2010 Global Sustainability Summer School-Op-Ed

2010 Global Sustainability Summer School Home U.S. Visa Requirements Travel Logistics Faculty Participants Schedule Lectures Slides Supplemental Readings Suggested By Participants Tutorials Debates Op-Ed Topics After Hours Photos Blog Projects & Working Groups Research Agendas

This page is intended for op-ed topics and discussion.

Jackman's Idea: Every year big box stores are built on acres of formerly fertile farm land to both the detriment and benefit of small communities. Every year many of those box stores fail or relocate, primarily for expansion. With the failure or departure of these store, we are left with rural "big box-store blight" - huge, unusable buildings and acres of paved, impermeable surfaces that mar the landscape. Upon abandoning retail locations, I think that box store retailers such as Walmart, Whole Foods, Kmart, Krogers, and many others have an obligation to restore the landscape to its original condition or renovate the buildings and parking lots to accommodate other (non-box store) uses. In an op-ed I would like to motivate the necessity for this policy as well as provide suggestions as to how this might be achieved. I expect that these methods will provide disincentives for some box-stores to locate in areas with this requirement, but this is not the objective. Rather, the objectives are to 1) motivate box-stores to locate carefully, 2) discourage them from moving for the purposes of expansion, and 3) maintain the environmental, social, and community value of the landscape.
Perhaps not exactly to the point, but an interesting Ted video about reclaiming and retrofitting suburbia.

Way to go Duke... some helpful tips for writing and getting your op-ed published

Strumsky's Idea: Education and Irrationality: The solution offered for many major social problems is that we can educate our way out of them. This strikes me about as viable as being able to invent our way out of problems. There are too many examples of people having a clear, well informed understanding of a problem and they do not dispute the facts or data, yet choosing the irrational option (or to use game theory, selecting non-dominant strategies). The examples are everywhere; obesity is well understood, the facts and consequences for people’s health is not in dispute, yet obesity and its health consequences are on the rise - not just in the US, but globally. We can go on and on, alcoholism, drinking and driving, smoking, positions against healthcare reform by the individuals who are ill and uninsured. If we can not educate our way out of problems what do we do? We need another option.

M. K. Dorsey's Op-Ed Ideas, Some Old Ones & Pithy Strategic Banter

Drafts

Op/Ed Draft: "Owning coastal property might put you on the rocks" - Eli Lazarus
Op/Ed Published: Eli in the [Portland Press Herald] (Portland, Maine), 30 July 2010

Op/Ed Draft: "A Tale of Violence" - Anita Carrasco

Op/Ed Draft: "Big Box Store Slight" - Dana Jackman

Op/Ed Draft: "Fearing Fear Itself" - Caleb Gallemore

Op/Ed Draft: "Rare Earth Supply Faces Dramatic Decrease: Disaster or Opportunity?" - Hongtao Yi

Op/Ed Draft: "Bike Lanes or BP?" - John Baker (Note: I could use help with a better title. Suggestions? ‎

Op/Ed Draft: "Live, Learn, and Thrive" - Yao Yin ‎‎

Op/Ed Draft: "The False Promises of Shale Gas" - Joe Cresko ‎

Let the river in! - Dana Coelho
‎
Op/Ed Draft: Strong stands against natural gas drilling in PA - Maria Dillard

Sweden should aim for zero carbon as quickly as possible - David Bryngelsson

OpEd Draft: Further criticism of the airport expansion in the light of the coming taxation of airline tickets - Therese Hertel

OpEd Draft: "Why not only Mr Schäuble should by happy about the aviation levy" - Veronika Huber

Op/Ed Draft: "Time is right for reform of national accounts" - Stephen Posner

Op/Ed Draft: "Biofuels - size matters" - Christian Casillas

Op/Ed Draft: "Wait a minute electric car. We're making real progress here." - Hitesh Soneji

Op/Ed Draft: "Massachusetts Leading the Way in the Energy Revolution?" - Gabe Chan

Op/Ed Draft: "Supporting Generation "E"" - Shirley Papuga

Op/Ed Draft "Carbon Markets Need Oversight"-version 4.0 - M. K. Dorsey

Op/Ed Draft "Call to Action for New England’s Future Energy Direction" - A. M. James