By Amandine Desille | – The Israeli election was held on September 17, but it remains unclear who – Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) or his main opponent Benny Gantz (Blue White) – will be able to bring together a government. One thing is for sure: in elections in April and September 2019, Israel’s populist, religious and […]
Trump isn’t the First: the Government has often Persecuted Whistleblowers
By Jennifer M. Pacella | – When President Donald Trump likened a whistleblower’s White House sources to spies and made a lightly veiled reference to execution, he highlighted a longstanding peril facing those who come forward to alert the public to governmental wrongdoing. Blowing the whistle carries major risks. BlueSkyImage/Shutterstock.com In many instances, whistleblowers find […]
What the Dinosaurs Teach us: Earth won’t Recover from Human-Caused Mass Extinction for 2 mn Years
By Paul Bown, Samantha Gibbs, and Sarah Alvarez | – Around 66 million years ago, a giant asteroid struck the Earth, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, ammonites, and many other species. The asteroid was equally devastating at a microscopic level, driving ocean plankton to near-extinction. This crippled the base of the marine food chain […]
Spies and the White House have a history of running wild without congressional oversight
By Charles Tiefer | – At the heart of the current crisis over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is an intelligence whistleblower whose information has finally made it into public view. The whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s interaction with Zelenskiy was initially withheld from the House Intelligence Committee, something which the committee […]
Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment
By Clark D. Cunningham | – As Congress moves toward a possible formal impeachment of President Donald Trump, they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many important purposes, not just removing a president from office. A critical debate took place on July 20, […]
As humans burn fossil fuels, global sea level is rising 2x the rate of the 20th century
By Cassandra Brooks | – The U.N.‘s climate panel report released Sept. 25 makes crystal clear that the planet’s oceans, snow and ice are in dire trouble and the damage is causing harm to the people who depend on them. Even with aggressive efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, many nations will struggle to adapt. […]
What exactly Happens to Us if we make the Average World Temperature go up by 2.7° F., or (Oh No!) 3.6° F.?
By Rachel Warren | – Many numbers are bandied around in climate emergency discussions. Of them, 1.5°C [2.7° F.] is perhaps the most important. At the Paris Agreement in 2015, governments agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C [3.6° F.] and to aim for 1.5°C. By 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change […]
No, Yemen’s Houthis are not Simply a Proxy of Iran
By Vincent Durac | – The attacks on oil production facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia have drawn renewed focus on Yemen’s Houthi movement, which claimed responsibility for the strikes. Whether these claims are true or or not – the US and Saudi Arabia allege that Iran was more directly involved in the […]
I stand with the climate striking students – it’s time to create a new economy
By Julia K. Steinberger | – I initiated a letter of support to climate striking students – an English version of the German letter coordinated by ecologist Gregor Hagerdorn, signed by more than 1,000 academics – for many reasons. My role as a university lecturer means that I am committed to fostering better lives and […]