Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 5

Round One

NY Dispatch 9/29/2020: Tonight, many of us will be watching the first debate between the president and his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden Jr. Like everything else in 2020, it will be unprecedented. It is being held in the middle of a pandemic in which more than 205,000 Americans have died and a related economic crisis with tens of millions unemployed and shuttered businesses and industries. Nationwide protests against racial and economic inequality, as well as police brutality, have...

Poor Little Billionaire

NY Dispatch 9/28/2020: Unless you live under a rock or mainline right wing media — some might consider that the same thing — you are well aware of the most recent bombshell report published last night by the New York Times. The president has bucked a convention set by decades of presidential candidates and refused to release his tax returns, lying that he could not do so until an audit was complete; there is no law preventing him from releasing his returns. The biggest shocker from the Times rep...

Notorious RBG

NY Dispatch 9/27/2020: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who passed away on September 18th, was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the bench and was confirmed 96-3 by the US Senate in 1993. Although she was considered a moderate when she took her place on the bench, she leaves a legacy as an advocate for gender equality and woman’s rights that has positively impacted the lives of millions of Americans.

She had p...

Three out of Seven

NY Dispatch 9/26/2020: Within hours of the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Mitch McConnel held a press conference and announced that the American people should have a voice in filling the open seat and that it should remain empty until after they had elected a new president. He stonewalled for eight months, refusing to even allow President Barack Obama’s nominee of Judge Merrick Garland to even be interviewed, never mind voted on.

That was then. This is now.

Barely an hour after t...

The Ostrich People

NY Dispatch 9/25/2020: Today is National Quesadilla Day (thank you, Mexico!) and the final day of Climate Week.

Once upon a time this country used to value education. It was a ladder to improve your life and your career options. Over the last few decades many home-grown Americans have turned their back on education. They snub the “costal elites” and choose to live in a parallel universe where their opinion is more important than reality. Except it isn’t even their opinion; it has been careful...

The Energy Transition

NY Dispatch 9/24/2020: Today is National Punctuation Day (three cheers for the em dash!) and the fourth day of Climate Week.

There are many energy alternatives that do not come with the environmental damage and ethical concerns of fossil fuels. It is anticipated that a global energy transition to renewable sources will take decades and cost trillions of dollars, but it is a necessary step to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is fueling climate change and increasing the global t...

Smallholder Farmers Unite

NY Dispatch 9/23/2020: Today is Bi Visibility Day and the third day of Climate Week.

One of the most memorable teachers I encountered in my Master’s Program in Sustainability Management was a rural farmer in Uganda, Salongo Kakembo. He had learned traditional farming methods from his grandmother, including preserving seeds for the next planting, enriching the soil with organic waste and animal manure, planting a variety of crops together, and adding nitrogen-enriching trees to create a micro...

Save Our Soil

NY Dispatch 9/22/2020: Today is the Fall Equinox (Happy Mabon) and day two of Climate Week. One of the unexpected side effects of the pandemic is that we were all forced to reduce our carbon footprints — cancelled travel plans and not commuting to the office — which had an immediate effect. With significantly less traffic on the road, and less exhaust, our air quality improved. A lot. Unfortunately, the effect was short term and did little to reduce our carbon emissions, which continue to hit a...

Climate Week 2020

NY Dispatch 9/21/2020: With the onslaught of eye-popping headlines endlessly competing for our attention, it is easy to be distracted from climate change. Our plant changes naturally over millennia, and sometimes occurs rapidly over centuries, but humanity, always seeking efficiency, has radically changed the environment in decades. We emit more greenhouse gases (GHG) than our environment can absorb and we generate too much pollution. Fighting to protect the planet and all living things can be a...

Third Party Kiss

NY Dispatch 9/20/2020: A flash fiction interlude. A version of “Third Party Kiss” was included in The Silent Hustler.

Ryan stepped off the bus into the school parking lot, Jessica trailing him. The couple lingered as their classmates self-segregated. Ryan tracked Kevin and Henry to Kevin’s truck. They sat on the tailgate, half in shadow, watching.

“Can’t you come tonight?” His girlfriend wove her plump fingers between his clammy ones. He squeezed her hand, knowing it was expected.

“...