Emily

A Conversation with Chuck

Creative Health Food Store is a small store on 108th and Broadway, sandwiched between the row of small stores that occupy the first story of The Manhasset, a century-plus old apartment building that occupies the block. I started shopping there in my senior year at Columbia because I was getting into beans and out of… Continue reading A Conversation with Chuck

Project Pack Out

Over the past year or so, I’ve gotten much more aware of the trash problem. But even as I compost, buy my food in bulk, and wouldn’t be caught dead with a disposable coffee cup, it’s still all too easy to order a packaged delivered, grab an office snack, and let the associated garbage vanish… Continue reading Project Pack Out

I Got A Job, So Time to Offer Career Advice

Alternative title: things I think I learned about job and career searching in college. First, Why I Am Qualified to Give Advice Well, I’m not. But I did have An Experience that I am pretty proud of having gone through. I had a non-ideal internship stack up (not a single internship in the industry my… Continue reading I Got A Job, So Time to Offer Career Advice

Carlin’s Straw Environmentalist

When I was in my teens, like maybe around age 14, it really annoyed me to hear about “saving the planet.” I thought it was faulty messaging. “People don’t care about trees and icebergs!” I’d think. “People care about people! So let’s emphasize that we’re trying to save OURSELVES, not the planet! People aren’t motivated… Continue reading Carlin’s Straw Environmentalist

I Didn’t Fly in 2022

The last time I flew was September 4th, 2021, to get to college for the start of my senior year. That’s 479 days ago. That fall, I made the decision to stop flying for at least one year. Why? Because flying airplanes emits emits a massive amount of greenhouse gases. I’d been vaguely aware for… Continue reading I Didn’t Fly in 2022

What’s the Plan for Plastic? (Pt. I)

I’m excited to share the first part of a deep dive I’ve been working on for the past two months (hence the lack of #content lately). Enjoy! The ubiquity of plastic is hard to overstate. You might wake up, squeeze some toothpaste out of a polyethylene tube onto the nylon bristles of a polypropylene toothbrush,… Continue reading What’s the Plan for Plastic? (Pt. I)

The State of U.S. Energy in 5 Graphs

I wanted to make a version of my previous post but focusing exclusively on the US. So, here’s the state of energy in the United States in 5 figures. All charts are made by me unless otherwise cited, and data sources are cited. Primary energy consumption by source and sector Primary energy is the energy… Continue reading The State of U.S. Energy in 5 Graphs

The State of Energy in Five Graphs

I think it’s important to know some basic facts about energy. Here are the five favorite figures I’ve collected for this, some made by me. 1: Global primary energy consumption by source[1] World energy consumption has increased dramatically in recent history, a trend that’s more exponential than linear. There’s an ~800% increase since 1950, mainly… Continue reading The State of Energy in Five Graphs

Hydrogen Energy Explainer

My research involves hydrogen, so by now I’ve given a spiel explaining the whole point of hydrogen a couple times. I’ve had to explain it to myself too: at the start of my research, I made a PowerPoint to organize all the basic facts for myself. This is a written-up version of that, intended as… Continue reading Hydrogen Energy Explainer

Mini-Review: All Possible Views…Are Wild by Holden Karnofsky

This is a response to “All Possible Views About Humanity’s Future Are Wild,” a blog post by Holden Karnofsky. In this post, Karnofsky explains why he thinks “all possible views about humanity’s future are wild.” The argument is a little winding. He says that it seems “wild” that humans will eventually colonize the galaxy, but… Continue reading Mini-Review: All Possible Views…Are Wild by Holden Karnofsky