tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/2017-essential-reads-47732/articles2017 Essential Reads – The Conversation2017-12-21T14:21:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/887472017-12-21T14:21:28Z2017-12-21T14:21:28ZWhy 2017 was so terrible for Mexico: 8 essential reads<p>With three runaway governors, two deadly earthquakes and one Donald J. Trump – not to mention an average 69 murders a day – the past year has been rough on Mexico. </p>
<p>As Americas editor, it has been my job to bring expert analysis of these painful events to an international audience throughout 2017. Admittedly, it wasn’t my favorite task: I have lived and worked in Mexico on several occasions, and it’s hard to see a country that feels like home struggle so much. </p>
<p>So, to commemorate the end of a very bad year, here are seven articles that lay out why 2017 was so terrible for Mexico — plus one slightly rosier perspective. </p>
<h2>1 and 2. Donald Trump</h2>
<p>On Jan. 21, 2017, the United States inaugurated as president a man who throughout his campaign attacked Mexico on Twitter and in person. </p>
<p>So it was unsurprising when, six days into his administration, Donald Trump’s first international crisis was <a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-diplomacy-how-trump-is-using-social-media-to-spur-a-crisis-with-mexico-71981">a diplomatic standoff with Mexico</a>. </p>
<p>It all played out – where else? – on Twitter. After signing a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, the U.S. president threatened to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement, tweeting that Mexico had “taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough.”</p>
<p>President Enrique Peña Nieto, who had previously welcomed candidate Trump to Mexico, stayed calm early on. At first Peña Nieto’s plan for dealing with the U.S. president’s belligerence was “to respond to his hostility with conciliatory gestures and goodwill,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-mexico-deal-with-the-donald-71067">says political commentator Carlos Bravo Regidor</a>.</p>
<p>But then Trump tweeted that he would cancel an upcoming meeting with Peña Nieto if Mexico refused to fund the construction of a “badly needed” southern border wall.</p>
<p>“Even for mild Peña Nieto this was too much,” comments Luís Gómez Romero, a political scientist at Australia’s University of Wollongong. Mexico’s president canceled his meeting with Trump on Jan. 26 – not with a press conference but, yes, via Twitter. </p>
<h2>3. Two earthquakes</h2>
<p>Nature brought chaos to Mexico in 2017, too. In September, the country was rocked by deadly twin earthquakes. </p>
<p>The first, a magnitude-8.2 Sept. 7 quake, was the strongest to hit Mexico in a century. It killed nearly 100 people in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-seismologists-didnt-see-mexicos-deadly-earthquake-coming-83865">an area previously thought to be seismically inactive</a>.</p>
<p>“The Tehuantepec region is actually one of the few parts of Mexico’s Pacific coast that had never suffered a major earthquake,” commented seismologist Luis Quintanar Robles, of Mexico’s National Autonomous University, after the disaster. Previously, scientists believed the Tehuantepec gap to be aseismic, or unlikely to cause a quake.</p>
<p>Weeks later, Mexico City was convulsed by a second earthquake, which toppled thousands of buildings and killed over 350 people. It was the country’s deadliest earthquake since a 1985 killer caused some 15,000 to 30,000 casualties in and around Mexico City.</p>
<h2>4. Rampant corruption</h2>
<p>Donald Trump wasn’t the only politician giving Mexicans a headache in 2017, <a href="https://theconversation.com/governors-gone-wild-mexico-faces-a-lost-generation-of-corrupt-leaders-76858">says Luís Gómez Romero</a>. Three state governors were arrested abroad while trying to escape justice. </p>
<p>Among them was Roberto Borge of Quintana Roo, home to the tourist mecca of Cancun. In June, he was apprehended in Panama after fleeing accusations of, among other crimes, using thugs to drive people out of beachfront hotels after illegally seizing the properties.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte was detained for not only allegedly stealing almost US$3 billion from his home state but also for allegedly diverting health funds meant for children with cancer. </p>
<p>“Rather than receive the chemotherapy medication Avastin, the children were dispensed distilled water,” Gómez Romero explains.</p>
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<p>By fall 2017, he says, fully 11 of Mexico’s 32 governors were under investigation or fighting prosecution for corruption. On Dec. 20, a high-profile ally of President Enrique Peña Nieto was arrested on charges of campaign-finance embezzlement.</p>
<p>Public malfeasance is “pretty old news in Mexico,” Gómez Romero says. But “by any measure, graft in Mexico has reached stunning new highs this year.”</p>
<h2>5. Record violence</h2>
<p>Homicides did, too. With 20,878 murders reported by November, 2017 is officially Mexico’s deadliest year since such data was first published in 1997.</p>
<p>On average, 69 people are murdered and 13 “disappear” daily in Mexico. In one particularly bloody month, October 2017, there were 2,371 murders in 31 days. </p>
<p>“This nightmare of unremitting violence is inflicted by both criminal organizations and agents of the Mexican state,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-mexico-actually-the-worlds-second-most-murderous-nation-77897">writes Gómez Romero</a>, who attributes the country’s high homicide rates to the government’s 11-year war on drug cartels.</p>
<h2>6. Soldiers gone wild</h2>
<p>To tackle crime, in December Congress approved legislation allowing the Mexican military to take over law enforcement duties. Security analysts and human rights advocates strongly opposed the Internal Security Law, saying it will only increase casualties.</p>
<p>When the idea was first floated back in April, Gómez Romero wrote a <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexicos-military-is-a-lethal-killing-force-should-it-really-be-deployed-as-police-75521">scathing assessment</a> that credited the military – a “lethal killing force” – for the drug war’s already unacceptable death toll. </p>
<p>After the Internal Security Law’s hasty congressional approval in December, which has triggered protest in the country, Gómez Romero commented that “the militarization of Mexico [is] a painful episode” for Mexico.</p>
<h2>7. Political disarray</h2>
<p>Violence and corruption have turned many Mexicans against President Peña Nieto, whose approval rating hit 26 percent by November 2017. This voter anger is shaking up Mexico’s 2018 presidential campaign, <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-angry-voters-reject-major-parties-mexicos-2018-presidential-race-grows-chaotic-86040">notes pollster Salvador Vázquez del Mercado</a>. </p>
<p>“Mexico’s 2018 campaign season has not officially begun, but the race for the presidency is already a nail-biter, featuring a powerful ruling party, dozens of independent aspirants…and very strange bedfellows,” he observes. </p>
<p>To defeat Peña Nieto’s incumbent PRI party, numerous right- and left-wing parties have teamed up to form coalitions that Vázquez del Mercado calls “ideologically incoherent.” </p>
<p>Resistance to these strange alliances, both within parties and among the citizenry, has been fierce.</p>
<h2>8. Economic ups and downs</h2>
<p>Concern about the Trump presidency also unsettled Mexico’s economy. The peso dropped 15 percent after the U.S. election, hitting a modern historic low value of 21.95 pesos to the U.S. dollar by late January 2017. It took six months to recover.</p>
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<p>Mexico’s economy has suffered from Trump’s attacks on NAFTA, which he has called “the worst trade deal ever.” Talks are now underway to renegotiate the 33-year-old agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.</p>
<p>While Mexico has benefited hugely from reduced tariffs on its exports to neighbors, reshaping NAFTA may <a href="https://theconversation.com/reshaping-nafta-could-be-good-for-mexicos-economy-and-brazils-and-argentinas-too-76204">actually have some upsides for the country</a>, say Asit Biswas and Cecelia Torjada of the Institute for Water Policy at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.</p>
<p>NAFTA has been good for American farmers but rough on their Mexican counterparts, depressing domestic agricultural production. That, in turn, has endangered Mexico’s ability to grow enough of its own food.</p>
<p>Fearing a NAFTA repeal, the country is now diversifying its trading partners, offering U.S.-style favorable terms to Argentina, Brazil and other major agricultural exporters. It is also trying to help Mexican farmers produce more crops.</p>
<p>“Mexico has more policy options than it thinks,” say Biswas and Torjada of a NAFTA rewrite. “And it may have less to lose than its northern neighbor.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Three runaway governors. Two deadly earthquakes. One Donald J. Trump. Here’s why the past year hasn’t been the kindest to Mexico.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892612017-12-21T14:20:47Z2017-12-21T14:20:47ZWith science under siege in 2017, scientists regrouped and fought back: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199506/original/file-20171215-17878-iqytoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=242%2C23%2C4789%2C3002&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You can't keep a good scientist down.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/nKNrOZ5MXZY">Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>2017 may well be remembered as the year of alternative facts and fake news. Truth took a hit, and experts seemed to lose the public’s trust. Scientists felt under siege as the Trump administration <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-guerrilla-archivists-saved-history-and-are-doing-it-again-under-trump-72346">purged information from government websites</a>, appointed <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-politicians-think-they-know-better-than-scientists-and-why-thats-so-dangerous-72548">inexperienced or adversarial individuals</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-administrations-zeal-to-peel-back-regulations-is-leading-us-to-another-era-of-robber-barons-84961">to science-related posts</a> and left <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-a-us-president-settle-on-his-science-policy-69953">important advisory positions</a> empty. Researchers braced for cuts to federally funded science.</p>
<p>So where did that leave science and its supporters? Here we spotlight five stories from our archive that show how scholars took stock of where scientists stand in this new climate and various ways to consider the value their research holds for society.</p>
<h2>1. A risk to standing up for science</h2>
<p>In April, the March for Science mobilized more than a million protesters worldwide to push back against what they saw as attacks on science and evidence-based policy. But some people in the research community <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-at-risk-if-scientists-dont-think-strategically-before-talking-politics-63797">worried about a downside</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-scientists-engage-in-activism-72234">scientists being perceived as advocates</a>.</p>
<p>Emily Vraga, assistant professor in political communication at George Mason University, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-march-for-science-participants-advocate-without-losing-the-publics-trust-76205">put the conundrum this way</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“On one hand, scientists have relevant expertise to contribute to conversations about public policy…. On the other hand, scientists who advocate may risk losing the trust of the public.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maintaining that trust is imperative for scientists, both to be able to communicate public risks appropriately and to preserve public funding for research, she wrote.</p>
<p>Vraga and her colleagues’ research suggests that scientists don’t lose credibility when they advocate for policies based on their expertise. But there’s a distinction to be made between advocacy and mere partisanship – statements motivated by the science are received differently than if they’re perceived as driven by political beliefs.</p>
<h2>2. Rhetorical tools at the ready</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199722/original/file-20171218-27591-17bzy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesting is one thing, communicating a message is another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Cedric Rock Smith</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the feeling that there’s a “war on science” afoot, savvy scientists are thinking about how to defend their work. University of Washington professor of communication Leah Ceccarelli says they can <a href="https://theconversation.com/defending-science-how-the-art-of-rhetoric-can-help-68210">look toward the field of rhetoric</a> for help in how to get their messages across. She writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Before dismissing this recommendation as a perverse appeal to slink into the mud or take up the corrupted weapons of the enemy, keep in mind that in academia, ‘rhetoric’ does not mean rank falsehoods, or mere words over substance.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s about building persuasive arguments, built on solid foundations, she says. Rhetoricians study effective communication – and they’re happy to open their toolbox to scientists.</p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-a-scientific-message-across-means-taking-human-nature-into-account-70634">science of science communication</a> is becoming a hot area of inquiry, as practitioners <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-gorilla-suits-and-blowfish-fallacies-have-to-do-with-climate-change-72560">investigate and disseminate</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/communicating-climate-change-focus-on-the-framing-not-just-the-facts-73028">various techniques</a> for effectively <a href="https://theconversation.com/inoculation-theory-using-misinformation-to-fight-misinformation-77545">spreading accurate scientific information</a>.</p>
<h2>3. What you miss out on when science gets cut</h2>
<p>Scientists are always scrambling to secure funding for their research, and during the first year of the Trump administration, it seemed science projects were consistently on the budget chopping block. </p>
<p>Christopher Keane, the vice president for research at Washington State University, made the case that federal funding for science ultimately <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-federal-budget-funds-scientific-research-its-the-economy-that-benefits-80651">revs up regional economies</a>, particularly when scholars within academia join forces with entrepreneurs in the private sector:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<a href="http://www.sciencecoalition.org/downloads/AMI_v3_4-17-17.pdf">Thousands of companies</a> can trace their roots to federally funded university research. And since the majority of federally funded research takes place <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/82xx/doc8221/06-18-research.pdf">at America’s research universities</a> – often in concert with federal labs and private research partners – these spinoff companies are often located in their local communities all across the country.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>4. Slashing science projects hurts workers</h2>
<p>Ohio State University economist Bruce Weinberg described how <a href="http://iris.isr.umich.edu">a unique data set</a> allowed him and his colleagues to <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-feels-the-pain-of-science-research-budget-cuts-75119">actually follow the money</a> on federally funded scientific research. Using administrative data, they were able to identify everyone paid to work on a research project, not just the few who appear as authors on any culminating journal articles.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This is valuable because we’re able to identify students and staff, who may be less likely to author papers than faculty and postdocs but who turn out to be an important part of the workforce on funded research projects. It’s like taking into account everyone who works in a particular store, not just the manager and owner.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The majority of people employed on research projects turn out to be somewhere in the training pipeline, whether undergraduates, graduate students or postdocs.</p>
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<p>And to do all that work, Weinberg points out, labs need to purchase everything from “computers and software, to reagents, medical imaging equipment or telescopes, even to lab mice and rats.” Cut the federal funding for science and the economic effects will ripple out far beyond just university science buildings.</p>
<h2>5. Basic research powers later patents</h2>
<p>Skeptics may wonder: What’s the big deal? So we take a few years off from funding some basic research. Does basic research really matter? <a href="https://theconversation.com/tracing-the-links-between-basic-research-and-real-world-applications-82198">As Northwestern University’s Benjamin F. Jones and Mohammad Ahmadpoor put it</a>, the:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“‘ivory tower’ view of academic endeavors suggests that science is an isolated activity that rarely pays off in practical application. Related is the idea that marketplace innovation rarely relies on the work of universities or government labs.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But is that right? To find out if basic research actually does lead to usable practical advances, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam9527">designed a study to investigate</a> the links between patentable inventions and scientific research. Jones and Ahmadpoor created a “social network” style map, which connects patents and science papers using the reference citations in each. They found that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Among research articles that receive at least one citation, a full 80 percent could be linked forward to a future patent. Meanwhile, 61 percent of patents linked backward to at least one research article.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s impossible to predict which basic research projects will be important in the marketplace, but they wrote that a very high share of scientific research does link “forward to usable practical advances. Most of the linkages are indirect, showing the manifold and unexpected ways” in which basic research can ultimately pay off.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
President Trump’s first year was a rough one for scientists and others who value truth and expertise. Many rallied to the cause, while others used research to make the case for the value of science.Maggie Villiger, Senior Science + Technology EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892622017-12-21T14:20:18Z2017-12-21T14:20:18ZCreating a sustainable future: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199482/original/file-20171215-17863-17ib8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even pocket parks in cities (Duane Park in Lower Manhattan, pictured here) can shelter wildlife. Read below for ideas about urban biodiversity and other green innovations.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Tribeca_duane_park.jpg">Aude</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Much news about the environment in 2017 focused on controversies over Trump administration actions, such as proposals to promote more use of coal and budget cuts at relevant federal agencies. At the same time, however, many scholars across the United States are pursuing innovations that could help create a more sustainable world. Here we spotlight five examples from our 2017 archives.</p>
<h2>1. Restoring the Rio Grande</h2>
<p>Although many Americans may not realize it, the United States and Mexico work together on many environmental issues along their joint border, including drinking water, sanitation and flood control. Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-vision-for-the-us-mexico-border-make-the-rio-grande-grand-again-73111">proposes a bolder vision</a>: greening the entire Rio Grande Valley, which forms more than half of the border. </p>
<p>Restoring vegetation along the river and creating more green space along both sides would help improve river flow and water quality, Montemayor writes. And it could make the border region an attraction that brings Mexicans and Americans together: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“As the Rio Grande advances to the Gulf of Mexico, it cuts through incredibly valuable, beautiful and remote landscapes, including Big Bend National Park in Texas and the Cañon de Santa Elena, Ocampo, and Maderas del Carmen reserves in Mexico. Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the world’s richest cultures.”</p>
</blockquote>
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<span class="caption">View of Tule Canyon and the Rio Grande from Burro Bluff, Big Bend National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/rigr/planyourvisit/lower_cyns.htm">National Park Service</a></span>
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<h2>2. Making jet fuel from sugarcane</h2>
<p>Jet airplane travel is one of the world’s fastest-growing greenhouse gas emissions sources. For this and other reasons, including concerns about oil price spikes, there is growing interest in producing jet fuel from nonpetroleum sources. </p>
<p>Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on making <a href="https://theconversation.com/jet-fuel-from-sugarcane-its-not-a-flight-of-fancy-84493">jet fuel from sugarcane</a>, an abundant and low-cost source. But they are doing it with a twist. Instead of fermenting cane juice into an alcohol-based fuel, as Brazil already does for motor vehicles, they have engineered the cane to produce oil that can be used to make biodiesel. </p>
<p>This engineered version, which they call lipidcane, could become a lucrative crop. “We calculate that growing lipidcane containing 20 percent oil would be five times more profitable per acre than soybeans, the main feedstock currently used to make biodiesel in the United States, and twice as profitable per acre as corn,” the authors write. They also are engineering it to be more cold tolerant so that it can be grown on marginal land in the southeastern United States. </p>
<h1>3. A legal right to a clean environment</h1>
<p>Are all humans <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-a-healthy-environment-a-human-right-testing-the-idea-in-appalachia-80372">entitled to live in a clean and healthy environment</a>? West Virginia University legal researcher Nicholas Stump and his colleagues are exploring this proposal in a challenging setting: Appalachia, where mining and logging have severely damaged the environment and polluted the air, water and soil. Appalachia is well-suited for a bottom-up, critically informed approach that focuses on human rights at the grassroots level, he writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Discussing rights at the local level will give people opportunity to describe specific harms they have experienced from activities such as mountaintop removal and fracking. It also will help to promote participatory democracy for citizens who have long been denied real self-determination.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This work is part of West Virginia University’s new <a href="https://aji.law.wvu.edu/home">Appalachian Justice Initiative</a>, which will include research, advocacy and direct legal services and outreach to Appalachian communities. “Our goal is to help people in our region call for laws and actions that actually guarantee the right to a healthy Appalachian environment,” Stump explains.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Appalachia residents protest mountaintop removal coal mining in Washington DC, May 8, 2013.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h1>4. Stemming world hunger with marine microalgae</h1>
<p>Feeding a growing world population sustainably in the coming decades will be a major environmental challenge. Large-scale farm production pollutes air and water, generates greenhouse gas emissions and degrades soil. </p>
<p>William Moomaw, professor of international environmental policy at Tufts University, and Asaf Tzachor, a Ph.D. candidate at University College London, see marine microalgae as <a href="https://theconversation.com/micro-solutions-for-a-macro-problem-how-marine-algae-could-help-feed-the-world-85702">a key untapped resource</a>. These tiny organisms live in fresh and salt water, and form the base of marine food chains. They are the sources of the omega-3 fatty acids and amino acids that humans get by eating fish. Moomaw and Tzachor call for “cutting out the middle fish” and developing foods based directly on microalgae.</p>
<p>“Most algae-based products are marketed in the United States as dietary supplements, but we believe the time has arrived to introduce algae-based foods to the dining table,” they write.</p>
<p>Microalgae can be grown in open ponds or sealed tubes in a laboratory. Moomaw and Tzachor calculate that producing one kilogram of beef-sourced essential amino acids would require 148,000 liters of freshwater and 125 square meters of fertile land. In contrast, producing the same amount from an omega-3 rich microalgae called <em>Nannochloropsis oculata</em>, raised in an open pond with brackish water, would require only 20 liters of freshwater and 1.6 square meters of nonfertile land.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199490/original/file-20171215-17848-g7ghjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Growing algae indoors in photobioreactors conserves land and water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Photobioreactor_PBR_4000_G_IGV_Biotech.jpg">IGV Biotech</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h1>5. Understanding biodiversity in cities</h1>
<p>Sustainable strategies for the future don’t have to be technically complex or sweeping. Geographer Christopher Swan of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, studies biodiversity in parks, backyards and other natural areas around the city of Baltimore. Swan wants to see <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-nature-what-kinds-of-plants-and-wildlife-flourish-in-cities-71680">what species thrive in cities</a> and how human activities affect them.</p>
<p>As urban dwellers build and remodel houses and develop neighborhoods, they divide urban space into small units with many edges, Swan has found: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This benefits species that thrive at edges, like white-tailed deer and nuisance vines, but harms others that require larger interior habitats, such as certain birds. As human activities create a more fragmented environment, it becomes increasingly important to create linkages between natural areas, such as preserved forests, to maintain populations and their biodiversity.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Humans also move species around: They bring plants into their yard, and trap and remove nuisance animals such as squirrels.</p>
<p>Swan is working with his students to identify native plant species that can thrive in poor urban soils, and to identify species traits – such as offering habitat for pollinating insects – that can make species valuable in urban settings. With information like this, city managers can restore and support urban wildlife, making cities more inviting places to live.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Trump administration rollbacks dominated news about the environment in 2017 – but beyond Washington D.C., many researchers are developing innovative visions for a greener future.Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886212017-12-21T14:19:52Z2017-12-21T14:19:52ZFrom internet trolls to college dropouts: Our 6 favorite charts from 2017<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199289/original/file-20171214-27597-7qg88l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where we've been in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/destinations-pinned-on-map-761527345?src=73Ra-hKwDpnPnLaTs6-6rw-1-18">rawpixel.com/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s Note: As the year comes to an end, we rounded up some of our favorite graphs and maps from archival articles The Conversation published in 2017.</em></p>
<h2>1. Invisible inequality</h2>
<p>America may be getting richer, but who’s reaping the reward? The economic gap in the U.S. has widened over the past few decades. Today, the top 10 percent of U.S. households control over three-quarters of the country’s wealth.</p>
<p>But as inequality gets worse, something curious happens: <a href="https://theconversation.com/inequality-is-getting-worse-but-fewer-people-than-ever-are-aware-of-it-76642">More and more people think that they actually live in a meritocracy</a>.</p>
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<p>“People on either side of the income divide cannot see the breadth of the gap that separates their lives from those of others,” explains Jonathan J.B. Mijs at Harvard University. “As the gap grows wider, other people’s lives are harder to view. Rising inequality prevents people from seeing its full extent.”</p>
<h2>2. Don’t ditch the degree</h2>
<p>What do Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They’re all massively successful tech icons – and they all dropped out of college. </p>
<p>Dropping out is a well-worn trope in modern stories of business success. But a study of 11,745 U.S. leaders shows that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-myth-of-the-college-dropout-75760">dropouts like Zuckerberg are outliers</a>. Ninety-four percent of the leaders attended college, about half at an elite school like Princeton. </p>
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<p>“Perhaps in the future, college may not be as important to employers,” write the researchers at Duke University and Chemnitz University of Technology. “But for now, college dropouts who rule the world are rare exceptions – not the rule.”</p>
<h2>3. Hollywood’s diversity problem</h2>
<p>Hollywood has fielded criticism in recent years for a lack of diversity on the silver screen. In 2016, 7 in 10 speaking roles <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/hollywood-diversity-little-rise-study-1202510809/">went to white actors</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, a study of over 800 top movies suggests that the best earners at the domestic and international box offices tend to have white leads and majority-white casts. </p>
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<p>Roberto Pedace at Scripps College suggests that studios may be pandering to prejudiced consumers, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arent-hollywood-films-more-diverse-the-international-box-office-might-be-to-blame-86905">movies with diverse casts can struggle abroad</a>: “The revenue implications of international audience preferences are simply too large for studios to ignore.” </p>
<h2>4. Big business in the Big House</h2>
<p>The number of prisons in the U.S. has more than tripled since 1970. Roughly 70 percent have been built in rural communities – largely in southern states like Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas. </p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/xUOxfaTdBpycKlYYP6/giphy.gif"></p>
<p>Prisons can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prison-building-will-continue-booming-in-rural-america-71920">a means of survival for struggling communities</a>, writes John Eason at Texas A&M University. “Prisons provide a short-term boost to the local economy by increasing median family income and home value while reducing unemployment and poverty.”</p>
<h2>5. Opioids by the numbers</h2>
<p>About 64,000 people died of drug overdose in the U.S. in 2016 – many from heroin, fentanyl and other opioids. </p>
<p>Oxycodone, a semi-synthetic pain medication, is one of the most commonly prescribed opioids in the U.S. In fact, U.S. per capita oxycodone consumption is much higher than other developed nations.</p>
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<p>Andrew Kolodny at Brandeis University says that overprescription is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-opioid-epidemic-in-6-charts-81601">one of the driving causes of the epidemic</a>. “Until opioids are prescribed more cautiously and until effective opioid addiction treatment becomes easier to access, overdose deaths will likely remain at record high levels.”</p>
<h2>6. The trolls among us</h2>
<p>The internet can be a nasty place. Take a trip into the comments section under a news article or YouTube video, and you might see name-calling, graphic threats or even hate speech. </p>
<p>Who’s posting this stuff? A study of millions of comments on CNN.com suggests that <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-experiments-taught-us-why-people-troll-72798">almost anyone can be pushed to troll others</a> – under the right circumstances.</p>
<p><iframe id="FJVpT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FJVpT/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>According to the team’s research, negative comments peak late at night and on Mondays. </p>
<p>What’s more, the more troll comments there are in a particular discussion, the more likely future participants will also troll. As the authors at Stanford University and Cornell University write, “Many ‘trolls’ are just people like ourselves who are having a bad day.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
How do diverse movies fare in the international box office? What time do trolls like to post their comments? We look back on some of this year’s most intriguing graphs and maps.Aviva Rutkin, Data EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/890642017-12-21T14:17:49Z2017-12-21T14:17:49ZMigration mayhem in 2017: 9 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199750/original/file-20171218-27547-1neii8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protest against Trump's travel ban in Los Angeles, Jan. 29, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ryan Kang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump did not waste any time pushing strict immigration policies in 2017, as promised during his campaign. What resulted was dozens of legal challenges, pushback from local leaders, nationwide protests and often widespread confusion. This is a roundup of some of the biggest stories on migration to and within the U.S. in 2017 from our archives.</p>
<h2>1. Then there were three</h2>
<p>On Jan. 27, Trump signed an order banning entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. The latest, and third, iteration of this ban spans six countries, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-immigration/supreme-court-lets-trumps-latest-travel-ban-go-into-full-effect-idUSKBN1DY2NY">went into full effect</a> on Dec. 4. The Supreme Court is expected to review the case in 2018.</p>
<p>Singling out people of certain faiths or nationalities <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-immigration-order-is-bad-foreign-policy-72053">is also an old problem in the U.S.</a>, write migration scholars <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-fitzgerald-333906">David FitzGerald</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-cook-martin-144025">David Cook-Martin</a>. Discrimination of this sort echoes 19th- and 20th-century legislation that singled out, for example, immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia. History suggests there will be a major backlash at the international that could put the U.S. at risk.</p>
<h2>2. & 3. Learning how to resist</h2>
<p>States and cities pushed back against the Trump administration. For example, San Francisco sued the Trump administration for threatening to withhold federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” The case argued that the federal government was “comandeering” local law enforcement, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/san-francisco-is-using-a-montana-sheriffs-playbook-to-sue-trump-on-sanctuary-cities-74660">violation of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution</a>, writes constitutional expert <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anthony-johnstone-343872">Anthony Johnstone</a> of the University of Montana. </p>
<p>Local efforts to resist federal overreach can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-before-sanctuary-cities-heres-how-black-americans-protected-fugitive-slaves-72048">traced back to the time of slavery</a>. Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the authority of federal law enforcement officials expanded, writes historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/barbara-krauthamer-333874">Barbara Krauthamer</a> of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. </p>
<p>“Prompted to action … Boston’s black community gathered to plan their opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law,” she writes. “They adopted a set of resolutions, including a pledge ‘to resist oppression’ and any attacks on their freedom.”</p>
<h2>4. Fighting immigrant detention</h2>
<p>The government faced more legal challenges this year in response to more aggressive enforcement of a policy of holding immigrants in detention who are suspected to be in the U.S. without authorization. Public interest lawyer <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kevin-johnson-322147">Kevin Johnson</a>, a professor at the University of California, Davis, writes that <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-shows-trump-will-face-legal-challenges-to-detaining-immigrants-72247">detaining immigrants in the U.S.</a> goes as far back as the late 1800s, when a wave of immigrants from China arrived in California.</p>
<p>Since then, Johnson writes, the government has faced myriad accusations of wrongdoing, including failing to provide the right to counsel to those in detention, detaining children and bias. If Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants continues, the number of legal challenges to detention will likely increase.</p>
<h2>5. Years in the making</h2>
<p>The U.S. immigration system was a mess long before Donald Trump took office. Immigration courts have had too few judges to handle the high volume of cases. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-m-harris-351613">Lindsay Harris</a>, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia, writes that <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-us-immigration-court-system-broken-75338">this immense backlog</a> has caused average wait times to see a judge to rise to between two and six and a half years.</p>
<p>Many of these individuals enter the country seeking asylum, Harris explains, and are held in detention centers until they can be interviewed. The effects can be devastating.</p>
<h2>6. A nightmare for Dreamers</h2>
<p>Among those who fear the effects of the administration’s crackdown are “Dreamers” – people brought to the U.S. without authorization as minors by their parents. In September, the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy that offered this group temporary protection from deportation and authorization to work, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It’s now up to Congress to come up with a solution for the more than 1 million young people who have grown up in the U.S. and call it home.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/wayne-cornelius-336358">Wayne Cornelius</a>, immigration expert at University of California, San Diego, writes that lawmakers should take this as <a href="https://theconversation.com/post-daca-how-congress-can-replace-obamas-program-and-make-it-even-better-83547">an opportunity to improve upon an imperfect policy</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, he writes: “While there is a compelling case for some type of legislation to fill the gap created by DACA’s demise, Congress’s track record on this issue is dismal.”</p>
<h2>7. More immigration ≠ more crime</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, many immigrant advocates note that narratives that depict Dreamers as more deserving of a place in the U.S., compared to other undocumented immigrants, is problematic. They argue it reinforces the rhetoric about immigrants founded in fear and racism peddled by Trump and his supporters. One such fear is that undocumented immigrants bring crime into U.S. communities.</p>
<p>However, research on <a href="https://theconversation.com/immigration-and-crime-what-does-the-research-say-72176">the link between immigration and crime is quite conclusive</a>. Robert Adelman of University at Buffalo and Lesley Reid of the University of Alabama write:</p>
<p>“Immigration-crime research over the past 20 years has widely corroborated the conclusions of a number of early 20th-century presidential commissions that found no backing for the immigration-crime connection. Although there are always individual exceptions, the literature demonstrates that immigrants commit fewer crimes, on average, than native-born Americans.”</p>
<h2>8. Puerto Ricans coming to the mainland</h2>
<p>Public debate about who is deserving of compassion from the U.S. extended into the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico. The federal government’s response was criticized for being dangerously inadequate.</p>
<p>Demographer <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alexis-r-santos-lozada-420426">Alexis R. Santos-Lozada</a> at Penn State points out that if recovery is not swift, states should prepare to permanently accommodate <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-puerto-ricans-return-home-after-hurricane-maria-87160">Puerto Ricans who migrated to the mainland</a>. The longer recovery takes, the less likely it is they’ll return to the island.</p>
<h2>9. Climate change and future migration</h2>
<p>The disaster in Puerto Rico has drawn attention to the connection between climate change, natural disasters and migration. Economists <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dean-yang-406826">Dean Yang</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/parag-mahajan-406827">Parag Mahajan</a> at the University of Michigan point out that <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricanes-drive-immigration-to-the-us-83755">U.S. lawmakers must think about how immigration policies can create or destroy life-changing options</a> for people affected by disaster. More now than ever, as climate science suggests, we can expect the severity of natural disasters to increase.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A look back at how one of the most divisive issues of the Trump campaign played out during the first year of his presidency.Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + SocietyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/890182017-12-21T14:12:29Z2017-12-21T14:12:29ZInside Venezuela’s crisis: 7 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199313/original/file-20171214-27568-10lxb03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since December 2014, a recession turned national emergency has left millions of Venezuelans impoverished, hungry and desperate. An estimated 54 percent of Venezuelan children are now malnourished. </p>
<p>As an editor on the Americas desk, this year I’ve asked numerous Venezuelan scholars to help readers understand the many different dimensions of this devolving situation. Here, their insights on Venezuela’s crisis.</p>
<h2>1. Venezuela is running out of cash</h2>
<p>To understand how a country that was once South America’s richest can no longer feed its citizens, just follow the oil, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobody-is-going-to-bail-out-venezuela-87428">advises Venezuelan economist Henkel García U</a>. </p>
<p>“In 1998, the year before the late Hugo Chávez came into power, Venezuela was rich,” he notes. “It produced roughly 60 barrels of oil per inhabitant per year.”</p>
<p>Chávez – a populist who promised to lift millions out of poverty – took advantage of relatively high international oil prices to spend lavishly, funding social programs and importing basic goods like food and medicine. </p>
<p>But after Chávez’s 2003 state takeover of Petróleos de Venezuela, then Latin America’s biggest oil producer, oil production steadily decreased, even as government expenditures stayed high. </p>
<p>Over time, the imbalance between income and outlay would upend Venezuela’s entire economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199314/original/file-20171214-27593-8se792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By 2015, Venezuela was no longer selling enough oil to keep importing basic necessities like food and medicine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Banco Central de Venezuela, FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), National Statistics Institute and Econométrica IE, C.A., CC BY</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. It has an unpayable national debt</h2>
<p>Rather than balance the budget by cutting expenditures and imports, however, the Chávez regime <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-venezuelas-economic-collapse-80597">just piled up foreign debt</a>, says García U. Between 2005 and 2006, Venezuela’s foreign debt jumped from US$25 billion to $120 billion. </p>
<p>Then, in late 2014, international oil prices plunged. The country, by then led by Chávez’s uncharismatic successor, Nicolás Maduro, entered recession. Today, estimates of Venezuela’s public sector debt put it at $184.5 billion. </p>
<p>Domestic oil production has also declined, dropping 66 percent between 1998 and 2017, according to Garciá U’s analyses.</p>
<p>Selling less oil at lower prices has sapped government coffers. Imports of basic necessities like food and medicine have dropped to historic lows, meaning many grocery store and pharmacy shelves are empty.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, hyperinflation – which is anticipated to reach 2,700 percent by the end of this year – has left most Venezuelans unable to purchase what products are available. Treatable infections routinely kill Venezuelans who can’t get antibiotics, and children are now dying of hunger</p>
<p>In November, Venezuela defaulted on some of its national debt. </p>
<h2>3. Thousands have fled hunger and violence</h2>
<p>To escape this crisis, <a href="https://theconversation.com/thousands-flee-violence-and-hunger-in-venezuela-seeking-asylum-in-the-united-states-74495">many Venezuelans have sought refuge abroad</a>, says Emilio Osorio Alvarez, a migration scholar at the Central University of Venezuela. </p>
<p>In 2016, over 14,700 Venezuelans requested asylum in the United States, according to U.S. government data – a 150 percent increase over 2015. For the first time ever, Venezuelan topped the list of asylum-seekers, above Mexicans, El Salvadorans or Guatemalans. </p>
<p>Those who can credibly claim they are fleeing political persecution at home stand a strong chance of getting in, says Osorio. President Maduro has cracked down hard on dissent. At least 124 people were killed during protests against the regime in 2017, and human rights groups estimate that there are some 600 political prisoners in Venezuela. </p>
<p>Hunger and poverty, on the other hand, are not themselves grounds for asylum under international law.</p>
<h2>4. Protests became ‘a low-grade war’</h2>
<p>Among those who remain in Venezuela, millions organized earlier this year to fight for their country’s future. From March to July, hundreds of thousands of citizens marched daily in major cities across the country. </p>
<p>Under government orders, soldiers and police officers responded with force.</p>
<p>“Each day, acting spontaneously and with no clear leadership, fighting factions in cities across Venezuela…block streets…penetrate university campuses and crush their opponents,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-venezuela-there-may-be-no-happily-ever-after-81544">reported</a> Venezuelan political analyst Miguel Angel Latouche back in July. </p>
<p>Describing scenes of masked young demonstrators doing battle with state forces, Latouche said his home city of Caracas was living out “a low-grade war.”</p>
<p>“What else can you call a country in which…citizens routinely swallow tear gas?,” he asked. Latouche and his family have now left Venezuela – temporarily, they hope.</p>
<h2>5. The once-powerful opposition has all but collapsed</h2>
<p>For months, those huge daily marches seemed to be shifting the balance of power between the Maduro government and the resistance. But by October, the opposition – an alliance of numerous parties that began working together in 2008 to counterbalance Hugo Chávez’s regime – had been all but crushed. </p>
<p>Despite the opposition’s 75 percent approval rating, on Oct. 15 its candidates lost 17 of 23 governors races to candidates from Maduro’s Socialist Party. This stunning defeat showed that <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelas-opposition-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-86187">participating in the gubernatorial elections had been a critical strategic misstep</a>, says Prof. Marcos Moreno-Aponte of St. Mary’s College California. </p>
<p>Many analysts expected the opposition to boycott them, Moreno-Aponte says. Domestic and international observers, including the U.S. State Department, believed that the regime’s control over electoral agencies would “make free and fair elections impossible.”</p>
<p>The opposition emerged from its loss on Oct. 15 profoundly divided, disheartened and quite possibly defeated. </p>
<h2>6. Elections are fake</h2>
<p>Maduro’s triumph in October was a blow to democracy, but not a surprising one, reckons political analyst Benigno Alarcón of the Andres Bello Catholic University, in Caracas. </p>
<p>The regime spent months – during which it refused to hold any elections– preparing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelas-elections-are-just-a-new-way-for-maduro-to-cling-to-power-87072">strategy for winning at the polls</a>, he says. Maduro’s success on Oct. 15 derived from two carefully deployed tactics, says Alarcón: “Suppressing turnout among opposition voters and using pork-barrel incentives to motivate his own base.” </p>
<p>Dirty tricks included keeping candidates who’d withdrawn from the governor’s race on the ballot and relocating voting centers in opposition-dominated areas into high-crime neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Government operatives also spread fake news about supposedly successful negotiations with opposition parties, stoking doubt among the many Venezuelans who oppose engagement with Maduro’s authoritarian regime.</p>
<p>“In other words,” assesses Alarcón, Maduro’s electoral strategy was “less about winning democratic legitimacy” than about “ensuring that his opponents los[t] it.” </p>
<h2>7. Hope for regime change is dimming</h2>
<p>Maduro reprised that winning strategy in the country’s mayoral elections in December, which were boycotted by the opposition.</p>
<p>The fact that Socialist Party candidates won 300 of 339 mayoral races on Dec. 10 thus <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelan-regime-sweeps-mayors-races-tightening-maduros-grip-on-power-89003">shouldn’t be misinterpreted as voter support for Maduro’s regime</a>, Alarcón cautions. Maduro’s approval ratings are still about 20 percent. </p>
<p>“The vast majority of Venezuelans want a change in government,” he says, adding that Maduro also faces opposition within his own Socialist Party. </p>
<p>Still, hope for regime change is dimming. In addition to using dirty tricks, Maduro has effectively been buying votes, handing out benefits like food and medicine in exchange for loyalty to the regime. </p>
<p>In late November, the president announced he would run for reelection in 2018. It’s unclear who can stop him.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
How to understand the economic, political and humanitarian crisis that has brought a South American nation to its knees.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.