Over the past century, South Africa’s gold mining industry has amassed immense wealth and global recognition, fueling the nation’s economy. . Yet, beneath the glittering surface lies a grim reality: a legacy of chronic illness, poverty, and death. The gold mining industry is built on the systematic exploitation of indigenous laborers from neighboring countries, shaped […]
Tag: policy
An Argument Against Reparations is An Argument Against Equality
The recent repeal of affirmative action has catalyzed national discussion about what policies most effectively advance racial equality for Black Americans. Affirmative action, while not reparations, was a social inclusion policy that sought to increase minority representation in universities where students of color may not have been accepted due to systemic discrimination. While affirmative action […]
California: The Most Over-Hated State
When I first came to Berkeley, I was well aware of the Bay Area and its reputation. Friends and family, both in-state and out, hit me over the head with tales of crime, homelessness, poverty, and stuck-up tech CEOs. Although the last admonishment was warranted, as soon as I arrived Berkeley struck me with its […]
The Little Red Dot’s Solution to the Environmental Crisis
In 1798, economist Thomas Malthus proposed his theory of the Earth’s carrying capacity. Taking into consideration various environmental factors, he posited that humans will eventually exhaust Earth’s finite supply of natural resources, placing a hard cap on human population growth. In the modern context, the dire state of climate change is the primary culprit for […]
Why Science Should Strike: The Real Cost of Intellectual Labor
We often don’t think about why our car gets a certain amount of miles per gallon, or who tells the weatherman what to say on TV or who is actually monitoring the sea level rise and melting ice caps we constantly hear about. And that’s to be expected, just like how we might not consider […]
CA Isn’t Ready to Close Its Last Nuclear Power Plant— But It Can’t Stay Open
On the first of February, 79 top energy experts signed an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, urging him to halt the decommission of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s very last operational source of nuclear power. The group behind this letter includes dozens of prominent energy executives, professors from Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and more, […]
Policy Shootout: Georgia Versus Delta Airlines
Corporations have followed the lead of social activists in the nationwide movement calling for greater gun control in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, instituting anti-NRA and anti-gun policies. Delta Airlines, in particular, has raised headlines recently. “You’ve got to stand up for what you believe in” said […]