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Policies that govern how developments in science and technology are funded, regulated, and deployed affect citizens in many ways. Science funding influences energy policy, environmental regulation, public health and safety, and many other vital matters. To help shape society’s responses to pressing issues, citizens must engage with issues of science...

In his original plan for the city of Philadelphia, William Penn declared that every home should have ample space “for gardens or orchards or fields, that it may be a green country that will never be burnt and always be wholesome.” Before militiamen or throngs of protestors, the Boston Common...

International investment has a substantial impact on the natural environment. In 2016 for instance, the energy sector attracted $1.7 trillion worth of investments, with two-thirds dedicated to fossil fuel power. That kind of power generation is the primary cause of air pollution, and poor air quality is linked to an...

In the United States and beyond, few shifts in public opinion have been as rapid and widespread as attitudes about lesbian women and gay men. In our recent work, we explore how the media has contributed to this major change. Our research shows that the media can play a transnational...

Transportation uses vast amounts of energy and has a major environmental impact. As a result, rigorous assessments of the sustainability of various modes of moving people and goods are critically important. Alternative fuels and electric vehicles are two major developments that can help transportation planners reduce the detrimental environmental impact...

After lying proved a successful political tactic in the 2016 U.S. elections, the Oxford Dictionary chose post-truth as the word of the year, defining the term as “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In 2017, Collins Dictionary...

The 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty attracted little attention in 2015; and the 20th anniversary of welfare reform was barely noticed the following year. Although poverty tends to be overlooked by elected officials, policy experts, and the media, it remains a large and chronic social problem. According to...

The Trump administration is working hard to roll back the nation’s environmental regulations on the grounds that they are an economic burden on business. But evidence from California tells a very different story. For the past half century, California has been the richest U.S. state – even as it has...

Not much progress has been made on climate change since it was first recognized as a danger in the 1970s, and in the years since the signing of the United Nation’s Rio Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 60%. Why is the...

Antarctica has been in the news lately – for good reason. In July this year, a 5,800 kilometer-square iceberg – about the size of Delaware – broke off what is known as the “Larsen C” ice shelf. Experts fear that the ice shelf will soon collapse entirely, meeting the same...