California’s Energy History For decades, California has faced a series of existential challenges related to energy. From rolling blackouts and utility bankruptcies to volatile prices and infrastructure strain, the state’s dependence on an increasingly unstable electrical grid has proven unsustainable. To balance the persistent mismatch between supply and demand, California has sought new energy solutions […]
Tag: climate change
The Skew of Global Climate Finance
As a mother of eight, Ebada Yusuf had now lost her third child. Sitting next to the body of her four-year-old son, Salman Mohamed – who died that morning from severe malnutrition and measles in Baidoa, Somalia – Yusuf questioned the reason behind the conditions of their suffering. In May of 2021, Africa suffered from […]
Managed Paralysis in Global Climate Governance
In the outcome clause of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the phrase “accelerating efforts toward the phase-down of unabated coal power” suspiciously aligns with a common political phrase: “we will make meaningful progress.” However, both of these nonbinding statements — with little to no supporting […]
The Palisades Fires: How Profit and Greed Ignite California’s “Natural” Disasters
California is home to occasional earthquakes, various landslides, longstanding droughts, and most of all, sweeping and devastating wildfires. This past January, the Palisades and Altadena fires, alongside many other smaller flare ups, brought complete destruction and turmoil to L.A. county. Up to 150,000 residents have been displaced, and those who aren’t fortunate enough to have […]
The Moral Ambiguity of Carbon Capture
Californians are well aware by now that the world is in the thralls of climate change. The state feels the effects often—every year we deal with fires, earthquakes, and dramatic natural disasters that devastate community after community. And what can we do? The California state government says that we need to cut back on carbon […]
Nauru’s Citizenship for Sale: Golden Visas and the Price of Survival
Imagine lazing on a beach on an island in the South Pacific — the temperature is always 80 degrees, the water always perfect, a mimosa in one hand and a pair of sunglasses in the other. Life has never been better on the paradise of the Nauruan shores. This isn’t real. What won’t be noticeable […]
Carbon Taxation: The Key to Decarbonization
Climate Change: The State of Emissions and the Trump Administration Climate change is a ticking time bomb sitting under humanity’s feet. Environmental scientists predict that within years billions could die from famine, heatwaves, floods, and resource wars. Current climate modeling cannot remotely capture the true effects of warming, as every aspect of human existence depends […]
Only Smokey the Bear Can Save National Parks–Except He’s Been Fired
It began with an email–or rather, a lack of one. Brian Gibbs was one of nearly a thousand workers whose livelihoods were compromised in the name of efficiency this February. About eight months into his role as an environmental educator at the Iowa Effigy Mounds National Monument, Gibbs was locked out of his government email […]
The End is Nigh (Again): How Media Alarmism Numbs Voters
On January 28, 2025, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock forward one second toward midnight, bringing the world 89 seconds to nuclear apocalypse. The idea of the apocalypse is nothing new, whether or not one has the misfortune of regular media notifications. In December 2012, half the world was convinced that the […]
Denialism vs Doomerism: Navigating a Warming World
“Drill baby drill.” “The Green New Scam.” “It’s freezing in New York—where the hell is global warming?” It’s nearly impossible to feel like there is any hope left for the environment when the next President of the United States has effectively denied the existence of climate change. As an undergraduate student studying climate change and […]