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 […]
NEWSWEEK 05/22/20 By Michael Shank and Em Heppler Although the identity of COVID-19’s patient zero is still unknown, the virus is widely suspected to have originated in a Wuhan wet market. And one thing is crystal clear: These informal slaughterhouses, along with their more formal counterparts in the factory farming […]
THE HILL 05/08/20 By Michael Shank Thanks to a new study by Harvard University – that there’s a clear link between long-term exposure to air pollution and higher COVID-19 death rates, there’s yet another reason to electrify our transportation. (As if 50,000 Americans dying prematurely every year from transportation emissions […]
REUTERS 01/20/20 By Michael Shank A peer-to-peer energy sales platform will allow businesses to buy locally generated renewable power from others in the U.S. state When it comes to green energy innovation, there are few American states that innovate like Vermont. Last month, Vermont’s biggest power utility – Green Mountain […]
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 […]
VTDIGGER 12/20/19 By Michael Shank Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dr. Michael Shank, a resident of Brandon who teaches sustainable development at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. Given the climate inaction among national governments — from America and Australia to Brazil and Britain — there’s been a big focus […]
FAST COMPANY 11/27/19 By Michael Shank The latest financial assessment of climate change’s costly impacts, this time by the Economist Intelligence Unit, shows a nearly $8 trillion hit to the global economy in the next 30 years. The EIU’s Climate Change Resilience Index examined 82 of the world’s largest economies […]
REUTERS 11/21/19 By Michael Shank The global environmental sensor market, as just one example, is already proliferating and expecting to be a $3 billion annual market in under ten years The Economist Intelligence Unit’s report this week warns that climate change will shave 3% off the world economy, costing almost […]
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 09/03/19 By Michael Shank The planet has finally arrived on America’s political main stage. On Wednesday, 10 Democratic presidential candidates will speak to voters for an expected seven hours about their policies to combat the climate crisis. This is unprecedented. Climate change has never received this kind of attention […]