Maxwell School News and Commentary

“Carbon inequality is effectively a colonisation of the atmosphere by the capitalist elite of the planet through hyper-consumption and pollution, while the cost of that climate coloniality is borne disproportionately by the marginalised and vulnerable communities in developing countries,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

"It's a tough balancing act," says Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs. "The big issue is responding to attacks that are being done by Iranian surrogates in a measured way that has a deterrent effect but does not cause the tension that exists in the area in the conflict to expand to the next level."

Jenn M. Jackson, assistant professor of political science, says that this episode reveals a mismatch between what funders in 2020 said they wanted to do, which was to end racist policies in the U.S., and the way they went about it, which was to give millions to a new research center at a university.

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, “just leapfrogged over everyone” through legislation that became law last month that requires companies to start reporting carbon emissions from the energy used for operations and outputs beginning in 2026, says Jay Golden, Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance.

In the glory days of the American labor movement, when unions were strong and wages rose alongside productivity, “organized workers could cash that out as more free time,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “But for decades, workers haven’t even been getting that choice because, for the most part, productivity growth has ended up as higher profits and more inequality.”

David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs, notes that while new factories will be needed to build electric vehicle batteries, the vehicles will require fewer suppliers producing parts. Many assembly workers will also need to be retrained. “We may also need fewer workers,” Popp says. But, he says, “there doesn’t seem to be a consensus yet on whether that is the case.”

"It is clear that, whatever Trump actually believed, he himself did not mean his pronouncements of election fraud to be taken as mere opinion. When Trump made such claims, he invariably portrayed them not only as true but proven conclusively, albeit by evidence he never produced," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

"Post-conflict Gaza is more theory than fact. It is unknown how much Israel feels compelled to rebuild Gaza (after defeating Hamas). In the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure in the south and did not rebuild it," says Sean McFate, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs.

“Disabled people are already underserved,” says Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology. Altering the way the Census Bureau gathers disability statistics, he argues, will generate “inaccurate information.”