Natalie Jacewicz
@njacewicz.bsky.social
Assistant prof, University of San Diego School of Law. Cares about: Environmental law, climate, animals, admin law, torts, and dessert.
New paper draft posted! My coauthors and I dig into whether/ how the #USDA accounts for animal welfare in deciding which regulations to pursue, specifically how consumer willingness to pay for humane measures affects agency cost-benefit analyses. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Pricing Suffering in Animals
Large majorities of Americans care about animal welfare, and federal regulations affect billions of animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) promulgat
papers.ssrn.com
What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”
U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities
Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil
science.org
Earlier this week I spoke with @thewildlifesociety.bsky.social about pending #NEPA reforms. Listen for a basic primer on NEPA, people's objections, and the subsurface disagreements that run through reform efforts. open.spotify.com/show/6Xl0Ueb...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
I love that the justification for assigning zero quantitative value to health benefits is that they're uncertain. Because there's obviously no uncertainty on the compliance-cost side of the ledger. No need to worry about "false precision" there. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
nytimes.com
one defense of CBA has always been that it forces admins to be explicit about their values.... "Over the past four decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life... But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."
PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Each Year Worldwide@tkovach.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe "administration contends that these estimates are doubtful and said the E.P.A. would no longer take health effects into account in the cost-benefit analyses necessary for clean-air regulations, according to the documents. Instead, the agency would estimate only the costs to businesses."
This is nuts. Now, when EPA does a cost-benefit analysis of a regulation, it can only consider downsides to industry, not upsides to public health. Even though the latter is the core mission of the EPA. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
nytimes.com
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Opinion | Obama Supported It. The Left in Canada and Norway Does. Why Don’t Democrats?
nytimes.com
TIL that a mountain goat is not a goat. @themountaingoats.bsky.social is also not a goat.
Rosemary Mosco@rosemarymosco.com · 8mo agoAnimals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.
100%. Meat can also be a hard pivot for climate folks who (for good reason) deemphasize individual behavior and instead demand systemic change. But in the context of meat and dairy, consumers’ personal decisions really *can* make a big difference. Jennifer Jacquet:
Exxon Knew. Did Tyson, Too?: Comparing the Climate Responsibilities of Oil & Gas to Meat & Dairy
YouTube video by UC San Diego | School of Arts and Humanities
youtube.com
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 10mo agoMeat is a blind spot for people who care about climate. When I used to have dinner with my colleague Wally Broecker, the climate scientist who coined the term “global warming”, he would always order a steak.
This is one of those you know is coming, but still hurts when it happens. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...
Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91
nytimes.com
Finally, a monumental squirrel statue. In Jeffrey Gibson’s Sculptures, Child’s Play and Indigenous Truths www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/a...
In Jeffrey Gibson’s Sculptures, Child’s Play and Indigenous Truths
nytimes.com
my takeaway from climate week nyc is that "climate storytelling" is a little too much "we must reimagine our deepest souls in relationship to mother nature and the moral abyss of the polycrisis into which we must now stare" and not enough "ok but get a heat pump"
National Academies is releasing their fast-tracked review of the science of the endangerment finding in about 1 hour, with a webcast in about 2 hours. www.nationalacademies.org/event/45701_...
The last passenger pigeon died 111 years ago today and not a day goes by that I don't think about how their flocks numbered in the *billions*, that their roosts covered 100+ square miles, that they collapsed trees with their nests. America is incomplete without them
After years in development, my article Crafting a New Conservationism is out in California Law Review! It's about how U.S. agencies manage conflicts between conservation goals and individual wild animals' intrinsic value. Thanks to the many people who provided feedback and Cal.'s editors!
Crafting a New Conservationism — California Law Review
Environmental law has an animal problem. It lacks an account of whether and how animals’ interests matter. Case in point: The agencies tasked with protecting wild animals cannot stop killing them. The...
californialawreview.org
I am delighted that my book 'More Equal Than Others: Humans and the Rights of Other Animals' is featured in Psychology Today @psychologytoday.com and has been made an essential read in their Philosophy section. Many thanks to Marc Bekoff for interviewing me! www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...
Granting Rights to Animals Doesn't Undermine Human Rights
In proposing the Species Membership Approach, Raffael Fasel argues against the misplaced fears that granting legal rights and personhood to nonhumans would weaken human rights.
psychologytoday.com
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Fed MT court says Fish & Wildlife Service must reconsider delisting gray wolves in light of aggressive killing by Idaho, Montana, & other western states. It’s a PSA to states not to “overdo it” once a population is delisted. Try to eradicate them and…back on the list they go!
wildernesswatch.org
Tfw someone starts Zoom call with “I’m inside this delightful coffee shop” and proceeds to have loud, full-on business meeting on Zoom that entire coffee shop can follow.
I can’t begin to enumerate the ways the Corporation for Public Broadcasting made my life better, literally from my earliest memories until today. This is gut wrenching.
Ben Mullin@benmullin.bsky.social · last yr.New: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it is shutting down cpb.org/pressroom/Co...
Trump's EPA chose today to release its finding that GHG pollution does not endanger public health.
Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠@drjacekdebiec.bsky.social · last yr."Over 50 million Americans under heat advisory amid sweltering temperatures across South and Midwest.. For people without effective cooling, especially heat-sensitive groups, this level of heat can be deadly.. #ClimateChange.. a driving factor" #ClimateSky #MedSky www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/ext...
Hmm. Don’t love this.
Mike Dettinger@mdettinger.bsky.social · last yr.Global analysis of GRACE data since 2002 shows continents (all land excluding Greenland & Antarctica) have undergone unprecedented rates of drying & the areas experiencing drying are increasing by about 2x the size of California per year. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Happy #sharkweek! Here’s a reminder that sharks tried to save us from all this. slate.com/technology/2...
The Global Internet Is Being Attacked by Sharks, Google Confirms
The Internet is a series of tubes ... that are sometimes attacked by sharks.
slate.com
#ICJ: States liable for issuing oil & gas exploration licenses, incl in 🌊. #ClimateJustice @oceansteinmann.bsky.social @oceanthyrza.bsky.social
Going to be cool to see how EPA makes this “scientific” finding with *checks notes* all the scientists it fired.
E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change
nytimes.com
