CfAS BLOG

What is “Indigenous”?

In a recent article in the New Yorker, Manvir Singh traces the origin and evolution of the concept of Indigenous from its colonial roots to its present use to cover

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Update on People, Fire, and Pines

The polished surface of SAG45f, a fire-scar sample from Voyageur’s Island in Lake Saganaga. The innermost ring of the sample dates to 1679 and the outer ring to 1989, when the tree was windthrown. Fire scars recorded in the rings of the tree indicate the passing of 10 low-severity fires between 1702 and 1850, after which not another fire was recorded at the site.

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Governance and Crisis

One cannot look at the news today without having to face the nature of governance. Is democracy worth the time spent negotiating and contesting rather than acting? Or, would a

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Moving into harm’s way

As humanity copes with human-induced climate change, an important task is assessing geographic patterns of risk based on expected changes in various associated natural hazards. A recent study by ProPublica

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Paleodemography and the future

Recent news stories have noted that population growth is turning negative in many places around the world. What happens when populations decline? This has been a large challenge in Japan

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