Brief #128 – Environment Policy
By Jacob Morton
At the UN’s COP26 Climate Summit earlier this month, representatives from 197 nations gathered in Glasgow, Scotland with the goal of collectively accelerating global efforts towards achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The focus of the conference centered around three major pillars of climate change action: Adaptation, Finance, and Mitigation. Here are the key takeaways.
Brief #66 – Technology Policy
By Stephan Lherisson
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, leaked Facebook internal documents to the press, federal regulators, and Congress. The content of those documents showed how the social media platform uses potentially damaging algorithms to drive up use by its users while disregarding the negative effects of those algorithms including polarizing attitudes and divisiveness. Such attitudes have been proven to contribute to violence in places like Myanmar, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, and India.
Brief #124 – Health & Gender Policy
By S Bhimji
Opioids are a class of pain relieving drugs that include both illegal drugs like heroin and synthetic legal ones like codeine, morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl and many others. The problem with opioids is that not are they addictive but they can quickly suppress respiration and lead to death.
Brief #136 – Foreign Policy
By Reilly Fitzgerald
For American policymakers, the conflict in Yemen is going to be particularly challenging on many levels. The conflict intertwines regional tensions between Saudi Arabia; religious tensions between Shia and Sunnis; and the mixing in of terrorist organizations with no allegiances to either side but taking advantage of the wide-scale chaos and instability. President Biden announced three major points that outline his policy agenda towards Yemen: ending support of offensive acts in the conflict by Saudi Arabia, promoting peace talks and initiatives, and sending US Special Envoy Tim Lenderking to the region to work towards solutions to the conflict.
Brief #127 – Environmental Policy
By Katelyn Lewis
Climate experts say the gathering of leaders from around the world in Glasgow, Scotland, for a two-week climate meeting led to imperfect, yet possible, updates to the Paris Agreement to slow global warming. The success of COP 26 depends on whether countries, including the United States, hold up their end of the bargain.
Brief #129 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
The economic recovery has slowed in the third quarter and the unprecedented circumstances make it unclear what the indicators ultimately will mean for future growth. It is estimated that worker shortages are costing the economy sixty billion dollars in sales every month. Increased wages are failing to attract a crucial influx in returning workers. There are millions of pre-pandemic workers who have not returned to work. Workers are reluctant to return to work likely due to health concerns; childcare issues; and reconsideration of life priorities.
Brief #128 – Economic Policy
By Jared Sullivan
A new global agreement, endorsed by the Biden administration, aims to improve the international tax system by redistributing revenue that countries earn from taxing multinational corporations. The proposal was finalized and agreed upon on October 8th by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is scheduled to go into effect in 2023.
Brief #29 – Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
The House Select Committee on the January 6 riot has been making a lot of headway into their investigation. They have been issuing subpoenas, looking over documents and tips, questioning people, and trying to work around those who are unwilling to help with their investigation. The Committee is doing their best to piece together the day’s events in the hopes that situations like this can be avoided in the future.
Brief #126 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
Today, 67,000 wind turbines are spinning kilowatts of energy throughout the country. That is the wind behind President Biden’s back in his recent wind energy initiative; that, and his pledge is to cut the nation’s fossil fuel emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The cost to make and deploy wind energy has gone down over 50 percent since 2008. The administration wants to seize the moment; the plan is to install 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind turbines in U.S. waters by 2030.
Brief #135 – Environment Policy
By Tim Loftus
After a century of slaughter that brought an iconic species of the North American landscape to the brink of extinction, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was among the first species to gain protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1974. The ESA had just been signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon the year before and prohibited the “taking” of a listed species without explicit permission. “Taking” meant killing, harassing, or damaging habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of the species. The designation applied to all remaining wolf populations, small as they had become, in the lower-48 states.