When Will Natural Gas Prices Normalize, and How Will We Know When They Are Normal? By Sergei Komlev [This analysis of the current natural gas pricing crisis is an extension of the concepts presented by the author in Foundations of…
Category: Environmental and Sustainability
A Critical Hope Is the Foundation to #BuildBackBetter
The guest authors of this post are Julian Dobson and Rowland Atkinson. They are the authors of Urban Crisis, Urban Hope out June 2020. In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, the hashtag #BuildBackBetter became a rallying cry on social…
The Fanfare of Progress: Foreign Occupation and the Viability of the 2030 Agenda
Five years ago, the UN passed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This resulted in the establishment of seventeen different goals, more commonly known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), accompanied by 169 targets and indicators to achieve this agenda…
Here’s How to Help Manage Local Climate Change Risks
This is a guest post by Professor Lawrence Susskind, Director of the MIT Science Impact Collaborative, the Director of the MIT-UTM Malaysia Sustainable Cities Program (MSCP) and co-director of the Water Diplomacy Workshop. We’ve spent far too much time thinking…
‘Green Growth, Smart Growth’: Q&A with Ralf Fücks
Ralf Fücks’ Green Growth, Smart Growth, with a foreword by Anthony Giddens, is released today in English. Green Growth, Smart Growth draws on the German policy experience of tackling climate change and outlines a positive way forward using science, technology…
Vivian E. Thomson Talks About the US on the World Stage of Climate Change
The 2 June announcement of a new draft of regulations under the United States Clean Air Act has brought environmental issues to the forefront political discourse. The new act includes a lofty proposal of a 30% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, making the US a leader in global climate change. 
Anthem author and University of Virginia professor of environmental science and politics Vivan Thomson (left) speaks to the theoretical frameworks of the recent act in her book, Sophisticated Interdependence in Climate Policy: Federalism in the United States, Brazil, and Germany. “My book relates directly to EPA’s forthcoming announcement,” says Thomson. Her experience in the State Air Pollution Control Board of Virginia, a state hard hit by the EPA’s announcement because of the economic dependency on the coal industry, give her an insightful take on the state-federal cooperation in environmental affairs. Although the great reduction in carbon emissions is an admirable environmental goal, much of Virginia’s economy depends on highly pollutive coal. Despite the discordant state and federal goals, Thomson pushes for coherence, pointing to Brazil and Germany as examples for the United States to emulate.
As the conversation over the EPA’s goal for climate change in the United States continues, we watch for the state-federal cooperation Thomson prescribes.
HEAR more from Thomson, listen to her recent podcast here: http://wina.com/podcasts/vivian-thomson/
WATCH Vivian Thomson discuss her book on Inside Scoop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQpDUw7hqM
Interview with Vivian Thomson, author of “Sophisticated Interdependence in Climate Policy”
The following is an interview with Vivian Thomson, author of “Sophisticated Interdependence in Climate Change Policy: Federalism in the United States, Brazil, and Germany” This book offers a desperately needed framework for climate-change policy in the US, acknowledging the crucial…