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AbstractIn this address, I argue that the Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population has been negatively affected by commercial vessel traffic, tied to international trade, in the post‐1998 period. I present new data showing a dramatic increase in both the volume of kilometres travelled and the composition of vessel traffic in the Salish Sea. By exploiting recent work in biology linking vessel noise to changes in foraging and socializing behaviour, I argue that these changes have degraded their habitat significantly. Moreover, because SRKWs and Northern Resident Killer Whales (NRKWs) share prey, this negative vessel disturbance shock to the SRKW is magnified by the existence of across‐population competition. Vessel disturbance magnified by competition for prey has placed the SRKW on a slow‐motion path towards extinction.

In the sixteenth century, North America contained 25 to 30 million buffalo; by the late nineteenth century fewer than 100 remained. While removing the buffalo east of the Mississippi took over 100 years, the remaining 10 to 15 million buffalo on the Great Plains were killed in a punctuated slaughter lasting little more than ten years. I employ theory, international trade statistics, and first-person accounts to argue the slaughter was initiated by a foreign-made innovation and fueled by a foreign demand for industrial leather. European demand and American policy failure are jointly responsible for the "Slaughter on the Plains." (JEL F14, N51, N71, Q57)

In the face of emerging technology, the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is especially susceptible to erosion. As Justice Scalia wrote in Kyllo v. United States, "[i]t would be foolish to contend that the degree of privacy secured to citizens by the Fourth Amendment has been entirely unaffected by the advance of technology." In Katz v. United States, technology compelled a dramatic shift in the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. Prior to Katz, the Court generally interpreted the Fourth Amendment to prevent only the search and seizure of tangible things, and looked to areas of the common law, such as trespass, to determine whether government action violated Fourth Amendment rights. Katz marked a transition from the limited protection of tangible property to a broader concept of privacy.

Abstract Environmental crises are distinguished by rapid and largely unexpected changes in environmental quality that are difficult if not impossible to reverse. Examples would be major extinctions and significant degradations of an ecosystem. I argue there are three preconditions for crisis: failures in governance, an ecological system exhibiting a tipping point, and an economy/environment interaction with positive feedbacks. I develop a simple model to illustrate how a crisis may arise, and draw on our knowledge of past and present crises to highlight the mechanisms involved. I then speculate as to whether climate change is indeed a crisis in the making.