It’s a running joke across many college campuses that economics is the “dismal science”. For those who are not economists, it can be hard to connect abstract terms like “absorptive capacity” and “nonp…
Fire Season: California, Climate Change, and Convict Labor
2018 summer fire season is on record as being one of California’s most demanding and devastating. In the 9 month fire season from January to September, over 4,800 wildfires burned 617,00 acres across …
Florida’s Sand: Gone with the Wind
If You Can’t Keep Your Own Sand, Store-Bought is Fine Florida, the Sunshine State. The land of white, sandy world-renowned beaches. The beauty of Florida’s beaches has been commemorated since the fir…
Lebanon: Too Beautiful for its Own Good
National pride has historically been founded on biases and ignorance of a country’s flawed history. But of course, it is also founded on some merit. It takes one visit to understand why so many in Leb…
The United States… And Territories: America’s Paradise Lost
On October 13, one news headline stood out among the rest: “Trump says he spoke to U.S. Virgin Islands’ ‘president’ — which is him.” “Must’ve been a one-sided conversation,” one Twit…
Blood for Trees: The Plight of Uncontacted Tribes in Brazil
Last month, around the Jandiatuba river in the Amazonas region of Western Brazil, a small cohort of illegal gold miners happened upon a group of indigenous people, members of one of many uncontacted t…
California’s Drought: Reviewing the Past, Critiquing the Present, and Preparing for the Future
Written November 21, 2016. As Governor Jerry Brown trekked on a dry, brown meadow nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, something was wrong. The date, April 1st, 2015, seemed appropriate: it was almost l…
Pollution, Plastic, and Profit: California’s Conflicting Propositions
In California, a high-profile war for the future of plastic bags is underway; however, underneath the surface lies a much more sinister battle between private interests, with both sides having signifi…
Don’t Cap Cap and Trade
California’s signature environmental program is in jeopardy, creating a ripple effect that places the state’s entire climate plan at risk Since the passage of the Global Warming Solutions …
Politicians, Capitalism, and the Dying Earth: Why the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement Became a Roadblock
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson When the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was finalized on December 12th, 2015, politicians, the me…
“Leapfrogging”: Can developing countries truly skip over fossil fuel reliance in favor of renewable energies?
There is a popular argument that progress and growth are not possible without reliance on fossil fuel-powered energy. Examples abide to support this claim: almost every industrialized country is (rel…
Cyberwar with China
The U.S. has been hacked on over 700 occasions in just five years on fronts ranging from corporate to private to governmental. Over the past two years, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was hac…
Courting Controversy
The California State Legislature took its interim study recess on September 11 and will reconvene on January 4. The first year of this session was full of drama, much of which will play out in the nex…
California’s Drought: A Trickling Time Bomb
In early March senior NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory water scientist Jay Famiglietti reported that the state of California has approximately a single year’s supply of water in its reservoirs, with bac…
“Under the Dome”
China’s internet censors strike again, and this time, the country’s already deteriorating environment becomes the victim of their restrictive policies. A newly released documentary, “Under the Dome,” …
ANWar: The Historic Fight for Alaska’s Wilderness Heats Up
As Obama looks to the end of his presidency, he’s turned to the Arctic North to put some heat on his environmental detractors. In January 2015, President Obama designated 12.3 million acres of the Arc…
The Northern Sea Route: Could It Be The New Suez Canal?
Under the influence of climate change, Arctic ice is melting away. This scares climatologists, but also intriguingly creates possible economic benefits. The melted ice has opened trade routes and ener…
Breaking the Ice: The Politics of the Arctic Council
Arctic policy has been frozen in United States political conversation for years. However, in May of 2015, the US will take over chairmanship of the Arctic Council, an understated organization for the …