It’s Time for Some New Representation

            Numerous examples highlight how current generations make decisions that produce short term benefits but disadvantage or harm future generations:  the production of green-house gases and nuclear energy waste, overfishing in international waters, unsustainable use of ground water, the accumulation of national debt and trade imbalances are just a few. The problem with these decisions [...]

The European Union’s Climate Action Plan: A Golden Opportunity to Create Meaningful Climate Change Policy

The European Union (EU) has recently taken the lead on combating climate change. On March 14th, EU leaders agreed to finalize their Climate Action Plan (CAP) by next year. The CAP is a set of policy proposals released in January, which aim to meet the EU’s two goals for emissions reductions:
1. an [...]

Vermont Aims to Protect Environmental Legacy for Future Generations

Webster’s Dictionary defines “legacy” as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.” When we think of the personal or family legacy that we leave for our children and our children’s children—such as property, a sum of money, or family heirlooms—we often see individuals endeavoring to protect that “legacy” [...]

I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

The concepts of discounting and the time value of money are not new. Anyone who takes a course in microeconomics or business will find the basic concept somewhere in their text around chapter two. Who can forget Wimpy’s famed quip, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today?” So how [...]

Climate Change: A Race Between Education and Catastrophe

Since Mr. Gore’s film debut, public awareness of climate change has dramatically increased.  But how much do people actually know?  That winter might be milder next year?  More importantly, how much does the younger generation know?  There has not been a mandated environmental curriculum to empower younger generations since the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. While progress [...]

The “World’s Third Superpower” and You: The Real Solution to Global Warming

As a high school history student, I studied the abolition of slavery, the progressive era, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement with both excitement and envy. I perused primary sources to better understand the opinions, emotions, and sense of righteousness these citizens shared and experienced. I remember the abolitionist leader and former [...]

What Happens When Home is Where the Heart of the Storm Is?

Almost two and a half years ago, “the most anticipated disaster” in U.S. history tore through Louisiana and Mississippi. Despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) warning that New Orleans was one of the U.S. cities most susceptible to natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina resulted in the displacement of over half a million people. Still today, [...]

U.N. Climate Change Convention in Bali Hopes to Spur U.S. Involvement in a Post-Kyoto Climate Change Regime

From December 3–14, 2007, more than 10,000 participants representing over130 nations will come together on the island of Bali, Indonesia—the “Island of the Gods”—for the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference marks the thirteenth conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which the United States is [...]

STOP GLOBAL WARMING, BUT DON’T LEAVE ANYBODY BEHIND

    The harms of global warming will affect individuals in every economic class in the United States, both in the present and future generations.  Those in the lower-economic class, however, will be the hardest hit.  In the struggle to implement programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is important that current generation, low-income individuals do [...]

The Hypocrisy of Nations “Leading the Charge” Against Climate Change

“Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.
—Edmund Burke
If you have seen the news lately, you know that global climate change is getting more attention than ever before. You probably also know that national governments around the world say they are [...]