The Conversation

Rocky Mountain forests burning more now than any time in the past 2,000 years

Written by Philip Higuera, Professor of Fire Ecology and Paleoecology, The University of Montana

Colorado's East Troublesome Fire jumped the Continental Divide on Oct. 22, 2020, and eventually became Colorado's second-largest fire on record.Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory

The exceptional drought in the U.S. West has people across the region on edge after the record-setting fires of 2020. Last year, Colorado alone saw its three largest...

Netanyahu may be ousted but his hard-line foreign policies remain

Written by David Mednicoff, Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on June 13, 2021.AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

After two years of repeated and inconclusive Israeli elections, the advent of a new coalition government has ended the long era of Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime ministership. Yet he leaves a legacy of hawkish policies that will likely remain intact.

A...

Southern Baptist Convention's focus on mission recalls history of promoting white dominance

Written by Janel Kragt Bakker, Associate Professor of Mission and Culture, Memphis Theological Seminary

J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has called on the denomination to focus on its theological mission.AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File

Rocked by controversies, dwindling numbers and internal divisions, the Southern Baptist Convention will meet for its annual meeting on June 15 under the banner: “We Are Great Commission...

Why the Second Amendment protects a 'well-regulated militia' but not a private citizen militia

Written by Eliga Gould, Professor of History, University of New Hampshire

The Second Amendment declares the importance of state-government authorized militias, like these National Guard troops guarding the California State Capitol building.AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

When a federal judge in California struck down the state’s 32-year-old ban on assault weapons in early June 2021, he added a volatile new issue to the...

Property disputes in Israel come with a complicated back story – and tend to end with Palestinian dispossession

Written by Kristen Alff, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Eviction remains a threat for Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah.AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

The bombing of Gaza may have ended, the sirens in Tel Aviv silenced for now. Yet as concern over a planned June 15, 2021 march by right-wing Israeli nationalists underscores, the threat of violence in Israel is never far from the surface. It is sustained...

Electric heat pumps use much less energy than furnaces, and can cool houses too – here's how they work

Written by Robert Brecha, Professor of Sustainability, University of Dayton

Heating or cooling? I do both.FanFan61618/Flickr, CC BY-SA

To help curb climate change, President Biden has set a goal of lowering U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50%-52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Meeting this target will require rapidly converting as many fossil fuel-powered activities to electricity as possible, and then generating that...

8 ways to manage body image anxiety after lockdown

Written by Tracy Tylka, Professor of Psychology, The Ohio State University

Engaging with people who accept and appreciate your body as it is can help you feel more at peace with how you look.Hinterhaus Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Being able to socialize again may bring enthusiasm and a sense of normalcy – but it may also increase anxiety over how your body might have changed.

I am a psychologist who...

Summer reading: 5 books for young people that deal with race

Written by Sarah J. Donovan, Assistant Professor of Secondary English Education, Oklahoma State University

Reading diverse books can help young adults understand conversations around race better. Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision

With a national debate raging about how – or even if – teachers should discuss race in their classrooms, many educators may find themselves uncertain about how to navigate the subject of race.

Parents may also find it...

NASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland – and whether the planet was ever habitable in the past

Written by Paul K. Byrne, Associate Professor of Planetary Science, North Carolina State University

Two new NASA missions hope to answer important questions about Venus' past.NASA/JPL/USGS

NASA is finally headed back to Venus. On June 2, 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency had selected two winners of its latest Discovery class spacecraft mission competition, and both are headed to the second planet from the Sun.

I’...

Opioid overdoses spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from Pennsylvania show

Written by Brian King, Professor, Department of Geography, Penn State

Since the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in the United States on Jan. 20, 2020, news about infection rates, deaths and pandemic-driven economic hardships has been part of our daily lives.

But there is a knowledge gap in how COVID-19 has affected a public health crisis that existed before the pandemic: the opioid epidemic. Prior to 2020, an...