Category: Americas

Sharks, Seals, and Fishermen: The Return of the Apex Predator

It all began in 1972 when the federal government passed the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) for the purpose of protecting certain marine mammals in the United States. Before the MMPA, seals were virtually extinct in the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Now, it is estimated that the seal population exceeds 40,000, showing no… Read more »

America’s Fatal Fixation on Guns

There are many people who can attest to the brutality and horror of the shooting two months ago in Parkland, Florida. No account is more chilling than those of the medical professionals who worked to save the young victims, but in the end could not. When a body is struck by a bullet from a… Read more »

The College Cultural Allowance

This past fall, 12.6 million full-time students, approximately 1.9 percent of the population, were expected to attend colleges and universities across the United States. This group is comprised of the most curious and intellectually engaged individuals in the United States; college-aged students are interested in the surrounding world and are actively seeking out new knowledge…. Read more »

Why I Marched

On Saturday, March 24, I was honored to participate in Brunswick, Maine’s March For Our Lives. Hundreds of peaceful protestors of all ages gathered on the town commons, demanding reform of gun control laws. We marched with colorful signs and chants such as “Hey hey, ho ho! The NRA has got to go!” My personal… Read more »

Conservation in Patagonia

“The word ‘Patagonia’, like Mandalay or Timbuctoo, has lodged itself in our imagination as a metaphor for The Ultimate, the point beyond which one could not go” ~ Bruce Chatwin The Story In January of 2018, Kristine Tompkins and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet officially declared the creation of two new national parks in Chilean Patagonia…. Read more »

#NiUnaMenos is Fighting Gender-Based Violence in Latin America

In March 2015, a nineteen-year-old Argentine woman by the name of Daiana García disappeared in a suburb of Buenos Aires after telling family and friends that she was going to a job interview. A few days later, a municipal employee found her mostly naked remains in a bag by the roadside. Police named a thirty-eight-year-old man,… Read more »

Modern Day Slavery in a Post-Slavery World

“Freedom, to me, means the ability to live my life without fear” The concepts of freedom and liberty are deeply enshrined in the fabric of this country, so much so that they have dominated and continue to dominate our political thought and inform  both our constitution and the international policies we implement today. America’s advocacy… Read more »

Seven Questions, Two Men, and the Future of Ecuadorian Democracy

When Ecuadorian voters take to the ballot boxes on Sunday they will have the chance to vote yes or no on seven fairly straightforward questions. Behind this consulta popular, however, lies a decade’s worth of political maneuvering, the split of the country’s ruling party, and two very different possibilities for the future of the nation…. Read more »

The Jones Act, Hurricane Maria, and the Politics of Disaster Relief

In the mid-seventeenth century, the English government began restricting colonial trade to England and mandating that English trade be carried out only in English vessels through the introduction of a law known as the Navigation Act of 1651. Less than one hundred years later, the Sons of Liberty destroyed an entire shipment of tea in… Read more »