By Ryan Johnson The Trump administration hasn’t ruled out increasing the gas tax to help finance a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, but the idea has little support among officials who are wary of a politically risky move heading into the 2020 election. A near doubling of fuel levies wouldn’t be enough to cover the additional […]

By Ryan Johnson The US is a hotbed of climate science denial when compared with other countries, with international polling finding a significant number of Americans do not believe human-driven climate change is occurring. A total of 13% of Americans polled in a 23-country survey conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project agreed with the statement […]

By Ryan Johnson Most of our political evils may be traced to our commercial ones.” – James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1786 When the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in 1787, foremost among their concerns was addressing the growing tendency among states to tax or inhibit their neighbors’ commercial trade. New […]

Climate change is becoming increasingly relevant to central bankers because losses from natural disasters that are magnified by higher temperatures and elevated sea levels could spark a financial crisis, a Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco researcher found. “Climate-related financial risks could affect the economy through elevated credit spreads, greater precautionary saving, and, in the […]

Trump’s environmental policies are putting the health of American children at risk Monterey County, in Northern California, is one of those places that appear to tell a tale of two Americas. The part that runs along the Pacific coastline, from Pebble Beach and Carmel in the north down to Big Sur, is breathtaking and breathtakingly affluent. […]

It doesn’t stop at massive droughts and flooded cities One of the difficulties that many climate models face is predicting the future. Environmental scientists collect tons of data, and in some instances can foretell the level of certain gases in the future. Yet, understanding how the world will respond is tricky. Wind patterns, ocean currents, and […]

I was driving to work this morning with Cindy in the passenger seat next to me. I don’t know who she was referring to when she said, “it annoys me that he doesn’t believe in climate change.” I found myself responding, “I don’t believe in climate change either.” Then I stopped to consider whether that’s […]

Technology and culture exist within a constant state of intertwined expansion. It’s easy to forget that the first iPhone was released in 2007, a mere eleven years ago. Today approximately three billion people [1] use smartphones, about 39% of our total population. Each one of these devices providing access to much of the world’s full […]

Tech titans are portraying a future with more equality, but are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes? The technology industry is preparing for an automation revolution as artificial intelligence is becoming the dominant future trend. We are fully committed as 80% of enterprises have started investing in AI while 61% of businesses have already began implementation. Technology companies […]

By Patrick Hall In a 1986 speech, then president Ronald Reagan lamented that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” This statement epitomizes the neoliberal view of how Silicon Valley became a global beacon of high-technology ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. For followers […]