Wise Monkey News is here to provide young people an opportunity to discuss the issues that affect their lives. We hope that, through your participation, this website serves as a forum for the development, exchange, and expression of ideas that will prepare us to assume our positions as the leaders of tomorrow's world. Have something to say?
Deforestation, our two-faced friend
by: Nicole Ulacky - printed on 10-10-2001
The snowball of events that has caused our current planetary environmental condition was started long ago. It has been handed down, generation to generation, only to grow with each successive passing. We can thank our parents and grandparents, and grandparents’ grandparents, and all of those before them, for throwing us into a phase of environmental degradation that is nearly unfixable. To say the least, the environmental problem facing our generation is of enormous proportion.
Ice shelves fall; the heat is on
by: Sarah Dempsey - printed on 03-27-2002
Last week the world saw first-hand the disturbing effects of global warming. Part of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica, made up of 720 billion tons of ice (roughly the size of Rhode Island), collapsed into the ocean after a month of rapid melting and disintegration. This was not a prediction, not some scientist's dreadful warning, this was real life. This was the result of five decades of sharp temperature increases of as much as 4.
Society and Biology Influence Gender
by: Katia Moles - printed on 09-25-2002
of my earliest childhood memories is of my dearest friend and I happily bouncing on my bed when he abruptly said, "My mom says if boys wear girls’ clothes, they go to hell."
Kenji-san ni shoten o atteru - A focus on Kenji
by: Teresa Abbene - printed on 04-11-2001
“The biggest difference between the U.S. and Japan is that Americans describe every single detail. I have a friend living in Japan who is from the U.S. and every time we talk he drives me crazy! He’ll ask me, How’s it going? And I’ll answer, Fine. OK. And he’ll ask again, How?”
Aside from Americans’ insistent focus on details and feelings, Kenji Ishikawa likes living in the U.S. Kenji is a 23-year-old senior majoring in sociology.
Hope for natives...but can society's attitudes change?
by: Kathy Kenny - printed on 02-14-2001
“They’re different, just not the same as us. They aren’t capable of achieving our standards. They’re backwards alcoholics…”
These are some explanations given to me as to why Native Americans have so many poverty problems and face such stern racism throughout the country. Once a population between 6 to 20 million, the Native American people have been eliminated to only a population of 2.4 million, although they began the century with a population of only 200,000.
Foriegn policy goes fishing
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 04-25-2001
If ever the United States of America has needed a clear set of foreign policy objectives, it is now. As the world witnessed in Quebec last week, many citizens of the world are not sold on the benefits of free trade. Conversely, we also saw that most oft he Western Hemisphere’s political leaders are. In many respects, there seems to be little doubt than an integrated hemispheric (and eventually world) economy with few trade barriers will be the result of the increasing power and prevalence of multi-national corporations, non-governmental organizations, and inter-governmental organizations.