Sightings | Alumni News

What do you think?

We asked Nicholas School alumni What is the most pressing environmental issue that will face the president we elect in November?

“Global climate change,” responds Kirsten Cappel MEM’04. “It is both a complicated and contentious environmental problem, combining potentially unprecedented adverse environmental impacts with consequences for economic development, domestic politics, and international relations.”

Robin Park MEM’00 agrees, pointing to the potential economic impacts in California, where the state remains reliant upon dwindling snowpack levels from the Sierra Nevada mountains for more than 65 percent of its water supply. “Less water for California—the sixth-largest economy in the world—equals more problems for the U.S. economy,” says Park.

“The next administration should make saving our oceans a priority,” says Amy Schick BS’96, CEM’98. “A critical first step is passing a national ocean policy to protect, maintain, and resource marine ecosystems.”

Rachel Strader MEM’04 concurs: “I think the most pressing issue the president will face is rebuilding and sustaining our oceans. The nation is poised to make critical changes in ocean management, as the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy reports have thrust issues of marine contaminants, dwindling fish stocks, and growing coastline populations into the national media.”

Finally, Jim Miller FM’70 weighs in with his belief that the next president should “fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund so appropriate acquisitions can be made for existing programs.”

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