Opinion - The Tufts Daily

Column

Ethics of the Environment: The dark side of cannabis

By Ethan Jaskowiak | April 4

As cannabis legalization continues its march across the country and investment in legal cannabis continues to grow, many previously veiled aspects of cannabis cultivation have come to light, including a surprisingly damaging environmental cost. High water and energy usage, pesticides and fertilizer poisoning, degradation of public lands and potential ozone effects have all been linked to cannabis cultivation.

Guest

Op-Ed: Migration as a remedy for global inequality

By Brie Mcgowan and Ian Boldiston | March 31

Globalization, defined by Merriam-Webster as “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy,” is inextricably tied to the global inequality that has shaped the lives of billions across the globe. Economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez suggest globalization has led to an increasing gap between the rich and poor. The 2022 World Inequality Report highlights this gap, finding that the globe’s richest 10% have 75% of global income while the poorest 50% of individuals share just 2% of income. The issue of global inequality is exacerbated by a number of factors like gender and race. For example, research shows that women make up just 27% of individuals in the top 10% of the income distribution and less than 17% at the 1% income level. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, racial discrimination is also prevalent in the discussion of global inequality, with white workers earning approximately 22% more than Black workers. Other data strengthens this finding, highlighting that a median Black family owns $24,100 in wealth compared to the average $189,100 held by a median white family. Globalization has certainly played a role in increasing this high level of global inequality.

Guest

Op-ed: The future of cooperation aboard the International Space Station

By Meera Rohera | March 30

Tensions between the United States and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine have made their way to the outer space domain. The packet of sanctions announced on Feb. 24 included measures directly targeting the Russian space program. Addressing this, President Biden remarked that “[the sanctions] will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program.”

Guest

Op-ed: We need to change the way we manage waste

By Margo Muyres | March 29

This year, the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship class run by the Institute of Global Leadership at Tufts has been guided by the theme “Problems without Passports.” As an environmental studies and international relations major, the relevance and urgency of this framework is evident. Environmental scholars increasingly cite the interconnectedness of the global ecosystem, which calls for understanding an ‘instance’ of environmental degradation on a wider spatial and temporal scale. Just as the effects of climate change are dispersed over time and space to be felt unevenly by those who have had little hand in causing it, pollution and toxicity created in one place will not be neatly contained out of sight and out of body.

Column

The Biggest Misconceptions About College Life: Where you’ll meet ‘the one’

By Stephany Sestini | March 29

“During my moving day as a freshman, I remember walking up the stairs and catching a glimpse of who I know today as my husband. As soon as our eyes met, I knew he was the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with,” my cousin said. Almost everyone has heard a passionate and cheesy story about someone who met the love of their life in college. Whether it described the fascinating, first eye contact they made with their future significant other across the foyer or the accidental cliché bump into their soulmate while grabbing food at the dining hall, the notion of meeting ‘the one’ in college has been around for years.

Viewpoint

The Point of No Return: Why the Amazon should be a priority

By Henry Murray | March 17

The destruction of the Amazon rainforest has been profound and consistent over the last several decades, but in the last few years it has drastically accelerated and is nearing a critical point. As we have seen little progress from conservation efforts, our only hope has been that the rainforest can rebound on its own, but research is showing that this will not always be the case. The damage to the Amazon is making it more susceptible to and less equipped to recover from environmentally damaging events and activities like droughts, logging and fires. The changes to the rainforest are becoming irreversible.

Column

Blue, Brown & Green: It’s time to unplug — literally

By Natalie Brownsell | March 17

Of the 92.9 quadrillion British thermal units of energy consumed by the U.S. in 2020, 62.3 quads were considered “rejected energy” by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This means that more than two-thirds of the energy consumed in the U.S. in 2020 was released into the environment — mostly as heat — and provided no economic or societal benefit at all. In other words, over two-thirds of all energy consumed in 2020 was wasted. This waste comes from inefficiencies in technology that allow energy to be lost as heat while converting one form of energy into another or while running technology.

Column

Managing Multipolarity: A rising eastern kingdom

By Daniel Chung | March 16

Since the end of the Second World War, Japan has been a secondary power unwilling to exert the hard power associated with great power status, with a constitution “[renouncing] war as a sovereign right of the nation.” However, after this recent period of military isolationism characterized by the Yoshida doctrine — which passed responsibility for Japanese security policy to the U.S. — ‌Japan is primed to enter another expansionist phase, although the form, extent and characteristics of this expansionism have not yet been settled.

Viewpoint

Double standards in international responses to the war in Ukraine

By Reya Kumar | March 15

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, international attention has been focused on the war. This full-scale invasion is a drastic escalation in a long-running conflict. In 2014, the Maidan protests against the Ukrainian government's decision to back out of an association agreement with the EU prompted pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to flee. Taking advantage of the situation, Putin’s Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in Southern Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists in the southeastern Ukrainian region known as Donbas.

Column

Ethics of the Environment: Game reserves — Who do they serve?

By Ethan Jaskowiak | March 14

The global population is rapidly approaching eight billion people. This growth necessitates increases in food production, resource extraction and overall consumption, putting a strain on remaining wildlife habitat. Oftentimes, our most precious refuges of biodiversity are left to the protection of impoverished local communities, raising the question: Who should bear the burdens of conservation efforts? Who should reap the benefits: locals or predominantly western conservationists?

Guest

Op-ed: Social media: Contending with extremism and misinformation in the digital age

By Joseph Lim and Janya Gambhir | March 11

Social media has revolutionized terrorism, acting as a tool to streamline communication in underground networks and make the recruitment of individuals more accessible. This has resulted in the increased dissemination of extremist content online, facilitating radicalization. Terrorist or extremist groups can readily communicate their opinions and misinformation in an immediate and widely accessible format, sharing information with a large, global audience, while also tailoring their messages to specific audiences at local levels. As stated by expert Dr. Maura Conway, “Today's Internet does not simply allow for the dissemination and consumption of ‘extremist material’ in a one-way broadcast from producer to consumer, but also high levels of online social interaction around this material.”

Viewpoint

The judge in shining armor: Ketanji Brown Jackson

By Kristin Shiuey | March 10

The United States Supreme Court consists of nine justices, and currently, six of these judges hold conservative views. This ratio has sparked intense discussion around the country because of Roe v. Wade: a historic case by the Supreme Court that protects a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion without government restrictions. With a majority conservative court, many predict that Roe v. Wadewill likely be overturned as states like Texas took to state courts to ban abortions past six weeks, a frightening ruling considering that women, on average, find out they are pregnant between weeks five and six. This means that some women may not even know they are pregnant and by the time they do find out, it might be too late or too little of time to make such a life-changing decision. And President Biden understands the severity of the situation.

Editorial

Editorial: Students need coordinated sexual assault prevention measures

By The Tufts Daily | March 9

At this point in the spring semester, Green Dot training for varsity athletes is approaching quickly, and a campus-wide revival of in-person social events makes it even more important now than during semesters spent in partial lockdown. Promoted at Tufts starting in 2016, Green Dot is an on-campus organization providing trainings and workshops that encourage bystander intervention in cases of social misconduct — sexual and otherwise.

Viewpoint

‘Don’t Say Gay’: The rise in state anti-LGBTQ legislation

By Reya Kumar | March 9

Content warning: This article mentions suicide.

Viewpoint

Putin goes rogue: Russia’s diplomatic terrorism is exposed

By Makram Bekdache | March 8

Since the late 2000s, Russia has adopted a decidedly aggressive tone in its foreign policy. Eager to prevent NATO from expanding around his borders, Vladimir Putin used the relatively low-stakes annexation of Crimeato show the world he would not be afraid to pursue new strategic interests for his country. Back then, the West reacted in a lukewarm fashion. Sanctions only mildly hurt the Russian economy as they did not effectively target the specific industries or the oligarchs that funded Putin’s endeavors.

Viewpoint

Missed connections: The separation between graduate and undergraduate life at Tufts

By Chelsie Wei | March 8

Walking in the streets of Tufts’ Medford campus, you may hear undergraduate students chattering about the latest IR midterm, frat party stories and housing lotteries. But have you run into any graduate students in your daily socials, club meetings and pickup sports? About 49% of the student population at Tufts consists of graduate students, with about 30% studying on Medford campus through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and the Fletcher School. However, the undergraduate population at Tufts rarely interacts with this significant portion of the campus community outside of class, whether it be in club meetings, at sporting events or at social gatherings. My peers and I often wondered what graduate students might be doing after their classes if not participating in the activities most undergrads associate with the traditional Tufts experience. There, instead, seems to exist an unrecognized problem brewing in the undercurrents among graduate student life — their lack of an on-campus presence in major academic organizations and culture clubs.

Guest

Op-ed: The Class of 2021 deserves a real graduation

By Chris Duyos | March 7

I woke up on May 23, 2021, ready to graduate. After donning a suit, cap and gown, I walked downstairs to find my housemates in their pajamas.

Column

Ethics of the Environment: Country clubs, golf and the climate crisis

By Ethan Jaskowiak | March 7

Country clubs have long been criticized for their elitism and exclusivity; in light of our planet’s environmental crisis, I would argue that they are also damningly wasteful, both in terms of resources consumed and environmental impact.

Guest

37th Annual EPIIC Symposium: "Problems without passports" to address global R2P commitment

By Ellie Murphy | March 4

Some of the world’s most pressing problems such as climate change, mass-migration and food insecurity transcend state borders. These issues are beyond the capacity of any single country to solve themselves, necessitating international cooperation. Former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan labeled these challenges as “problems without passports.”

Column

Blue, Brown & Green: The Ripple Effect

By Natalie Brownsell | March 4

In my last column, I talked about the role that community, and the actions of each individual within that community, plays on sustainability. I also asked you to think about how you can make a difference every day in our community through your own actions. With that in mind, let’s look at sustainability.