Politics isn’t a sport. Yet we keep treating it that way.

Politics shouldn’t be about winning and beating the other side

People who love sports will often use phrases like “We beat them!” or “We won!” when talking about an opposing team. Except they always use the wrong pronoun. It’s not we; it’s they. You’re not on the team, so therefore you didn’t win anything. Nor does the team actually care about you, unless of course you’re buying tickets to see their games or buying their merchandise.

In America, politics has taken on this form of a team sport. The Republicans vs. the Democrats. Talk about a rivalry! Folks from either side can barely stand one another at this point. …

The one question that is never asked in any presidential debate — and probably never will

Foreign policy loses the spotlight

The third presidential debate is scheduled for today and the announced topics will cover the pandemic, race relations, climate change, national security, leadership, and families. In the past though, the final debate has typically focused on foreign policy. With all these topics to cover in today’s debate, foreign policy won’t receive as much attention as it normally would.

This is a shame as foreign policy is incredibly important, especially when it comes to the powers of the president. Understandably, there is less interest from the American public on foreign policy this year with a pandemic still raging out of control and the subsequent economic calamity it has unleashed. …

The fate of humanity rests on collective decision-making based on both sound scientific and moral judgement.

The devil wears many disguises

Imagine the following scenario:

A priest and a climate scientist are debating whether climate change can be attributed to human activity. The priest tells you that humans aren’t affecting the global climate and what we’re experiencing is just due to natural phenomena of which humans have no control. The climate scientist tells you that humans are affecting the global climate through emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity.

Who would you believe?

Now, put your shoes into the mindset of a highly religious individual who values their faith above all else. …

A life spent traveling the natural world only to see the natural world reduced to a fraction of what it once was

“This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world.” — David Attenborough, A Life On Our Planet

Seeing the world change around you

The opening scene of A Life On Our Planet is of the desolate wasteland of what was once the city of Pripyat in the Soviet Union (what is now located in Ukraine). The explosion at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986 led to the spread of radioactive particles that traveled hundreds of miles and, by some estimates, caused 90,000 deaths. …

The futile search for America’s historical greatness

In one sentence, Republican politicians say, “Make America Great Again.” In the next, they say, “America is the greatest nation on Earth.”

Wait, but don’t those statements contradict each other?

How can you make a country great again if it is already the greatest?

Contradictions aside, both claims seemed completely false and lacked evidence to back them up. To be certain though, I decided to go on a search for America’s historical greatness to try to validate such claims. As you might expect, I came up empty.

The search didn’t take long to conduct because it was almost immediately obvious that America wasn’t great at its most basic and fundamental level. …

A physical border can’t keep out millions of climate refugees. But what’s the alternative?

“For the poor, boundaries don’t really matter. When they have to survive, they will scale any boundaries. They’ll go over them, through them, or under them, because poverty does not recognize boundaries.” — Venkateswar Ramaswamy, Indian community activist supporting climate refugees from Bangladesh

Climate change — a threat multiplier

Immigration has always been a hot-button issue in America, and will only become hotter in a warming world.

The impacts of climate change are falling disproportionately on those in the Global South (i.e., Africa, Latin America, and regions of the Middle East and Asia) that fall under the umbrella of developing countries. …

As California grapples with unprecedented wildfires, our ability to combat both future wildfires and climate change will be tougher

This isn’t a normal fire season

There are over 585 wildfires burning throughout California right now covering a total area of almost a million acres. Several of these fires were started by lightning strikes that hit parts of Northern California on Wednesday.

The fires are being fueled by severe heatwaves and extremely dry conditions. Many locations throughout California have broken temperature records in recent days with many in the triple digits like Death Valley’s 130°F record, not seen since 1913, and Oakland hitting 100°F for the first time in August, tying its all-time high temperature record from September 28, 2010.

A significant percentage of California is currently experiencing drought ranging from abnormally dry to extreme, as can be seen in the graphic below. Although the drought isn’t as severe as the 2012 to 2017 period, it’s still enough to increase the severity of this year’s wildfire season. …

Gen Z is graduating into some of the worst economic, environmental, and health conditions simultaneously

To all the recent high school and college graduates, congratulations! All those all-nighters you pulled to cram studying for final exams, brutal practice sessions for that sport your parents made you play, and clubs you joined just so you could have something to put on your college application or resume have finally paid off!

Well, if you’re not a recent college grad that is, who just realized that they now have a mountain of debt to pay off if they took out student loans. …