Author: Michael Shank

UN Summit Already Successful: $50 Billion Divested From Fossil Fuels

NATIONAL JOURNAL 09/22/14 By Michael Shank The United Nations climate summit in New York, where I’m writing from this week, is already a success. With Rockefeller Brothers Fund announcing this week that they’re divesting entirely from fossil fuels, pulling $860 million of RBF funds out of fossil fuel stocks, the […]

Fossil Fuel Divestment Makes UN Climate Summit a Success

HUFFINGTON POST 09/22/14 By Michael Shank The United Nations climate summit in New York, where I’m writing from this week, is already a success. With Rockefeller Brothers Fund announcing this week that they’re divesting entirely from fossil fuels, pulling $860 million of RBF funds out of fossil fuel stocks, the […]

Don’t Let China Dominate

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 09/18/14 By Michael Shank, Elena Krieger and Julia Trezona Peek This month’s report on renewable energy markets from the International Energy Agency indicates that by 2020, China will account for almost 40 percent of the growth in renewable energy capacity. The United States, meanwhile, lags […]

Stop the ISIS War Before It Gets Worse!

DAILY BEAST 09/17/14 By Michael Shank and Jeffrey Sachs Earth Institute director Jeffrey Sachs and the Quakers’ Michael Shank call on Obama to stop the airstrikes—and stop supporting anti-Assad rebels. Too many times in recent history the United States has responded militarily to provocations and threats in ways that have resulted […]

Has the Calculus on Climate Talks Changed?

NATIONAL JOURNAL 09/16/14 By Ben Geman and Clare Foran WHAT INSIDERS ARE SAYING HAS THE CALCULUS ON CLIMATE TALKS CHANGED? Is there reason to believe that next year’s U.N. climate negotiations in Paris will succeed where past negotiations have failed? If so, why? Read the question here. “The calculus has […]

Why Congress Needs to Act Now on Super-Pollutants

POLITIX 09/16/14 By Michael Shank As the United Nations convenes world leaders this month in New York to discuss ways to reduce global warming, the United States Senate has the opportunity to discuss the most important lever the U.S. government can pull to cool the planet and make our air […]

Should We Curb Air Pollution From Air Travel?

NATIONAL JOURNAL 09/08/14 By Clare Foran, Ben Geman and Jason Plautz WHAT INSIDERS ARE SAYING SHOULD WE CURB AIR POLLUTION FROM AIR TRAVEL? Should EPA regulate air pollution from the airlines? If so, how strict should the rule be? What are the challenges and risks involved, and how could a […]

Q&A: Rep. Hank Johnson on Ending Police Militarization

ATLANTA MAGAZINE 09/05/14 By Cameron Albert-Deitch  Hank Johnson may have been best known as one of two Buddhists in the House (the other being Hawaii’s Colleen Hanabusa). But the lawmaker, who has served Georgia’s 4th congressional district since 2007, has set his sights on reforming the Department of Defense’s 1033 […]

Fossil Fuel Divestment Works in Slowing Global Warming

HUFFINGTON POST 09/02/14 By Michael Shank and Julia Trezona Peek Once the lone province of climate scientists, the chorus warning of the costs of inaction on climate change grows larger daily, from former United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who warned Washington this summer of the coming climate bubble, to […]