JASON J. CZARNEZKI

My three weeks in Asia, with activities for the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, were extremely productive: meeting with academic institutions and environmental NGO’s in Hong Kong, supporting our students and meeting with partners in Guangzhou, meetings at the National University of Singapore, and discussions with USAID in Bangkok.

Yesterday, now on sabbatical, my family and I arrived in Växjö, Sweden, known as the Greenest City in Europe. My partner will be doing immigration research as an Assistant Professor at Linnaeus University, while I work on four articles about (1) natural resources law in China, (2) food safety in China and implications for the U.S., (3) emerging international trade and informational regulation/eco-labeling issues from a comparative EU/US/China perspective, and (4) the relationship between economic development and environmentalism in the U.S. and China. I also will be collaborating with the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University in Sweden to host a conference in China on the intersection of environmental law and public health.

Today, we’re off to explore Växjö and do some shopping for household needs. While Sweden’s town are certainly adopting the U.S. driving culture, everything is still much more walkable and train accessible. That said, while Växjö is certainly bigger, more diverse and more cosmopolitan than Montpelier, Vermont (read: awesome falafel for dinner last night), it’s certainly not as progressive and crunchy here.

Despite my love of American politics, it will be nearly impossible for me to live blog the Iowa Caucus results from Asia, especially since I’ll be en route to Bangkok for a meeting with USAID (which substantially funds the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law). But I’ll go out on a limb and guess that Santorum wins the Iowa Caucus; rewarded for visiting all 99 counties in the state. But, I would wouldn’t trust my guess since I thought Palin would run. Nate Silver makes some interesting predictions here.