The Conversation

The pull of energy markets – and legal challenges – will blunt plans to roll back EPA carbon rules

Written by Hari Osofsky, Dean, Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Geography, Pennsylvania State University

Grid operators set the prices for energy markets and are structured to take the lowest prices – a disadvantage for coal and nuclear power.CC BY

On Oct. 10, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt formally announced a repeal of the Clean Power Plan, regulation intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal- and natural gas-fired power...

Under the Trump administration, US airstrikes are killing more civilians

Written by Steven Feldstein, Frank and Bethine Church Chair of Public Affairs & Associate Professor, School of Public Service, Boise State University

Smoke from an airstrike rises in the background as a man flees during fighting between Iraqi special forces and IS militants in Mosul, Iraq, on May 17, 2017. AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

When President Donald Trump took office in January, it was unclear whether the bombast from his campaign would translate into an aggressive new strategy against...

Sexual harassment: 5 essential reads

Written by Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + Society, The Conversation

Harvey Weinstein in 2013.Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Editor’s note: On Friday, Oct. 13, “Third Rail with OZY” will ask: Is sexual harassment inevitable in the workplace?

This roundup of stories from The Conversation archive explores sexual harassment.

1. Delayed disclosures

More women are stepping forward to share their experiences of...

Sent to Haiti to keep the peace, departing UN troops leave a damaged nation in their wake

Written by Siobhán Wills, Professor of Law, University of Ulster

On Oct. 15, 2017, the United Nations will withdraw its peacekeeping troops from Haiti, ending its 13-year mission there.

One might expect mixed feelings about the soldiers’ departure. After all, since the arrival of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in June 2004, after former President Jean-Bertrande Aristide was forced out...

Until youth soccer is fixed, US men's national team is destined to fail

Written by Rick Eckstein, Professor of Sociology, Villanova University

Defender Matt Besler sits on the field after losing to Trinidad and Tobago in a 2018 World Cup qualifying match.Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

David beating Goliath is very exciting – unless you’re a fan of Goliath.

The United States has 330 million people and a massive youth soccer system, yet its men’s national soccer team just got...

Why Trump's executive order may compound the health insurance industry's problems

Written by J.B. Silvers, Professor of Health Finance, Weatherhead School of Management & School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University

Unraveling Obamacare will be easier than fixing the nation's insurance problems. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump has issued the first of what promises to be a series of health insurance executive orders aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

It instructs the government to essentially exempt small businesses and potentially...

How to combat racial bias: Start in childhood

Written by Gail Heyman, Professor of Psychology, University of California, San Diego

Computer training can decrease children's biases.Jeff Inglis, CC BY-ND

Racial bias can seem like an intractable problem. Psychologists and other social scientists have had difficulty finding effective ways to counter it – even among people who say they support a fairer, more egalitarian society. One likely reason for the difficulty is that...

Trump administration's zeal to peel back regulations is leading us to another era of robber barons

Written by Jeremi Suri, Professor of History and Public Affairs, Mack Brown Distinguished Chair, University of Texas at Austin

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is an unabashed ally of the fossil fuels – industry his agency is supposed to regulate. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

The Trump administration has a clear economic objective: deregulate. Loosening regulations on industries, the White House believes, will lead to faster growth and more jobs. This is the stated reason f...

In Mexico, undocumented migrants risk deportation to aid earthquake victims

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

Undocumented migrants are among those helping to rebuild the hardest-hit areas of Oaxaca state, where federal aid has been slow to trickle down.Presidencia de la República Mexicana CC-by-2.0, CC BY-SA

After two earthquakes that left more than 450 dead and 150,000 houses damaged, my home country of Mexico faces huge challenges in recovery.

Acc...

Marketing a devastated Puerto Rico should not be the priority

Written by Carlos A Suárez Carrasquillo, Lecturer in Political Science, University of Florida

President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria added one more moment of infamy to Puerto Rico’s 119 years as a colonial territory.

Trump was taken to Muñoz Rivera, a middle-class neighborhood in Guaynabo. Most homes there are made of concrete and saw little impact from Hurricane Maria....