Founded in 2007, the Refugee & Immigrant Fund (RIF), a Queens, New York-based non-profit, began as an orientation center, guiding newcomers to the U.S. through the labyrinthine asylum process and referring them to legal and psychological counseling. Founder and Director Maria Blacque-Belair, a social worker by trade, never expected that urban agriculture would become an …
Continue reading Rooftop Farming Provides Solace & Opportunity
December 10, 2015 - Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri entered the “Casa Rosada” today, bringing an end to 12 years of leftist “kirchnerismo” rule and ushering in, supporters hope, an era of economic liberalization and foreign investment. Macri’s narrow victory last month over establishment candidate Daniel Scioli has largely been attributed to economic concerns. With unofficial inflation …
Continue reading For Argentine Environmentalists, New President Macri Elicits Hope – and Skepticism
November 18, 2015 - GOP presidential hopefuls squared off Tuesday night at Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Theater to debate job growth and the economy, yet in four-plus hours of debate (two for the “undercard” first debate and two for the main stage event), one major threat to the American and global economies was barely touched upon: climate change. …
Continue reading Op-Ed: GOP Debate Ignores Economic Effects of Climate Change
This book review was written for The Refugee & Immigrant Fund in January 2015 and originally appeared on their blog, Growing Together. In recent years, the concept of living “Slow” has been gaining ground, in many ways a natural response to the ever increasing hyper-connectivity and competitiveness of our modern world. Slow food, slow travel, …
Continue reading Book Review: New Slow City – Living Simply in the World’s Fastest City
One of the greatest challenges facing cities in the 21st century, in the context of climate change, ecological imbalance, and economic disparity, is how to urbanize in a way that is both environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. Many cities have realized that adaptation to climate change is a necessary undertaking, and have begun the long …
Chris Barrett 
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