Climate Change: a post-development and post-colonial exploration

My interest in climate justice has been constant through my four years at College of the Atlantic (COA). During my second, third and fourth years I was part of the COA delegations that attended the UN climate negations. In addition, I did my internship at the National University of Mexico in the Political and Social Sciences Faculty where I did research on different ways to promote renewable...

Climate displacement: an identity issue

By Aura Silva Martinez Climate change disasters displace millions of people each year. This is a present reality affecting multiple communities around the world. Despite having the very emblematic figure of the small island states in the Pacific, who are among the most impacted and vulnerable in respects to the effects of climate change, the definition of climate refugees is still at a very...

The WHAT after Paris?

By Aura Silva Martinez There were over 160 people sitting in layers around a big, wide circle at the Climate Coalition 21 assembly. An ongoing wave of comments, questions and answers was being thrown to a multitude of unresponsive chairs. This was an overwhelming experience for me, and despite being a somewhat inefficient space where having a real, meaningful conversation was significantly...

A System of Perpetuation: Free Trade and Climate Change

Free trade is the exchange of products and services between nations without the impositions of tariffs or quotas on foreign products, as well as subsidies on domestic products. Although free trade is defined as a win-win strategy because it allows nations to exploit their comparative advantage and maximize economic profit, there are many negative implications hidden behind these encrypted massive...

A history of failure: Free Trade

We live in a world that revolves around the neoliberal economic system in place. Where free trade has becomes more and more normalized everyday. With such rapids trends of globalization happening around the world, it is worth taking a look at the institutions ruling this process. After the World War II, the General Agreement on Trade an Tariffs (GATT) was created. This institution had some...