SMEA Professor Nives Dolšak and Political Science Professor Aseem Prakash recently co-authored an article for Slate titled “Trump Can’t Abolish the EPA.” The article acknowledges that environmentalist will face challenges under the new administration, but they must remain open to working with and when needed be willing to stand up to the president-elect. They should also pay more attention to state and city level politics because this is where a lot of the real action is taking place. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I wanted to understand issues facing the marine environment from a perspective based on different disciplines while developing a career in marine policy.
Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school?
There are a handful of reasons I decided to become a SMEA student. First, an interdisciplinary method aligns with how I think we should approach environmental issues both locally and globally. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolšak and co-author and UW Professor Aseem Prakash recently published an article on Slate titled; The Dakota Pipeline Protests Should Think Big. The piece discusses the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and how protesters should turn the momentum into something larger. The article goes on to say “For Native American groups, DAPL protests provide the platform to initiate a social movement that asks basic questions about environmental justice and the rights of native communities in resource-hungry systems. 

Congratulations to Professor Nives Dolšak and her co-authors on their latest article Corporate Environmentalism: Motivations and Mechanisms. The article, published in Annual Review of Environment and Resources, reviews two broad categories of corporate environmentalism (CE); direct CE and indirect CE. As the article goes on to explain, three key lessons emerge. First, firm-level characteristics, particularly size and economic performance, encourage CE. 

The School of Marine & Environmental Affairs is excited to share the latest on the Capstone Project; Socioeconomic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms.
The social, economic and cultural impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the U.S. are not well documented. The human toll of HABs extends far beyond the lost fisheries landings and tourism-related income that are commonly used to assess impacts. 

Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly and SMEA second year graduate student James Kralj were recently interviewed by The Daily about their research involving eDNA and ocean ecosystems. Professor Kelly shared his excitement that this was the first time eDNA has been used to look at the interaction between humans and the ecosystem. Microbiologists have been using eDNA for a decade to take microbial surveys of the ocean, but only recently have scientists started to consider the technique for taking broader surveys of animal biodiversity. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I love the interdisciplinary aspect of the program. I can tell how much I have learned when reading journal and news articles, even though I’m only halfway through. We will be well-equipped for whatever career we choose to pursue.
Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school? 

This week is National Postdoc Appreciation Week and at SMEA we are fortunate to have 3 awesome postdocs; Nathan Bennett, Stacia Dreyer, and Jimmy O’Donnell.
Whether they’re conducting research, publishing papers or mentoring students, our postdocs contribute so much to the success of SMEA! See the great things our postdocs are involved in: PostDoc News
Thank you Nathan, Stacia and Jimmy for all you do! 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolšak, along with UW Professor Aseem Prakash, and SMEA alum Maggie Allen wrote a piece recently featured in The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The posting discusses how the the federal government’s decision to  temporarily block construction of the DAPL, the pipeline that was supposed to carry 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Dakotas to Illinois, is the result of a new kind of environmental activism that treats energy pipelines as a chokepoint for activities that contribute to global warming, and builds alliances with other groups to stop them. 

Congratulations to SMEA Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, the lead author of the recently published paper “Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient.” Kelly and his co-authors, which include SMEA Post-doc Jimmy O’Donnell and SMEA Alum Natalie Lowell, used environmental DNA — or eDNA, and found that urban Puget Sound shorelines support a denser array of animals than in remote areas.