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(09/17/24 4:01am)
At the end of eighth grade, my school decided to take us on a one-week overnight trip to Yosemite National Park. We learned about Yosemite’s ecosystems and history while hiking through forests and among thundering waterfalls. Almost a decade later, I remember this trip vividly, just as I remember every national park I’ve been to.
(04/22/24 4:03am)
I’ve spent the last year writing columns about how U.S. public policy can be improved. From housing to public transportation to education to climate change, there are many areas where we can do better. For my last edition of this column, however, I wanted to write about beneficial public policies that have been passed and that are often missed or ignored in a media consumption environment with a strong negativity bias.
(04/08/24 4:03am)
Clean energy is a core part of the Democratic Party’s platform. The 2020 Democratic Party platform calls for building a “globally competitive clean energy economy.” Yet in 2023, the state with the most installed solar infrastructure is not New York or California, where Democrats dominate state government, but Texas, a Republican-controlled state. This is despite billions of dollars spent by California’s state government to invest in solar energy. It’s not just in building housing with clean energy where blue states are failing: consider the issue of affordable housing. Prominent Democrats have championed that housing is a human right, yet in California, the quintessential Democratic state, the homeless population since 2020 has risen at a much faster rate than the rest of the country. California has one of the highest unsheltered homelessness rates in the country and one of the highest homelessness rates in the country in general, after similarly Democratic-controlled Washington, D.C., New York, Vermont and Oregon. Meanwhile, in cities in Texas, rent prices are decreasing despite an increase in the population. These issues, among others, have caused blue states to face a population exodus, with thousands leaving blue states for red ones according to census data. The question of why so many Democratic-controlled states are floundering on issues one would expect them to lead is a difficult one. However, there are two clear steps these states can take to start fixing the issues they face.
(03/11/24 4:03am)
The idea behind the degrowth movement is simple: Economic growth and increased consumption is fueling the climate change crisis and to truly tackle climate change we need to decrease our levels of production and consumption. Though degrowth can be intuitive, the movement’s fundamental premise lacks evidence and the actions it advocates for are completely unfeasible.
(02/27/24 5:01am)
In June of 2022, inflation hit a 40-year record high, with consumer prices rising 9.1% over the course of one year. It surpassed economists' expectations and captured rising costs in everything from rent to automobiles, particularly in food and energy. Understandably, the magnitude of the inflation spike sparked a debate as to what was responsible for such high levels of inflation.
(02/13/24 5:03am)
If there’s one thing that many Americans can agree on, it’s that they dislike the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service is a federal agency responsible for collecting and administering federal taxes. The IRS primarily ensures that everyone pays their taxes, often by auditing individuals or businesses, and processes requests for tax refunds. It’s understandable the IRS is not popular, especially as 56% of Americans feel their tax burden is unfair and a majority state that the complexity of the American tax system “bothers them a lot.” Furthermore, the IRS is often backlogged in its work, and as of February 2022, nearly 24 million taxpayers were waiting for their tax returns. For Americans frustrated with any part of the complex taxation process, recent calls to defund or even abolish the IRS might sound attractive.
(01/30/24 5:00am)
The idea of charter schools is simple. They are publicly funded by taxpayers but operated by independent groups. In the face of traditional public schools that seemed to be failing, charter schools were an alternative. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools face less governmental regulation, but they must meet accountability standards. They are also not beholden to teacher unions and can experiment with different learning styles.
(12/04/23 5:03am)
As many of us look forward to flying home for Christmas, there’s one part of the journey that we dread: hearing the announcement that our flight has been delayed or canceled. Flight delays and cancellations have become an increasingly common part of the air travel experience; in the summer of 2023, 61% of travelers had experienced a flight delay or cancellation and most of those travelers lost money due to those cancellations or delays. Flight cancellations also increased in 2022, and there have been several massive flight cancellation events, such as Southwest’s infamous meltdown during the last holiday season.
(11/20/23 5:07am)
Over the past few years, Tufts has made it easier and easier for students to act in environmentally conscious ways. One only needs to walk a few steps into the Joyce Cummings Center to see the carefully separated trash, recycling and compost bins with useful labels to help students dispose of their waste sustainably. The JCC also avoids using paper towels in restrooms, and water bottle fillers are present on each floor, to avoid excessive use of plastic water bottles. These steps aren’t insignificant, but they’re often less significant than we are told or may assume. Consider recycling: We are often told that recycling is essential to protect the climate. And though recycling indisputably helps the environment and reduces carbon emissions, it is far from a sinecure, especially plastic recycling. Only 15% of plastic is recycled worldwide, as many countries don’t have good recycling infrastructure, and only around half of the plastic collected for recycling is ever actually recycled. An example of this is Rogue Disposal & Recycling in Oregon, which, as of 2020, was sending much of its recycled plastic to landfills, consistent with the struggles of many U.S. recycling firms following China’s decision to stop taking in recyclable waste as of 2018.
(11/07/23 7:01am)
Over the past year, the Biden administration has repeatedly been leaning on a new term in their messaging, Bidenomics, to describe President Biden’s economic policies. The Biden administration promotes Bidenomics as growing the middle class and the economy as a whole.
(10/30/23 4:05am)
It’s easy to see the appeal of high-speed rail. One only needs to consider the success of the Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan to see the benefits. A 2021 research paper found that the Shinkansen reduces travel times and increases job opportunities. There are environmental benefits to high-speed rail as well: A 2011 paper studying proposed high-speed rail in Sweden found it could meaningfully reduce direct vehicle-based carbon emissions.
(10/16/23 4:01am)
On Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that September 2023 saw the hottest global temperatures for any September ever on record. This shift was partly due to El Niño, but also largely due to climate change. This heat negatively affected people across the world. Although July and August were not as hot statistically, record heat also caused many deaths and hospitalizations in the U.S. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the effect of human-caused climate change: scientists have found that climate change is responsible for everything from more frequent and severe droughts, greater risk of devastating wildfires such as the ones across Canada this summer, to increased flooding and more outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Ebola.
(10/02/23 4:03am)
As sophomores settle in at Tufts, many are already thinking about off-campus housing for next year. This happens for a reason: Housing in the Medford and Somerville area has gotten increasingly expensive, while still being difficult to find. There is no doubt that Tufts University and its students play some role in this, but this trend isn’t just occurring in Medford and Somerville — it’s occurring in many cities across the country.
(04/25/23 4:07am)
For many Americans, politics aren’t that interesting. A 2021 poll found that only 36% of Americans aged 18–29 consider themselves politically engaged, while only around 45% of eligible voters voted in the 2022 midterm elections. It’s understandable that this is the case: With politics as divided as they are today, many might see politics as an unproductive screaming match. Others might be disillusioned at the amount of lying that occurs in politics. In many cases, politics are simply sidelined in comparison to other responsibilities. All of these are sensible reasons, so much so that even I myself didn’t follow politics until a few years ago. Now, however, I would like to make the case that unfashionable as it may be, we should care about politics, at least a little bit.
(04/12/23 4:01am)
As Ron DeSantis has risen to fame as the governor of Florida, many moderates and centrists have urged “Never Trumpers” and Democrats to support him in his bid to win the Republican nomination. Some Never Trumpers are indeed backing Ron DeSantis, including prominent ones like David French. Conor Friedersdorf, another moderate conservative, summed up the reasoning behind this well in an Atlanticarticle:he believes Ron DeSantis is not immoral or authoritarian, unlike Trump. The reasoning goes that while DeSantis might do objectionable things or he might support bad policies, he isn’t a bad person or anti-democracy like Donald Trump is. However, the Lincoln Project, a prominent group of anti-Trumpers, doesn’t support DeSantis. They’re right to do so and other Never Trumpers should follow their lead. While DeSantis has a more respectable veneer, a close examination of his record shows he is just as authoritarian and immoral as Donald Trump is.
(04/06/23 4:01am)
As President Joe Biden campaigned to defeat former President Donald Trump, he was unequivocal in his support for immigrants and immigration. Biden called America a “nation of immigrants” and promised to reform the temporary visa system to make it easier for highly skilled immigrants to stay in the United States. Over two years into his term, this has not happened. Despite attempts in his proposed budget, Biden has not yet increased funding for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes green cards and visas for immigrants, leading to a mounting backlog and longer wait times. He also hasn’t prioritized legislation to raise the national green card caps that restrict skilled immigration, nor has he pressured Congress to increase the H-1B visa cap for high-tech workers or reformed the program as he promised in his campaign.
(03/14/23 4:03am)
In January 2017, ConocoPhillips, the largest crude oil company in Alaska, proposed the Willow Project — an oil drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska that will take decades to complete and could produce up to 600 million barrels of oil. Since the proposition, the project has been seeking government consent, and President Joe Biden’s administration recently approved the project on a smaller scale than what was proposed. While Alaska’s Congressional delegation argues that the project will create jobs, boost domestic energy production and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign oil, environmentalist politicians such as Al Gore described the project as “recklessly irresponsible.”
(02/27/23 5:03am)
On Nov. 30, 2022, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI unveiled its brand new chatbot, ChatGPT, to the world. ChatGPT instantly gained popularity — it was the fastest new app to 100 million active users, beating out apps like Instagram, Snapchat and even TikTok — and it’s easy to see why. ChatGPT can write everything from articulate essays on any topic under the sun to songs in the style of the user’s favorite artists to slam poetry to fiction. It can also explain complex concepts to various audiences, often much more concisely and crisply than humans are capable of, to the point where ChatGPT is being floated as an alternative to tutoring for students. ChatGPT is so advanced that it is now being used by businesses, with firms using it to refine their writing and assist them with content marketing. With all the praise and popularity ChatGPT received in the months since its inception, it's easy to see why Microsoft, a significant investor in OpenAI, announced it would begin integrating ChatGPT’s technology into its search engine Bing on Feb. 7. Google, clearly worried that a modified Bing might pose a threat to their search engine, promptly announced it would soon be releasing its AI bot competitor Bard, integrating AI technology into its own search engine. While both Microsoft and Google’s moves are understandable and can be seen as exciting, the emerging race to integrate AI into search engines could have harmful societal impacts.
(03/06/23 5:01am)
For years, Fox News, reported by Forbes as the most-watched cable news network in the United States, has attracted criticism. This stretches as far back as 2009 when the Obama administration controversially refused to refer to Fox News as a “legitimate news organization.” We now know they were right to do so. A few weeks ago, Dominion Voting Systems, as part of their defamation lawsuit against Fox News, released a trove of texts showing Fox News stars had expressed very different sentiments in private than the ones they displayed on air. For example, Sean Hannity, who called on his radio show for a special prosecutor to investigate claims of election fraud, said off air that Rudy Giuliani, who spread claims of election fraud, was “acting like an insane person.” Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, wrote that after the 2020 election, Hannity was “privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers.” Perhaps the most revealing text from the Dominion lawsuit though was from Tucker Carlson, who — after a Fox reporter fact-checked a false claim about election fraud — wrote, “Please get her fired. … The stock price is down. Not a joke.” These are just a few examples of many, but they showcase how Fox knowingly spread false information about the 2020 election to maintain viewership and increase profits.
(11/08/22 7:05am)
Joe Biden is on top of the world. Or at least he should be. Throughout his presidency, Biden has been quietly making changes popular with the American people. Yet, polls show Republicans are highly likely to win back the House from Democratic control and are more likely than not to win the Senate. Given the popularity of Biden’s policies, our electoral system ought to be altered to better reflect the will of the people.