Congressional Coauthors

NEWSWEEK 06/11/20 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Hank Johnson America’s streets are looking increasingly like countries we dismiss as petty dictatorships and rogue states. Mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles and Humvees are now patrolling cities all across America. We saw it at Standing Rock. We saw it in Ferguson. We saw […]

THE HILL 06/03/20 By Michael Shank and Former US Congressman Michael Honda While governments act aggressively to save lives, stop any further spread of COVID-19, and reopen their economies, let’s not wait to prevent the next virus. More will come. Pandemics are picking up their pace. Thankfully, prevention is entirely […]

THE HILL 05/20/20 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Gregory Meeks When the heads of all the agencies at the United Nations come together and find consensus on something, their advice is worth heeding. Recently, they did just that, issuing an emergency fund appeal and urging a rapid and coordinated […]

NEWSWEEK 02/12/20 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Hank Johnson Take oil out of the foreign policy picture, and American presidents would have lacked motive to preemptively attack Iraq, Libya and now Iran. There were equally authoritarian leaders of other countries at the time, operating with even greater propensity toward […]

NEWSWEEK 1/17/20 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke We’re starting 2020 with some scary climate signals. We’ve finished another record-breaking year—but for the wrong reasons. 2019 locked in the highest global carbon emissions on record and was the second hottest year ever. At these rates, the climate change–caused […]

USA TODAY 11/04/19 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke An environmental crisis in the early 1900s created ‘Dust Bowl refugees.’ Today’s climate crisis is much bigger and will last for decades, not years. “Climate refugee” is likely a new term for most Americans. Also referred to as environmental […]

NEWSWEEK 08/21/19 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Lloyd Doggett While reports forecasting a climate change apocalypse and doomsday climate scenarios may get our momentary attention, they are not producing action. Even as we see the impact of climate change in devastating, intensified weather and the spread of disease, we […]

REUTERS 07/22/19 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke As the costs and threats from climate change rise, the key is not to wait until it’s too late to take action U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke represents New York’s 9th district and serves on the House Energy and Commerce […]

VTDIGGER 06/19/19 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Gregory Meeks Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dr. Michael Shank and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. Shank, of Brandon, is the communications director for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and adjunct faculty at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. Meeks is a senior […]

REUTERS 06/07/19 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Gregory Meeks With climate threats growing fast, the U.N. Security council has the power to cap greenhouse gas emissions on every country and sanction those who fail to comply Congressman Meeks (D-NY) is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee […]