News Updates

9/23/16 – Human-caused climate change is real, and solving it will require massively increasing government support for research and development aimed at “breakthrough technologies cheap enough to outcompete fossil fuels,” says the leader of a Danish think tank. In Issues, a longtime energy analyst has also called for more energy innovation, but rather than simply increasing funding, the United States should restructure its energy technology program to capitalize on the strengths of both the government and the marketplace.

9/22/16 – Unwinding mass incarceration in the United States will require helping the large number of people already in the criminal justice system successfully reenter society, two authorities on prison reform have said in Issues. Reflecting this idea, the federal government is planning to award $5 million in new grants to fund job centers based at community correctional facilities and linked to local workforce systems, as part of a broader initiative aimed at reducing recidivism.

9/21/16 – In one corporate quest to develop a new type of fusion reactor, venture capitalists are playing a key role, described in Issues by a financial backer involved. In the New York Times, Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former Treasury secretary and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, expands on the wider need for private “green finance” to drive investments in clean technologies and sustainable development.

9/20/16 – In a recent survey, 270 scientists identified “the biggest problems facing science.” Of the seven major items named, number 6 was that “science is poorly communicated to the public.” In Issues, several articles (here and here) have examined this concern from various perspectives and offered possible solutions, with the most recent focusing on how celebrities influence public perceptions, especially regarding health and nutrition.

9/20/16 – Three hundred and seventy five leading scientists, including 30 Nobel laureates, have published an open letter to draw attention to the serious risks of climate change, warning especially about potential dangers from political resistance to action. Issues has examined some of the political divides and laid out a clean-energy blueprint that may help to bridge the gaps.

9/19/16 – Taxing carbon released from burning fossil fuels could be a key part of a comprehensive effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to human-caused climate change, two economists have argued in Issues. Although policy makers in the United States have largely resisted this option, Canada’s federal government will soon begin imposing carbon taxes on any province that has not already put its own price on carbon through taxes or cap-and-trade programs.

9/16/16 – An idea explored years ago in Issues—establishing marine protected areas to help protect ocean biodiversity—has resurfaced on several fronts. On September 15, President Obama designated the first fully protected area in the Atlantic Ocean, designating nearly 5,000 square miles off the coast of Massachusetts as a marine national monument. And just a few days earlier, an international conservation group proposed an even loftier vision, calling on world leaders to set aside one-third of all oceans as marine reserves.