In The News

Are We Feeling Collective Grief Over Climate Change?

Margaret Hetherman August 17, 2016
Extreme weather events lead news reports, and changing weather patterns disrupt business and community routines. “The deterioration of our planet – the only home we have ever known and an assurance we used to take for granted – is bound to elicit a wide range of emotions in different individuals,” explains Margaret Hetherman for Scientific American. She interviews forensic psychiatrist Lise Van...

Through the Venezuelan Looking Glass

Ricardo Hausmann August 4, 2016
Despite history’s many warnings about leaders’ erratic behavior ending up in catastrophe, similar stories are unfolding today. Venezuela, despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, is suffering from severe shortages of basic supplies, a crisis that’s the consequence of increasingly absurd government policies, suggests Ricardo Hausmann, economist, Harvard professor and former minister of...

Want Better Cities?

Liz Stinson July 8, 2016
As the global population swelled, people have gravitated to cities. More than half the world’s population now lives in cities, compared to 3 percent in 1800, according to the United Nations. Researchers at Yale and University of Canterbury have plotted 6000 years of urbanization history in an online database with details on size of cities as well as how, when and where they emerged, reports Liz...

The Politics of Memory: Tiananmen at 27

Nick Frisch June 14, 2016
China has transformed since the 1989 crackdown on thousands of protesters in Tiananmen Square who demanded economic, political and social reforms. China’s leaders, initially triumphant about quelling the protests, soon retreated into a disciplined silence, banning public accounts or grieving. “As the years accumulate, the anniversary of the tragedy offers an occasion to wonder if the pursuit of...

Of Two Minds on China

Terry Lautz May 12, 2016
A multitude of internal and external economic and social forces push and pull at China, and author Terry Lautz, a Moynihan Research Fellow at Syracuse University, compares China to a fictional animal with two heads and minds facing opposite ways. “One looks toward openness and reform – freedom of expression, unfettered access to the internet and an independent legal system,” Lautz explains. “The...

Denmark the “Happiest Country” and Burundi the “Least Happy”

March 21, 2016
Wealth and weather may not influence happiness as much as many may assume, and inequality contributes to unhappiness. The UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network ranked 156 countries by analyzing surveys in which people are asked to evaluate their lives on a scale of 1 to 10 and measurements of GDP per capita, social supports, health and life expectancy, freedom to make life choices,...

Filipino Catholic Church Continues to Fight Family Planning

Marilen J. Danguilan January 13, 2016
In 2012, the Philippines enacted the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, providing for family planning. But implementing the law has not been easy with opposition from the Catholic Church. “The law polarized the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, with a growing 100 million population,” writes Marilen J. Danguilan for Asia Sentinel. Opponents have removed funding for...