The nuclear power industry is trying to sell itself as the solution to climate change. Nuclear energy doesn’t emit carbon dioxide and produces a lot of electricity, and is therefore a fairly clean and efficient energy source.

But nuclear power plants are extremely expensive to build, and the ones currently operating are old. The waste from a nuclear reaction is highly toxic and in need of special, safe storage. Not to mention, many people shudder when they hear the term...

When Jagadish Shukla talks about the weather, it’s anything but idle chitchat. A world-renowned climatologist, Shukla has helped make George Mason University a major player in climate dynamics research.

Shukla was one of the lead authors of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore.

In that same year, Shukla received the International Meteorological Organization...

For more than 20 years, anthropologist Susan Crate has traveled to northeastern Siberia to work with a group of native horse and cattle breeders.

Crate, an assistant professor of human ecology in Mason’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, is currently working on a project that focuses on how global climate change affects Siberian natives’ livelihood and culture.

Fluent in Russian and Sakha (the Turkic language of the Sakha people) Crate has...