Commentaries from Foreign Affairs address matters related to Earth Science

I wouldn't normally recommend writing a current event on a commentary, because a commentary, like an editorial, is meant to express the opinions of the authors, and does not purport to be unbiased. However, this month's issue of Foreign Affairs, addressed the fracking and shale boom, and this topic has been of interest to a number of students this year. There was also a good commentary on developing low or zero-emission cars, and the state of nuclear power in this country.

Some student reports posted this year on related topics include Kaitlin Ryan's “As Quakes Shake Oklahoma, Scientists Eye Oil and Gas Industry," Arman Vranka's report on "Fracking Wastewater Radioactive and Contaminated, Study Finds." The problem of nuclear waste storage was looked into by both Tim Weir and Caroline Colavita as they reported on the same article which explroed the possibility of storing nuclear waste in desert salt beds, and their reports can be found here and here. 

The problem of long-term clean energy solutions and the politics and economics of energy are huge issues facing the 21st century. Is fracking the solution? What are the risks? Can we build a zero-emission car? What about nuclear energy, is it a viable option? 

If you are interested in these topics, I can suggest the following commentaries as possible current event reports for this month:

Krupp, F. (2014, May). Don't Just Drill, Baby -- Drill Carefully How to Making Fracking Safer for the Environment. . Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141204/fred-krupp/dont-just-drill-baby-drill-carefully

Levinson, D. (2014, May). Electric Avenue How to Make Zero-Emissions Cars Go Mainstream. . Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141205/david-m-levinson/electric-avenue

 Peterson, P., Laufer, M., & Blandford, E. (2014, May). Nuclear Freeze Why Nuclear Power Stalled -- and How to Restart It. . Retrieved May 3, 2014, from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141206/per-f-peterson-michael-r-laufer-and-edward-d-blandford/nuclear-freeze

To chose one of these articles, you have to create an account with Foreign Affairs, or you can log into Edline, and under "Class Materials" you will find scanned pdfs of the articles. Since these are commentaries, and not news articles per se, please keep in mind that there may be some bias, and you may want to look at the affiliated institutions of the authors. Even so, I thought these were good articles and appropriate for current event reports.