JASON J. CZARNEZKI

I’ve had a difficult time of late concentrating on ‘environmental news’ given the amazing ‘foreign affairs news.’ It’s fascinating that in part due to increased social networking technology that individuals seem better equipped to organize and gather. And this must be making some governments quite nervous. For example, outside the Middle East, the Chinese government is now dealing with some calls for revolution inspired by Middle East countries. I also wonder, given the power of social networking sites like Facebook, are these companies actively considering creating applications and technologies that would make protesters easier and more effective? Should they?

On Facebook today*, I posted my status as:

desperately desires a foreign affairs briefing. Not enough time to read all the news that I want to…Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Iran, Israel, China, Russia…Am I missing any foreign countries that had major news today?

Reports abound on the various protests in the Middle East, but this little fact in a New York Times article certainly caught my attention:

In another turn of events likely to provoke the anxiety of the West about the potential consequences of Egypt’s revolution, the government of Egypt granted permission to two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, officials said. No Iranian warship has traversed the canal since Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, and some in the Israeli government called the Iranian move an act of provocation.

And I haven’t even had time to blog about the protests in my home state of Wisconsin.

(*No, you can’t be my facebook friend.)

For the third time since taking office, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has appointed a Vermont Law School faculty or staff member to a top post in his administration. Ron Shems ’85, consulting and supervising attorney for the VLS Land Use Clinic, was named Monday as chairman of the Vermont Natural Resources Board. Shumlin also recently appointed David Mears ’91, who was director of VLS’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, and Patrick Berry, who was VLS’s director of Governmental Affairs and Environmental Advancement, as commissioner of Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department. Read more about Shem’s appointment.

Rick Frank over a Legal Planet has a nice post entitled “Preview of Coming Attractions: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut.” It begins:

The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced the scheduling of oral arguments in the biggest (actually, the only) environmental case of its current Term: American Electric Power v. State of Connecticut. The justices will hear arguments on April 19th, and render their decision in this major climate change case by the end of June. Already, however, some interesting factoids and subplots have developed.

This case raises three distinct legal questions of interest to climate change mavens and environmental lawyers and academics generally: 1) whether the states and private land trusts that have brought this public nuisance action against the owners of Midwestern coal-fired power plants have standing to sue; 2) whether the federal common law of nuisance remains a viable legal theory in the climate change litigation arsenal or, instead, common law nuisance claims have been displaced by federal environmental statutes; and 3) whether plaintiffs’ efforts to invoke public nuisance law to address the climate change impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from defendants’ power plants constitute a non-justiciable “political question.”

An interesting article in High Country News about the barriers to having small farms compete with corporate giants: Small poultry farmers grapple with lack of slaughterhouses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/science/earth/10fish.html?_r=1&ref=us

I’m a proponent of eco-labeling, but concerns about greenwashing and certification processes are very valid. Now there is a lawsuit against S.C. Johnson because they are certifying their own products as “green.” This article states, “Litigation pending in federal court in California and Wisconsin contends that S.C. Johnson is deceptively implying that Windex and Shout have been tested by a neutral third party and been found to be environmentally friendly.”

One of my property students send me the following email:

Dear Professor Czarnezki,
I heard an interesting piece on npr today regarding property rights. The Mardi Gras Indians are seeking to protect the profitability of their elaborate costuming, and "filing for copyright protection."
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/08/133600362/Mardi-Gras-Indians-Seek-To-Copyright-Costumes
Best,
[Student Name]

We just read INS v. AP, and Cheney Brothers v. Doris Silk in class, so the students are interested in cases about folks trying to protect the fruits of their labor.

Temperatures in Wisconsin projected to increase 6 degrees

I’m a Packers fan. I’m number 15,354 on the season ticket waiting list after 14 years, and hope they win the big game tomorrow. But wetlands are more important than the Packers…apparently the Packers and the new Governor of Wisconsin don’t agree. Do the Packers and Bass Pro Shops also oppose high-speed rail?