By Taha Yasseri and Mary Sanford | – Ten years ago, when we ranked the most controversial articles on Wikipedia, George W. Bush was at the top of the list with global warming at number five. The article on global warming has now been re-titled as climate change, but this remains among the most polarising […]
Avoiding water bankruptcy in the Southwest: What the US and Iran can learn from each other
By Mojtaba Sadegh, Ali Mirchi, Amir AghaKouchak and Kaveh Madani | – The 2021 water year ends on Sept. 30, and it was another hot, dry year in the western U.S., with almost the entire region in drought. Reservoirs vital for farms, communities and hydropower have fallen to dangerous lows. The biggest blow came in […]
How Sen. Joe Manchin’s support for natural gas could derail Biden’s US climate plan
By Michael Oppenheimer | – ( The Conversation) – President Joe Biden has a goal for all U.S. electricity to come from zero-carbon sources by 2035. To get there, he’s counting on Congress to approve an ambitious package of incentives and penalties designed to encourage utilities to clean up their power sources. That plan, part […]
More guns, pandemic stress and a police legitimacy crisis created perfect conditions for homicide spike in 2020
By Justin Nix | – Homicides in the U.S. spiked by almost 30% in 2020. That was the main takeaway from figures released on Sept. 27, 2021, by the FBI that showed almost uniform increases across America in the murder rate. The fact that big cities, small cities, suburbs and rural areas – in both […]
Haitian migrants at the border: An asylum law scholar explains how US skirts its legal and moral duties
By Karen Musalo | – The U.S.’s top envoy to Haiti resigned abruptly on Sept. 22, 2021, over the Biden administration’s “inhumane” treatment of Haitian migrants crossing the border via Mexico into Texas. The resignation came amid debate over the U.S. decision to deport thousands of Haitians entering the U.S. in search of asylum or […]
The Relentless Decline of Arctic Sea Ice is a Dangerous signal of the Climate Emergency
By Alek Petty and Linette Boisvert | – September marks the end of the summer sea ice melt season and the Arctic sea ice minimum, when sea ice over the Northern Hemisphere ocean reaches its lowest extent of the year. For ship captains hoping to navigate across the Arctic, this is typically their best chance […]
Transparency can Help Cut Carbon Emissions: Don’t let Polluting Corporations Hide
By Richard Holden | – World leaders and about 30,000 others from assorted interest groups will converge on Glasgow in November for the United Nations’ 26th annual climate summit, COP26 (“Conference of the Parties”). It will be five years (allowing for a one-year Tokyo 2020-style pandemic hiatus) since the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 in […]
If US Followed its own Safeguards, the Taliban and IS-K wouldn’t have captured so many US Weapons
By Nolan Fahrenkopf | – The weapons and military equipment left behind by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, including through the collapse of the Afghan army, are now largely in the hands of the Taliban – and likely other militant groups as well. Though many politicians’ and observers’ reactions have been sensationalized, it does highlight […]
Afghanistan’s war rug industry: Profits and Everyday Trauma
By Jamal J. Elias | – The end of the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan has resulted in the withdrawal of most foreign aid workers and contractors. It may well also spell the demise of the country’s war rug industry. As a specialist in the visual and material culture of the Islamic world, I first […]