NEWSWEEK 03/03/2022 By Michael Shank Citizens around the world are setting a new and impressive precedent in engaging in international affairs. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised a level of interest that dwarfs that of other recent conflicts or wars. This is undoubtedly a good thing: We need more voices […]
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 With rich countries merely reaffirming their over ten-year-old outdated commitment to provide $100 billion annually in aid for […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
NEWSWEEK 10/29/19 By Michael Shank Given the climate inaction among national governments—from America and Australia to Brazil and Britain—there’s been a big focus on actions that individuals can take. This pivot is helpful because it does, in fact, take a village to tackle climate change. It takes a shared sense […]
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 […]
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 […]