As I finished up my first year of the Bard CEP program this May, my policy tool-belt seemed full. I knew all this new wonky policy jargon, I understood basic regression analysis, and could tell you a few things about some of the major environmental statutes. I felt prepared to …
“Oh good, you know about EERS policies! So do you know a lot about energy efficiency?” Uh no, no actually I don’t know anything about energy efficiency policies or energy efficiency or what I’m doing here… That is how my first two weeks at NEEP felt. Between writing bill summaries, …
Four weeks ago on June 3, 2013 I started my internship as a Research Assistant at Energy Vision (EV), a national non-profit organization in New York City. EV was created in 2006 to analyze the issues surrounding the nation’s energy and transportation systems and to propose alternatives that do …
I only wanted a simple answer to a simple question. The women in the farming groups I work with have been asking me how to make tofu, or ‘soya kebabs’ as they are called here (it’s always sold cut, fried, and on a stick). After we finished a large soap …
Since its founding, the US has seen its population steadily move from rural to urban environments: the 1790 US Census reported a 95% rural to 5% urban ratio, the 1890 US Census a 28% to 72% ratio, the 2010 US Census a 20% to 80% ratio. While urbanization has produced large-scale economic and …
Finding a common ground for a social movement is essential to collective action, hence, solidarity between those directly affected by the issue at hand (i.e. not having access to pipe borne water) becomes increasingly important as the movement grows. Herein, I will describe a story, that surrounds the idea of …
During my internship at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), my work focused on climate adaptation finance. I was (/am) pondering the question of how to link capital markets with regional climate adaptation. During my research, I came across something known as catastrophe bonds, which were developed after Hurricane Andrew …
On February 25, 2013, I joined Bard students, faculty, staff, and community members packed into Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center to view Deborah Koons Garcia’s documentary Symphony of the Soil. Here is my review. I’ve essentially lost faith in food system and agriculture-related documentaries. More often than not, the dramatic …
The Bard Center for Environmental Policy hosted their annual internship dinner last night to welcome back their second year masters students. The Class of 2013 returned to campus last week to begin their last semester of classes and finish writing their masters level theses. First year Bard CEP students who …
I spent the majority of my five months interning at Development Alternatives (DA) working on two climate adaptation related projects based in the Bundelkhand region of India. One project, a collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, I discussed in a previous CEP Blog entry. In short, the …