A day after yet another tragic school shooting, I had just finished teaching a criminology class about gun violence and how to reduce it in the United States. I found that my students have many misconceptions about the scope and nature of the problem.
The less than ideal outcome of the latest climate talks in Scotland reminds us of an inconvenient truth: as yet there is no human authority on Earth powerful enough to enforce the preservation of the commons. Would any country seriously consider military invasion to stop Brazilian deforestation, up 22 percent from last year, or India’s continuing addiction to coal, or the U.S. auctioning off new leases for oil production in the Gulf of Mexico?
This year marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most spectacular conservation victories in recent history: the defeat of a massive gold mine planned for the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park.
Evonne lives in a fire lookout in Oregon, and since I meet with these graduate students on Zoom, we’ve all seen snippets of her life, including the dizzying moments when she leaps up to scan for fires while holding her tablet.
I live near Middlefield, Ohio, the center of the fourth-largest Amish settlement in America. I regularly see the horse and buggy operations on the road. Who am I to tell these people that I know better about how they should live than they do? Very few Amish people are getting the COVID vaccine and Amish communities have experienced some of the state’s highest rates of infection and deaths, but they are living according to their faith and God’s will.
Although critics of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan to increase funding for United States education, healthcare, and action against climate catastrophe say the U.S. can’t afford it, there are no such qualms about ramping up funding for the U.S. military.
In my college days, I was a conservative Republican. I voted for Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. But I gave up on the party during the presidential election of 2008. I admired John McCain, still do, but Sarah Palin was a bridge too far, and, like many other Republicans in 2008, I voted Democratic for the first time in my life.
“I can’t believe that person is getting that close.”
It is not an exaggeration to say that New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park is under siege. A surge of oil and gas development threatens this ancestral site, recognized as one of the architectural marvels of the world and revered by Native Americans who consider it a living presence.
This summer, three of us were hiking in Alaska’s western Brooks Range when we encountered a pack of eight wolves. We were far from any help when they moved toward us, paused, and then disappeared behind a low ridge.
