Tag: the conversation
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Extreme heat + air pollution can be deadly, with the health risk together worse than either alone
Erika Garcia, University of Southern California; Md Mostafijur Rahman, University of Southern California, and Rob Scot McConnell, University of Southern California On the morning news, you see the weather forecast is for high heat, and there is an “excessive heat watch” for later in the week. You were hoping the weather would cool down, but…
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Three times Central American migrants bolstered the US labor movement
Elizabeth Oglesby, University of Arizona Tech workers, warehouse employees and baristas have notched many victories in recent months at major U.S. companies long deemed long shots for unions, including Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. To me, these recent union wins recall another pivotal period in the U.S. labor movement several decades ago. But that one was…
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A tale of two climate policies: India’s UN commitments aim low, but its national policies are ambitious – here’s why that matters
By Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Tufts University At the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow in 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised the world when he announced that his country would zero out its greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2070. It was a landmark decision, acknowledging that long-term decarbonization is in India’s interest. However, climate…
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‘Liberate the tractors’: the right to repair movement that’s regaining control of our devices
Michael Stead, Lancaster University and Paul Coulton, Lancaster University The software that runs John Deere tractors was successfully “jailbroken” at this year’s DEF CON hacker convention, enabling farmers to repair or retune their equipment without engaging with the company that sold them their vehicles. The hacker involved, who calls himself Sick Codes, was responding directly…
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Food security ‘experts’ don’t have all the answers: community knowledge is key
Scott Drimie, Stellenbosch University and Michelle Eichinger, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam South Africa is in the grips of a food system paradox. It’s a country known for its agricultural production and has a sophisticated policy framework. Yet, millions of its residents are malnourished. Nearly one in four children are stunted as a result of their mother’s…
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How to destroy a ‘forever chemical’
scientists are discovering ways to eliminate PFAS, but this growing global health problem isn’t going away soon A. Daniel Jones, Michigan State University and Hui Li, Michigan State University PFAS chemicals seemed like a good idea at first. As Teflon, they made pots easier to clean starting in the 1940s. They made jackets waterproof and carpets…
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The most recent efforts to combat teacher shortages don’t address the real problems
Henry Tran, University of South Carolina and Douglas A. Smith, Iowa State University States have recently focused their efforts to reduce the nation’s teacher shortage by promoting strategies that “remove or relax barriers to entry” to quickly bring new people into the teaching profession. California, for example, allows teacher candidates to skip basic skills and…
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As heat waves intensify, tens of thousands of US classrooms will be too hot for students to learn in
Paul Chinowsky, University of Colorado Boulder Rising temperatures due to climate change are causing more than just uncomfortably hot days across the United States. These high temperatures are placing serious stress on critical infrastructure such as water supplies, airports, roads and bridges. One category of critical infrastructure being severely affected is the nation’s K-12 schools.…
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Hot and getting hotter – 5 essential reads on high temps and human bodies
Leah Samuel, The Conversation Launching the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) and the heat.gov site on July 26, 2022, the Biden administration cited heat waves and the warming climate as serious health threats. As the new initiative promises a “science informed response” to hotter conditions, five stories from The Conversation’s archive explain what…
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The plastic crisis has deep corporate roots: to protect our planet, they need to be exposed
Alice Mah, University of Warwick This spring, I taught a new undergraduate course in environmental sociology. Most of my students took the course because they were curious to see what their desire to live more sustainably had to do with sociology. By the third week – after a deep dive into the troubling connections between…
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