Maxwell School News and Commentary
Filtered by: Environment
Koch Weighs in on Western States Banning Foreign Groundwater Use in Stateline Article
“The U.S. has always been promoting and setting up this entire thing,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “It’s not like the Americans are passive in this. We have absolutely helped sow the seeds for that Saudi agricultural industry that has come back to us now.”
See related: Middle East & North Africa, United States, Water
Sultana Talks to Inside Climate News About the COP27 Loss and Damage Agreement
“When you can’t adapt to climate change at all and face interconnected issues surrounding loss and damage, the unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality is worsened,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. “This means destruction, devastation and loss are so profound that one can’t finance one’s way out of it.”
See related: Climate Change, Colonialism, International Agreements
Wilson Discusses the Impact of Warming Winters in CNN Article
“In coming decades, winter—as most people understand it—will get shorter and warmer, with less snow and more rain,” says Robert Wilson, associate professor of geography and the environment. “This poses a serious threat to winter recreation: snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and downhill skiing.”
See related: Climate Change, United States
Koch Talks to KTVK About Arizona’s Outdated Water Law
Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, argues that state lawmakers need to update the state’s 43 year old water law and create more active management areas to regulate water use across Arizona. “There needs to be some way of monitoring and regulating who is drawing what from the aquifers,” says Koch.
See related: United States, Water
Powering the Next Wave of Green Energy Innovation
"Powering the next wave of green energy innovation," co-authored by David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in PLOS Climate.
See related: Energy, Natural Resources, United States
Koch Article on Arizona Depleting its Groundwater Supply Published in New York Times
“Pumping groundwater in Arizona remains largely unregulated,” writes Natalie Koch, professor of geography. “It’s this legal failing that, in part, allows the Saudi company to draw unlimited amounts of water to grow an alfalfa crop that feeds dairy cows 8,000 miles away.”
See related: Middle East & North Africa, United States, Water
Mihm Report on Practical Approach to Emergency Preparedness Published by IBM Business of Government
How can governments properly prepare now for when the next disaster strikes? Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs, provides six steps that give leaders a practical approach to emergency preparedness in a report published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government.
See related: Natural Disasters, United States
Golden Discusses the Use of Heat Pumps as an Energy Efficient Upgrade for Homeowners in CNBC Article
Rather than generating heat, these devices transfer heat from the cool outdoors into the warm indoors and vice versa during warm weather. Heat pumps rely on electricity instead of natural gas or propane, both of which have a higher carbon emission than renewable electricity such as wind or solar, says Jay S. Golden, Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance.
See related: Energy, Sustainability, United States
Catching Air: Risk and Embodied Ocean Health among Dominican Diver Fishermen
"Catching Air: Risk and Embodied Ocean Health among Dominican Diver Fishermen," authored by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, was published in Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
See related: Environment, Health Policy, Latin America & the Caribbean
Huber Weighs in on the Effectiveness of the International Climate Summit (COP) in the Toronto Star
“I don’t think they’ve proven to be effective in actually coming up with a kind of international agreement with binding limits on countries that would penalize them if they were not to abide by the pledges,” Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment, tells the Toronto Star.
See related: Climate Change