The New Denial Is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute (Part 3)
This is Part Three of “The New Denial Is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute,” a three-part series examining the Breakthrough Institute and ecomodernism. In Part Two, we discussed their annual meetings to which they invite climate skeptics and Monsanto propagandists, the odd credentials for many of their affiliates, and their promotion of nuclear energy and GMO agriculture as techno-fixes to electrify and feed the world. To start at Part One, click here.
Months after the Breakthrough Institute released their 2015 ecomodernist manifesto, the declaration’s ideological binding started coming unglued. Breakthrough’s Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger met ridicule trying to sell the manifesto at a public event in England, and the duo later parted ways, as Shellenberger founded a new organization called Environmental Progress to publicize nuclear energy. The split has been somewhat acrimonious as both try to br
Can police be taught to stop their own violence?
Bostonâs department and others are adopting a peer-intervention training program. The ideas come from a UMass psychologist who survived the Holocaust, thanks to the help of others.
By Douglas StarrUpdated May 6, 2021, 7:31 a.m.
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Ervin Staub, a professor emeritus at UMass Amherst, is an expert on the science of interventionzack wittman for the boston globe
THE KILLING OF George Floyd is a recurring national nightmare. It played out again during the trial of his murderer, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin â nine minutes and 29 seconds of Chauvin kneeling on Floydâs neck, ignoring Floydâs pleas and the shouts to stop from people nearby. What has been relatively less examined is the behavior of the other officers at the scene: Tou Thao, who stood facing the crowd, stopping people who were trying to help; J. Alexander Kueng, who held Floydâs waist; and Thomas Lane, who held his le
Youth Movement Leader Varshini Prakash to Receive Dickinson College’s Rose-Walters Prize for Environmental Activism
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Dickinson College will present Varshini Prakash, executive director and co-founder of Sunrise Movement, with The Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism.
Varshini Prakash is the recipient of The Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism
“We were just young people who were fed up with seeing politicians kicking the can down the road, sweeping what is the greatest threat facing our generation under the rug and refusing to deal with the reality of the crisis at hand. - Varshini Prakash on NPR s How I Built This.
What follows is conjecture; I’ve no formal training in clinical psychology. Decades ago, waiting for help in an Amherst center bank, my attention was drawn to a customer raging at a teller. The heat and decibels astonished me. I watched. Then, epiphany. Suddenly I realized no bank business could have generated such intensity. I concluded that the customer brought the anger with them and the hapless teller was simply a convenient dumping ground. By training I scoff at certainty based on miniscule evidence, but I’ve learned to trust my intuition. Such trusting began decades ago when I overheard two students arguing and reciprocally insulting so vigorously and so long that I concluded they could not possibly be friends. I wondered why they’d continue to interact? Then intuition whispered that, despite inconsistent physical appearances, they must be siblings. I inquired. Indeed, siblings.
Two graduates recognized as Jack Welch Scholars
May 6, 2021
AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst will honor the exemplary achievement, initiative and leadership of some of its most talented and accomplished graduating seniors during Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies taking place Friday, May 14 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. Four smaller, socially distanced ceremonies will take place at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Ten members of the graduating class will be honored as 21st Century Leaders at Undergraduate Commencement:
Jason Biundo of Burlington, Mass., is a Commonwealth Honors College student who is graduating with degrees in biology and neuroscience. He was named Residential Life Peer Mentor of the Year. In his sophomore year, he joined the Moorman Lab, a neuroscience lab that studies motivation and addiction, and propelled that experience into being accepted into an immersive summer program in computational