NEWSWEEK 07/06/21 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke The G7 meeting last month shows how much work is still needed to help less developed countries respond to increasing climate disasters. With rich countries merely reaffirming their over ten-year-old outdated commitment to provide $100 billion annually in aid for […]
Congressional Coauthors
Equity-Based Planning
RUTLAND HERALD 04/13/21 TIMES ARGUS 04/13/21 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke President Joe Biden’s long-awaited American Jobs Plan has finally arrived, weighing in at $2.3 trillion in spending over 8 years. In today’s dollars, this is almost five times the new funding provided in President Obama’s 2009 […]
Our Infrastructure Is Racist. Biden’s Plan Seeks Justice | Opinion
NEWSWEEK 4/12/21 By Michael Shank and US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke President Joe Biden’s long-awaited American Jobs Plan has finally arrived, clocking in at $2.3 trillion in spending over eight years. In today’s dollars, this is almost 5 times the new funding provided in President Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment […]
The Government Is Arming Police for War. Reform Can Start Right There
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 […]
It’s Time to Shut Down Industrial Animal Farming
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 […]
A Prescriptive Path Forward for Saving Struggling Countries’ Economies
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 […]
Clean Energy is Not Just Good for the Environment. It Also Prevents War
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 […]
BlackRock is Smart to Prioritize the Climate – and Business Leaders Know It. So What Are They Waiting For?
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 […]
California Fires, Rising Seas: Millions of Climate Refugees Will Dwarf Dust Bowl by 2100
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 […]
The Way We’re Talking About Climate Change is All Wrong. Here’s How We Win Hearts and Minds
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 […]