SAGE

This blog entry tells a few stories about Kurdistan’s water usage.  With considerable sadness, I must admit that my observations have not been particularly positive.  As I strive to find my professional place in Iraq’s water security endeavors, I am daily reminded that water management is not just an environmental challenge – it’s a cultural one. My disappointment began one […]

 I headed straight up North without hanging out with my folks in the South, hoping I could complete work in time then follow up with fun. Well, things did not go as intended. The field had been deelyp ploughed while the ever-frowning sun greeted the early mornings with its scorching rays. Under such stress, two balls of warm-up “kenkey” (boiled […]

On the airplane flying back home after 10 solid weeks of adventure in Kenya, I wanted to reflect on everything I had seen and done over the past two and a half months. Yet, at the same time, it seemed like too much to think about. It seemed easier just to think about what was ahead with my pending arrival […]

I’m not ready to talk about my internship at the Natural Resources Defense Council, even though I’m already more than 8 weeks in (good lord!), so I’ll write about biking to work in New York City. My commute is becoming one of the central parts of my summer and as my girlfriend Emily recently pointed out to me, I’ll likely […]

Crispy lechon, fried milk fish, juicy chicken inasal – these are but complements to the main feature on the Filipino supper plate. Taking up nearly three quarters of a meal and most of one’s belly, rice is the star attraction of the Filipino diet. To better appreciate this amazing grain, I decided to travel to northern Luzon to explore the […]

I am writing from Libreville, the capital city of Gabon. This is one of the Congo Basin forest countries where, after one month chopping trees down for my research in DRC, I am working with Proforest (an NGO based in the United Kingdom) on Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) and High Conservation Value forests (HCV) before the conversion of […]

Just a quick post today to note an F&ES connection here in Tanzania! This past semester I took a course entitled “Conservation in Practice: An International Perspective” taught by McKluskey Fellow Dr. Amy Vedder. It was an interesting look at the challenges and opportunities for conserving wildlife, and with a small class of only 16 students we got into some […]

This blog entry doesn’t say much about the environment and relates very little to my work, but I think it’s a series of stories worth telling.  They provide cultural context and a window into the mentality of the local populous.  They also answer the questions I’m sure many people interested in my travels here are asking themselves: “What is it […]