The Conversation

The Amazon is burning: 4 essential reads on Brazil's vanishing rainforest

Written by Catesby Holmes, Global Affairs Editor, The Conversation US

Nearly 40,000 fires are incinerating Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the latest outbreak in an overactive fire season that has charred 1,330 square miles of the rainforest this year.

Don’t blame dry weather for the swift destruction of the world’s largest tropical forest, say environmentalists. These Amazonian wildfires are a human-ma...

Removing mini-shampoos from hotel rooms won't save the environment

Written by Yossi Sheffi, Professor of Engineering; Director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The movement to ban miniature toiletries isn't likely to make a dent in the global plastic crisis.vaidehi shah/Flickr, CC BY

InterContinental Hotels Group will replace mini-shampoos and conditioners with possibly more efficient bulk products by the year 2021.

But environmental activists shouldn’t rejoice just yet.

The announcement is yet...

Why do college textbooks cost so much? 7 questions answered

Written by Amie Freeman, Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of South Carolina

Textbook prices are taking a toll on student finances.alphaspirit/Shutterstock.com

Editor’s note: The high price of college textbooks has long been a sore point for students. Even though the price reportedly went down by 26% since January 2017 – the first decrease in years – the overall trend in recent years has been a steady...

Why we need to get back to Venus

Written by Paul K. Byrne, Assistant Professor of Planetary Geology, North Carolina State University

On June 5-6, 2012, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory collected images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. NASA/SDO, AIA

Just next door, cosmologically speaking, is a planet almost exactly like Earth. It’s about the same size, is made of about the same stuff and formed around the same...

Bargain-hunting robocars could spell the end for downtown parking – cities need to plan ahead now

Written by Corey Harper, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

What does a future full of AVs mean for all the spaces reserved for downtown parking?Kris Cros/Unsplash, CC BY

Imagine a scene from the near-future: You get dropped off downtown by a driverless car. You slam the door and head into your office or appointment. But then where does the autonomous vehicle go?

It’s a question that cities would be...

Curious kids: Why don't hummingbirds get fat or sick from drinking sugary nectar?

Written by Jessica Pollock, Research Biologist at Intermountain Bird Observatory, Boise State University

Hummingbirds flap their wings 800 times per minute.Dino Hans Farnese/Shutterstock.com

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Why don’t hummingbirds get fat or sick from drinking sugary nectar? – Dhruv, age 15,...

Changes for a landmark agreement mean immigrant children face harsher treatment in US

Written by Kevin Johnson, Dean and Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Davis

Immigrants line up in the dining hall at the U.S. government's newest holding center for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas. AP/Eric Gay

The Trump administration is trying to terminate the Flores settlement, a legal agreement that determines how immigrant children are treated in U.S. immigration detention.

The 1997 settlement established...

400 years of black giving: From the days of slavery to the 2019 Morehouse graduation

Written by Tyrone Freeman, Assistant Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI

Two of the top donors who made constructing the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture possible were black.AP Photo/Susan Walsh

When African American businessman Robert F. Smith declared during a Morehouse College commencement speech that he would pay off the student loan debt of the entire 2019 graduating class of...

How to have an all-renewable electric grid

Written by David Timmons, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston

An all-renewable grid will mean more electricity and more transmission lines.Russ Allison Loar/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

The main solution to climate change is well known – stop burning fossil fuels. How to do this is more complicated, but as a scholar who does energy modeling, I and others see the outlines of a post-fossil-fuel future: We make...

Don't ban new technologies – experiment with them carefully

Written by Ryan Muldoon, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

It's a mess, but is it all bad?EHFXC/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

For many years, Facebook’s internal slogan was “move fast and break things.” And that’s what the company did – along with most other Silicon Valley startups and the venture capitalists who fund them. Their general attitude is one of asking for forgiveness...