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Global warming: where economics and ecology face off
As nations across the planet come to grips with the realities of global warming, power plants that burn fossil fuel and send carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are regarded as probably the single most significant human contributors to the problem. At the same time, the world depends on the energy they produce. Among the engineers, scientists, academics, politicians, and CEOs who are seeking solutions to the power plant challenge is Professor Peter Reinelt, above, who teaches economics at SUNY Fredonia. He studies the economics of investing in new power plants when decision-makers are surrounded by regulatory uncertainty. So far, governments, especially at the federal level, have not committed themselves to legislation that would limit how much carbon dioxide plants are allowed to release. “No one wants the climate to change, obviously,” Dr. Reinelt said. “There’s really only one reason the government and industry aren’t racing to stop carbon emissions, and that’s the perceived cost.”
Is slavery the world's oldest trade?
Slavery in ancient Egypt Slavery is not a pleasant subject. The suffering of slaves and the brutality of slavery is a black page writ large in American history, and most SUNY Fredonia freshmen come into Markus Vink’s history classes carrying powerful images of slavery as it was practiced in their own country in the 19th century. But, in his research seminar, Dr. Vink takes them on a different journey across time and space. He directs their attention eastward across the Atlantic, across the continent of Africa and into the world of the early modern Indian Ocean. He points them back to a time earlier than the American colonies. Here they find a world in which slaves are already ubiquitous, and where the practice of slavery is traditional. His research has traced slavery as far back as 1500 B.C.E., to the beginnings of (recorded) history and to the times of stateless peoples, hunter-gatherers, and pastoral nomads. Since then, a steady stream of captive humanity continued to flow through the rise and fall of empires, sultanates, confederations and kingdoms “Slavery,” Dr. Vink maintains, “is the world’s oldest trade.”
Geosciences riding crest of new gas boom
Technology is making the difference in modern gas exploration. Dr. Lash studies data from a well already drilled for clues to subsurface characteristics in Western...
The next level of air quality modeling
With a research grant of $80,000 through the Great Lakes Air Deposition (GLAD) program, Dr. Sherri Mason (chemistry) is collaborating with the State Department of...
James Piorkowski
James Piorkowski James Piorkowski (School of Music) will perform the song, "The Greatest of These," which he composed for mixed choir and guitar, during the...
Alberto Rey
Paintings by Alberto Rey (Visual Arts and New Media), along with an interview of the artist, were featured in the June exhibition at the Art...
William Brown study of praying mantids' sexual cannibalism
Dr. Bill Brown Even the Swedish punk band, Frantic Mantis, posted the news on its website: a SUNY Fredonia study showed that praying mantids are...