading When the Law Returns

Note: Dr. Eelco J. Rohling is editor-in-chief of Oxford Open Climate Change, Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, NL, and a Member of the Board of Advisors of CPR Initiative. His editorial here was originally published in Oxford Open Climate Change (June 2025) as “The migration storm on the horizon.” We reprint… Continue reading A Clarion Warning on Migration and Climate

From beginning to end, the recently-completed UN climate conference, in Belém, Brazil, failed to deliver. It is an open question, however, whether that failure is better characterized as nearly complete, or as completely abject. I prefer the former formulation since (a) it extends the benefit of doubt to the many patently sincere international climate negotiators… Continue reading A Failure Nearly Complete: COP 30

My mother, Lois Dale (Salk) Galpern, died yesterday, October 17, 2025, at 6:55am eastern time, in my arms. I caught her final breath. She was 93. She was a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and the Bank Street College of Education, and then, for decades, an early-childhood educator who fought to improve the… Continue reading Now, In Honor of My Mother

At the close of the public comment period, CPR Initiative along with Dr. Donn J Viviani, James E. Hansen, John Fitzgerald, Dr. John Birks, Dr. Lise Van Susteren, Dr. Eelco Rohling, Mike Schauer, Rabbi Dev Noily, Richard Heede, Stephanie Herrington, and Randolph Nelson Bonner, urged the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its plan to (a)… Continue reading To Protect the Nation

My father, Arnold Galpern (Arny), died a few minutes ago, at 10am, September 24, 2025. He was 94. His last hours were with in-patient hospice, on morphine, following months of agonizing pain. Arny fought for life until the very end, well beyond the point of tolerance for most people. I take this moment to note… Continue reading In Honor of My Father

Early this month, the Environmental Protection Agency filed its Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards in the Federal Register. Despite its banal title, EPA’s proposed action here is radical to its core, matched only, perhaps, by its earlier (June 17) proposal to repeal all GHG restrictions on fossil fuel-fired power plants.… Continue reading Up Through the Atmosphere*

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a several-day public hearing over its “reconsideration” of its 2009 Endangerment Finding and its proposed “repeal all greenhouse gas(GHG) emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines.” If these developments fail to shock our collective conscience, that is a sign only of our hardening — perhaps… Continue reading The Sum of Many Parts

CPR Initiative, including 10 Members of its Boards of Directors and Advisors, strongly counsel the Environmental Protection Agency against repeal of existing GHG emissions standards and guidelines for fossil fuel-fired power plants

The searing natural beauty that consecrates nearly every mile of these still formally united states struck me virtually every daylight hour, as I drove recently, coast to coast, and back again, in an electric vehicle (but not a Tesla!). If only the nation’s politics matched its physical subtlety, a brighter future for “our Posterity” would… Continue reading In Search of America

Reprinted from the National Archives In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and… Continue reading Declaration of Independence

More than a minor coda

Trump-Musk orders and firings thrash the public interest (Note: An earlier version was published in the Feb. 27, 2025 issue of the Eugene Weekly. Reprinted here with permission.) President Donald J. Trump’s project to take a chainsaw to duly authorized and appropriated funding — and eviscerate the very federal agencies that safeguard public health, safety,… Continue reading Climate Change & the Rule of Law

Readers here well understand the view of CPR Initiative and expert allies that current federal rules aiming to restrict greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions amount to an insufficient response to the climate crisis. Indeed, they entirely fail to acquit our special obligation as the nation responsible for the largest share of historical emissions. But that does… Continue reading Endangered Protections

On February 3, 2025, renowned climate scientist (and CPR Initiative Board Advisor) Dr. James E. Hansen and 17 colleagues published a remarkable study entitled “Global Warming Has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed?” The study is freely available here. In addition, a video presentation by Dr. Hansen and colleagues, was made and… Continue reading Global Warming Acceleration

We need to understand more about the inordinately destructive Los Angeles firestorms. Better understanding, for instance, could induce rational changes in local, state and federal policy and planning, changes that might enable better containment of future fire in the region and beyond. On January 13, a team of UCLA scientists released a short report that… Continue reading Climate Fingerprints in the LA Burn

[Editor’s note: The following post is intended as a public service for readers in the Los Angeles region — and for CPR Initiative supporters who may be in touch with loved ones living there.] At this writing, at least five uncontrolled wildfires are visiting destruction across Los Angeles from end to end. Many homes, entire… Continue reading Los Angeles, Burning

On Saturday, December 14, 2024, in further reporting from The Hague, I was interviewed by Myanna Dellinger about the just-concluded oral proceedings before the International Court of Justice on the Legal Obligations of States with Respect Climate Change. Formerly a tenured law professor, Myanna Dellinger is an award-winning legal researcher and Fulbright scholar who serves… Continue reading Four Critical Questions at Year’s End

The international Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, is housed at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Here I will just refer to it as “the Court” for the simple reason that, despite its exceptionally rarified air, the ICJ is indeed a court after all.1As for the Peace Palace itself, it… Continue reading A Small Flame, Burning Bright