Browsing by Subject "COVID-19 pandemic"

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Open Access
2023 Annual Trends in Plastics Policy: A Brief
(2023-08-31) Karasik, Rachel; Vegh, Tibor; Utz, Ria; Dominguez, Andrew; Skarjune, Melissa; Merlo, Juan; Dixon, Natalie; Virdin, John
In the first annual update of Annual Trends in Plastics Policy, Nicholas Institute researchers find that plastics policy enactment continues to surge and was not negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, researchers found more than 300 additional policies to index in the Plastics Policy Inventory, upon which this report is based, for a total of 894 policies. The 2022 update to the inventory increased the total by more than 50%. However, gaps in scope and implementation remain. Though more policies address additional types of single-use plastics, most still target only plastic bags. Microplastics and marine sources remain relatively unaddressed, and economic instruments are a minority of policy instruments used. To better gauge policy implementation, researchers established a new effectiveness policy library to accompany the 2022 update. These studies indicate that, while underused in existing policy, greater governmental use of economic instruments (e.g., taxes, fees, levies) and information instruments (e.g., awareness campaigns to communicate other instruments to the public, education initiatives, etc.) would aid in enacting effective policies in the future.
Open Access
Federal Grants to States: Opportunities for Climate Change Assessment, Planning, Programs, and Information Exchange
(2020-06-24) Profeta, Timothy; Symons, Jeremy
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical relationship between the federal and state governments’ response to nationwide crisis. More than anything else, the ability of state leaders to respond ably and nimbly to the specific challenges of their jurisdictions has come to the fore and probably reoriented the federal/state relationship for years to come. The lessons we learn from the mobilization in response to the COVID disaster should be applied as we prepare for another disaster that is putting increasing demands on state and federal resources: climate change. With states and the federal government all having essential roles to fulfill in the response to national disasters, an effective federal-state partnership should be at the heart of a nationwide climate strategy. This partnership should have many components. In this policy brief, we focus on one critical component that can and should be moved on quickly as part of any federal program to address climate change: the expansion of federal/state grant programs that support state governments in climate change assessment, planning, programs, and information exchange. This conversation is particularly apt as the nation considers what types of public investment will help spur the economy into recovery from impact of the COVID pandemic.
Open Access
Pastoring in a Pandemic: Sources and Types of Social Support Used by United Methodist Clergy in the Early Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Journal of Psychology and Theology, 2023-12-01) Johnston, EF; Headley, J; Eagle, DE
COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. In this article, we draw on 50 in-depth interviews conducted with United Methodist clergy in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020–January 2021) to examine the sources and types of social support pastors relied on during this time. We found that most clergy reported drawing from a diverse eco-system of social supports and turned to different sources of support—for example, other clergy, local church members, and denominational leaders—for different types of support—for example, informational, instrumental, and/or emotional. This study extends existing research on clergy well-being by examining whether the social support used by clergy during the COVID-19 map onto those identified in previous research and by specifying the types of support that were most salient. In the discussion, we consider the broader implications of our findings for clergy well-being beyond the pandemic period.