The Conversation

Restoring land around abandoned oil and gas wells would free up millions of acres of forests, farmlands and grasslands

Written by Matthew D. Moran, Professor of Biology, Hendrix College

A drilling pad for oil and gas in Robinson Township, Penn.Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan proposes to spend US$16 billion plugging old oil and gas wells and cleaning up abandoned mines. But there’s no authoritative measure of how many of these sites exist across the nation.

In a recent...

Bringing tech innovation to wildfires: 4 recommendations for smarter firefighting as megafires menace the US

Written by Natasha Stavros, Director of the Earth Lab Analytics Hub, University of Colorado Boulder

Satellites can quickly detect and monitor wildfires from space, like this 2017 fire that encroached on Ventura, California.NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens

Record-breaking fires over the past decade suggest the western U.S. has entered a new era of megafires.

Fire itself is not the problem – it has been characteristic of the North...

3 ways schools can improve STEM learning for Black students

Written by James Holly Jr., Assistant Professor of Urban STEM Education, Wayne State University

Pro-Black STEM classes can lead to more Black scientists.Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images Plus

Black people make up just 9% of the STEM workforce in the U.S. As a scholar who studies how STEM educators can more effectively reach Black students, I want to help all people develop an understanding of how anti-Black racism is a significant...

Intensive tutoring, longer school days and summer sessions may be needed to catch students up after the pandemic

Written by Thomas Goldring, Director of Research at Georgia Policy Labs, Georgia State University

Some students were 7-8 months behind on average in math and reading.Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to substantial reductions in student learning in metro-Atlanta public elementary and middle schools. What’s...

As more climate migrants cross borders seeking refuge, laws will need to adapt

Written by Katharine M. Donato, Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration, and Director, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University

Migrants hoping to reach the distant U.S. border walk along a highway in Guatemala in January 2021.AP Photo/Sandra Sebastian

Climate change is upending people’s lives around the world, but when droughts, floods or sea level rise force them to leave their countries, people often find closed borders and little assistance.

Part of the problem is...

Emily Wilder and journalism's longstanding Achilles' heel – partisans who cry bias

Written by Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn State

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley – shown yelling – cried bias in the media's coverage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.Library of Congress

When the Associated Press fired Emily Wilder for violating its social media policy, it caused a firestorm in the media industry. Critics noted that the firing came only days after GOP activists...

Mexican president suffers setback in country's deadliest election in decades

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

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Ayahualtempa, Mexico, on June 6, 2021. Hector Vivas/Getty Images

Mexicans turned away from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party in the country’s June 6, 2021, midterm election, widely seen as a referendum on his administration’s self-proclaimed...

Congress considers future of the military draft, while Supreme Court holds off

Written by Max Margulies, Director of Research, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, United States Military Academy West Point

The Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments in the case of National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System. In doing so, it acceded to the Biden administration’s wishes that it not address the question of whether women should join the millions of young men required to register each year with the Selective Service – the...

I'm fully vaccinated – should I keep wearing a mask for my unvaccinated child?

Written by Nancy S. Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, University of Washington

Keeping kids safe is complicated and requires care for both physical and mental health.Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images

Fully vaccinated adults are celebrating their new freedom and removing their face masks. Yet for parents of children under age 12, the rejoicing might be short-lived.

Since children that age do not yet have access to vaccines, the Center...

What the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change – and how drought can uproot peoples and fuel warfare

Written by Andrea Duffy, Director of International Studies, Colorado State University

Drought's effects on the population slowed the Ottoman Empire's expansion in the 16th century.Lessing Archives

In the late 16th century, hundreds of bandits on horseback stormed through the countryside of Ottoman Anatolia raiding villages, inciting violence and destabilizing the sultan’s grip on power

Four hundred years later and a few hundred...