Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 17
May 18, 2018
Oil & Gas… time to divest?
Starting in 2010 students on U.S. college campuses began to gain traction—and media attention—for protests trying to force their institutions to divest from oil and gas companies and shift into alternative energy. College endowments, along with pensions, can have enormous holdings and winding down holdings across an entire industry would have significant market impact. For example, as of November 2017, just 4 of the top ten U.S. college endowments (Columbia, Princeton, Stanford and the Univer...
May 11, 2018
Green & Gray Infrastructure vs CSOs
Many American cities have a problem hidden beneath their paved streets. Approximately 860 communities in the U.S. have combined sewers that carry commercial and residential sewage along with storm runoff. On dry days these aged sewer systems, parts of which may date back to the 1800s, route soiled water to treatment facilities. However, rain or melting snow can easily overtax the sewer systems, which causes the waste to spill into a local body of water. These spillages, called combined sewer...
May 4, 2018
The Atlantic is Running AMOC
Imagine the water circulation system of a swimming pool. Water is drawn into filters around the pool’s edge, stripped of debris, and then the cleaned water is pumped back into the pool, restarting the cycle. If the filtration system got shut off the water would quickly fill with dead bugs and leaves, grow stagnant, and create an environment ripe for algae and mosquitos. Tens of thousands of swimming pools abandoned during the U.S. housing crises created a public health hazard and helped mosqu...
April 27, 2018
Natural Capital and the Resource Curse
Countries that are rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, or minerals often fare worse economically because of those resources. This conundrum, known as the resource curse, occurs when the country becomes heavily dependent on one export. Rather than distribute income to the general population, the single revenue source can inflate the local currency and drive up the prices of other exports (decreasing export sales), increase the odds of economic disparity and high-level corruption, and t...
October 6, 2017
Empowering Smallholder Farmers with Measurements
Smallholder farmers are providing up to 70 percent of the world’s food using traditional methods that may have been passed down for generations. However, the conditions that today’s farmers have inherited bear little resemblance to those of their parents and grandparents. Climate change is altering the volume and frequency of rain, flooding and droughts are becoming more pronounced and prolonged, and temperatures are rising. Subsistence farmers must adapt to these conditions to protect their...
July 11, 2017
Dear Climate Science Skeptic
Over the last few decades there has been a growing division between us. We have each chosen our position and vigorously stuck to our set of facts, confused about how the other side can be so easily duped by misinformation. The internet gives us access to global news and volumes of research, yet we normally seek out stories that agree with what we already believe to be true, seldom crossing the aisle to see what the other side is saying. There is no dialogue or compromise, only an unwavering c...
June 28, 2017
The Battle for LGBTQ Equality: A Playbook for Climate Science Progress
June 28, 1969, was a milestone in LGBTQ history. The police had frequently raided the unlicensed bar, Stonewall Inn, but on this night the patrons resisted. The police were in the process of arresting cross-dressing men and a lesbian on trumped up charges when people poured into the streets in protest. Years of unwarranted harassment had built up a tangible distrust of the police; the powder keg found its spark. At this time in New York gay and lesbian bars had to pay bribes to avoid being r...
June 14, 2017
A Smallholder Farmer’s Response to Climate Change
Allow me to introduce you to Solango Kakembo, a farmer from Kikandwa, a rural village about 80 kilometers west of the capital of Uganda. This enchanting gentleman built his small house overlooking the rolling African landscape at the edge of the fields that he and his family tend. His home sits near the center of the farming community, adjacent to the primary school built and operated by the Kikandwa Environmental Association (KEA). Kakembo volunteers his knowledge and experience on behalf of...
June 2, 2017
We Are the Paris Agreement
On June 1st, 2017, the United States officially withdrew from the historic Paris Agreement signed during President Obama’s administration in 2015. The agreement between all but two of the world’s nations (missing Syria, which is embroiled in a civil war and Nicaragua, which felt the agreement did not go far enough) was the culmination of more than 40 years of growing scientific consensus that human activity is increasing the earth’s average temperature. The agreement has two aspirational goal...
May 22, 2017
Takeaways from the US SIF Conference
US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment is part of a global network advancing sustainable, responsible, and impact investing across all asset classes through a combination of collaboration, education and public policy work. The US-based organization held their annual conference in Chicago in May, 2017. This year’s theme was “A New Climate for Investing in Impact”, which offered a platform to raise concerns and responses to the radical shift on the political landscape.
The...
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