Social Sciences
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India’s Goldilocks economy
India can’t be complacent, writes Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Signh. An 8% growth rate maintained over the next two decades will be transformative, but policies still need to be enacted or modified.
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Death Row Prisoners Granted Clemency by Biden Brace for “Living Hell” Under Trump
Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has visited ADX and conducted research on solitary confinement for decades, wrote in a declaration as part of the prisoners’ lawsuit, “mentally ill people are more likely to deteriorate and decompensate when they are subjected to the harshness and stress of prison…
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Reintroduced Carnivores’ Impacts on Ecosystems Are Still Coming Into Focus
“It’s not that there’s not evidence consistent with a trophic cascade in Yellowstone,” said Chris Wilmers, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of California Santa Cruz, and the paper’s lead author. “It’s that the effects are a lot more complicated and weaker than what was initially thought.”
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Don’t rush the trails: Conservation must come before recreation
An opinion column in Lookout Santa Cruz cited research by Professor Chris Wilmers on the impacts that the mere presence of people can have on mountain lions.
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New directory helps donors navigate the complex world of global reforestation
Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz evaluated groups across four categories: permanence, ecological, social and financial, each backed by scientific literature on best practices. Karen Holl, a professor at UC Santa Cruz and reforestation expert, told Mongabay. “There was really no standardized way to answer that question.” So how can a tree investor…
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Large Carnivores Are Helping To Balance Ecosystems, But It’s Complicated
The study, led by Christopher Wilmers, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, looked at the findings of more than 170 papers to clarify what we know about the ecological impacts of large carnivore recovery in North America and what mysteries remain.
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Scientists conduct groundbreaking study in Calif.’s Death Valley National Park
The study’s authors have “showed record-breaking heat tolerance,” Michael Loik, an environmental studies professor and agronomist at UC Santa Cruz who was not involved in this study, told SFGATE.
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La porcícola que se come los bosques en el Meta
In the gallery forests of the Orinoquía, wetlands that do not dry out “have enormous potential to help or hinder global efforts to address climate change,” says Scott Winton, a professor at UC Santa Cruz, who discovered that “the average carbon density per area in peatlands is four to ten times greater than in the…
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10 Iconic Food Writers Every Foodie Should Know
Distinguished Professor Emerita of Social Sciences Julie Guthman was recognized among the top food writers for her “balanced and critical exploration of the food systems in modern-day America.”
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Nobel nod to innovation drivers
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh writes that this year’s Nobel Prize in economics provides a reminder of the importance of innovation for material progress and that of openness and competition for innovation.
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H-2A Visas Are Not The Solution to Trump’s Mass Deportation of Farmworkers
Rosa Maria Navarro, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, wrote an opinion article for Time Magazine about farm labor issues and U.S. immigration policy.
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What Santa Cruz voters should know about Measures B and C
Steve McKay, a UC Santa Cruz sociology professor who has researched the city’s housing affordability problem, believes Measure C would help address this issue—in part, by signaling to the state that Santa Cruz is taking real steps to solve its housing crisis.