Schools Turned to Outdoor Learning for Safe, Equitable Instruction in 2020. They Don‘t Have to Go Back.

By Karen Cowe (7GA Advisory Committee Member) and Sharon Danks This article is part of the guide 2020 Vision: Reflections on Hope and Learning in a Most Challenging Year. 2020 will be recorded in the history books as a year of deep tragedies, inequities and heartache. We hope it will also be remembered as the …

Canada Commits to Greater Climate Action, Proposes Raising Carbon Tax to $170/tonne

Last month, on the week of the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, Prime Minister Trudeau unveiled an ambitious plan for Canada to take more aggressive action on climate change. The new plan, titled “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy,” will build upon the 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change …

The Climate Defense Budget

If aliens were attacking, nations would join their military forces together to defeat the common enemy. Today, the inescapable global existential threat is posed by climate change. We should shift our defense budgets accordingly. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s “Military Expenditure Database” global government spending on defense reached nearly two trillion dollars …

Portland Aims to Make Polluters Pay for their Climate Impact

Though 2020 has been a year dominated by the COVID-19 crisis, the threat of climate change continues to loom and only grow with time. In the Pacific Northwest, the City of Portland, Oregon is taking an immediate stand to confront the impacts of climate change for its residents, particularly the most vulnerable. After passing an …

Put Out the Fire

Swedish student-activist Greta Thunberg has challenged world leaders to address climate change like the existential crisis that it is, when she said to act like “the house is on fire.” Many agree, but few see a quick way to put out that fire. Here’s a simple two-part plan to save most of the “house” before it’s too late.

Dear Jake

An open letter to our son as he graduates from medical school at George Washington University in Washington DC

Dear Jake

As you graduate from medical school this year, I trust you know how proud your family and friends are of your hard work and many sleepless nights.

America’s First Climate Bankruptcy

Shakespeare said, “What’s past is prologue.” If the looming climate change related bankruptcy of the America’s largest utility is a precursor of things to come, the most damaging storms of our future will not be reported by meteorologists, but by economists.

Donald Trump Needs Political Viagra

During his campaign for president, Donald Trump bragged about the size of his penis. Since taking office, by any reasonable measure, he has made more wild, unsubstantiated boasts than any president in living memory. Is he just compensating for his political impotence?

A Low Carbon Future is Inevitable

As nations gathered recently in Bonn at COP23, scratching their heads over why the U.S. would be the only nation on earth to deny climate change science and to withdraw from the landmark agreement that was reached two years ago in Paris (in case you missed it, even Syria has now joined), there are strong signs that a low carbon future is not only inevitable, but will be the primary driver of economic growth in the 21st century.

A Climate Declaration of Independence

Having recently enjoyed the “rockets’ red glare” on July 4th, our Declaration of Independence came to mind as a way to understand the evolving, and distinctly different, approaches to addressing climate change that are emerging in the US.