The Emerald Review
In late September 2020, China’s president Xi Jinping made a surprising announcement to the General Assembly of the United Nations: China was pledging to become carbon neutral by the year 2060. The pledge was made under the Paris Climate Agreement, which China signed in early 2016. This international agreement asked countries to issue their emission […]
Nearly half of the population in Bolivia is made up of Indigenous people, and they want leaders whose policy platforms reflect the interests of Indigenous communities. Evo Morales was elected as president in 2010, becoming the nation’s first Indigenous leader. His policies aimed to protect Indigenous people and their land rights, safeguarding them from exploitation. […]
Recycling has been gaining popularity in the United States during the past few decades, and with it, a conception that it is an easy and elegant solution to the problem of waste generation. However, that is not always the case. Until 2018, China would buy back American recyclables to convert to new materials, but because […]
Due to a mix of economic and social pressures, the United States continues to decrease its production of coal, with 2019 seeing the lowest coal production since 1978. One consequence of declining coal production is a decrease in jobs for coal miners, falling from over 160,000 jobs in 1985 to a little over 50,000 in […]
Climate change affects far more than what humans can see on the surface of the earth. It also reduces the ability of astronomers to see space from earth and see earth from space, as many observatories are at risk of being caught in climate-induced natural disasters. While astronomers have contributed to climate change in the […]
In the past decade, Boston has experienced the most precipitation ever on record. It is no longer expected that Boston will have light snow or drizzling rain. When it rains, it pours, and when it snows, it’s a nor’easter. Winter seasons are now leaning towards two different extremes: low precipitation and high precipitation. In 2015, […]
While COVID-19 has rightfully become the spotlight of international attention, climate change continues to threaten human health and safety. Amid the chaos of current international stressors, multilateral negotiations on climate change have struggled to maintain their prominence and impact without in-person negotiations. With international agreements on pause, global movements to reduce the impacts of climate […]
Off the coasts of Bermuda, the invasive red lionfish poses a threat to an ecosystem that thrives in the warm water of the western Atlantic Ocean. This species was introduced to the wild in the 1980s by the people involved in the aquarium trade. Lionfish can grow up to 8 inches long, and they only […]
In 2016, California voted to legalize recreational cannabis consumption for individuals 21 years and older. While medicinal cannabis had been legal for over 20 years in California, the legalization of recreational cannabis has created a new market. With the potential for new cannabis businesses, California has seen an increase in legal permits for cultivation and […]
In 1996, Life Magazine published a picture of a 12-year old boy in Pakistan stitching the Nike swoosh onto soccer balls. Later that year, Ernst & Young leaked videos of Nike sweatshops in Ho Chi Minh City, in which 77% of the workers suffered from respiratory problems after being repeatedly exposed to carcinogens 177 times […]