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Updates regarding science policy with an impact on Puerto Rico and ways for scientists to get involved.

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Introductory Blog to Tech + Policy Series

Simara Laboy Lopez's picture

What happens when changes occur faster than the time it takes to get used to them? This is the case of science and politics in our era.

We are now living in a world much different than the one our parents and grandparents lived in; and this is all due to the contemporary technologies among us. To deeply understand the upcoming series of blogs about science and technology relating to policy and governance we need to shift our mindset a little bit.

PR House of Representatives Project PC 1433 polystyrene containers restriction

Reinaldo Franqui Machin's picture

Legislative Body: 

Puerto Rico House

The excessive use of disposable plastic bags, like polystyrene, has a negative impact on our ecosystems and public health. These plastics are not biodegradable, which lead to their accumulation in the environment and have been suggested to promote cancer in animal models.

Establishing bridges through science diplomacy: The experience of a Puerto Rican scientist in Egypt

Luz Milbeth Cumba Garcia's picture

The 3rd International Conference for Women in Science without Borders (WISWB) was held at The British University in Egypt (Cairo, Egypt) from March 12th-14th, 2019. The conference theme was “Science Diplomacy for Sustainable Development”. WISWB is an initiative to increase cooperation between female and male scientists in terms of excellence in scientific research, where meeting participants are expected to present their cutting edge research.

Regulation "Standards for the beneficial use of coal combustion waste"

Neysha Martínez-Orengo's picture

Legislative Body: 

Puerto Rico Senate

This regulation is presented in order to establish standards for the management and beneficial use of coal waste and its derivatives; and in accordance with Act 40 “Ban on the Deposit and Disposal of Coal Ash or Coal Combustio

Call for climate actions in Puerto Rico

Isabel Katsí Parés-Ramos's picture

Wallace Broecker, one of the first scientists to declare that polluting human actions caused climate change died recently. In 1975, Broecker embraced the term "global warming" in a publication for Science, where he showed that high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the use of fossil fuels increase the Earth's temperature. Puerto Rico is vulnerable to global warming, associated with extreme droughts and intense hurricanes in the Caribbean region. This is one of the findings described by the local and international scientists in the Caribbean chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). Almost 50 years after Broecker warned about the need to mitigate global warming, climate change is not a topic that is given sufficient priority in the political scene in Puerto Rico. This must change.

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