The Emerald Review
On August 7, 2008, the Massachusetts legislature ratified the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) with the intention of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions state-wide. Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), in collaboration with other state agencies and the public, set out to devise GHG emission reduction goals to help Massachusetts reduce its […]
As scientists and governments seek new ways to counteract the anthropogenic causes of climate change, one popular channel is waste management. In 2018, the United States generated 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW). This is equivalent to 4.9 pounds of MSW per person per day—an unnervingly large statistic, and the highest per capita […]
In April 2021, the Biden administration implemented a new Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Target. This plan aims for a 50–52% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 2030 from 2005 levels. The United States also set a goal of completely divesting from carbon-emitting electricity sources by 2035. To some, these goals may appear too ambitious. […]
The reliance of the European Union (EU) on nonrenewable energy has perpetuated the ongoing violence occurring in Ukraine, and the solution could be renewable energy. The acts of war that have occurred between Russia and Ukraine may influence the long-overdue switch to renewable energy in many major world powers. This is because of the European […]
At the UN Biodiversity Conference in October 2021, President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, announced the formal establishment of a network of five national parks, covering a total of 230,000 square kilometers and containing nearly 30% of the country’s key terrestrial wildlife species. One of these parks is called the Giant Panda […]
Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region largely overlooked by global climate change research, a decades-long grassroots movement continues to advance in its reforestation efforts across the continent. The Green Belt Movement is a community-based nonprofit organization that promotes environmental conservation, gender empowerment, and improving livelihoods through the planting of trees. Founded in 1977 by Wangari […]
National parks are public land protected by the United States government which has been tasked with wildlife conservation for generations. They exist throughout the nation and remain some of the most spectacular tourist sights. However, national parks have been struggling to afford the overwhelming cost of maintenance and convenience required to keep the lands running. […]
Out of the 17.6 billion pounds of plastic dumped into the oceans every year, two thirds of that ends up in the Northern Pacific Ocean. As the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific reaches the western coasts of North America and South America, and the eastern coasts of Asia and Oceania. This 161.76 million square kilometer […]
The term “anthropocene” describes the current geological era in which human activity is the dominant influence on the natural world. The term is a derivation of the Greek words anthropos, meaning “human,” and cene, meaning “new” and was coined in the early 2000s by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen. Anthropologists argue over various […]
After being postponed three times, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Fifteenth meeting, known as COP15, was held between October 11 and 15 in Kunming, China. The convention behind the meeting, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), was initially opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro […]