When Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 21, 2025, it marked a dark milestone as the strongest hurricane to hit the Caribbean in modern history, and the third strongest to ever occur in the Atlantic. With sustained winds … Continue reading
Spencer Clark
I'm a writer for Catalyst and the McGill Journal of Political Science. I am passionate about topics such as politics, sustainability and geography!
Preserving the Future: Water, Accountability, and AI
As the artificial intelligence industry expands, so does its ecological footprint. ChatGPT alone uses an estimated 39.16 million gallons of water daily. That is the equivalent of everyone in Taiwan, a country of approximately 24 million people, flushing their toilet … Continue reading
Wildfire Diplomacy: How Disasters Spark Cross-Border Cooperation
It’s the middle of the week, and despite it being midday, cars are bumper to bumper. Thousands of brake lights burn red, mirroring the sun, dimmed and distorted by a sky choked with smoke. Flames lick the treetops on either … Continue reading
Shrinking the Welfare State, Growing the Authoritarian State: How the Far-Right Reconstructs State Power in Hungary
Anti-state rhetoric has become a popular refrain among far-right anti-establishment politicians promising to “drain the swamp.” Yet once in power, anti-statist parties and politicians often fail to minimize the state as pledged. Instead, as in the case of Hungary’s far-right … Continue reading
A Shallow Solution: Water Privatisation in the Global South
In 2024, the Philippines experienced a painful drought. Water reserves in Angat dam –the main source for Manila’s 14 million residents– fell below minimum operating levels, prompting the city of Manila to request people to conserve water. Fueled by … Continue reading
The Fluidity of Identity in Conflict: The Second Chechen War
On September 9, 1999, in southern Moscow, 94 people died when explosives laid at the foundation of their apartment building detonated, causing it to collapse. Four days later, another blast killed 118 in another apartment; three days after that, a … Continue reading
Disappearing Data, Rising Risk: Trump’s Attack on Public Health
The United States of America is experiencing an unprecedented constitutional crisis, hurtling toward authoritarianism. While the first Trump administration had officials who acted as safeguards against his authoritarian impulses, such as National Health Advisor Anthony Fauci and FBI Director … Continue reading
Bureaucracy Which Conceals and Controls: The Syrian Civil Registry Under the Assad Regime
On January 17th, 2013, a Damascus University third-year engineering student, Rehab al-Allawi, was arrested by Assad regime forces at her family home in Damascus, Syria. Her degree had been interrupted by the Civil War in 2011, leading her to join … Continue reading
The City as a Proving Ground for Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate
According to the UN’s Population Division, seven in ten people will live in urban areas by 2050. Today, 4.4 billion people-56% of the world’s population– live in cities. Agriculture automation, increased natural disasters, and land consolidation is decreasing rural … Continue reading
The Missing Ayotzinapa 43 and the Militarization of the Public Sphere in Mexico
On the night of September 26, 2014, Mexican municipal police intercepted and opened fire on two buses carrying roughly one hundred students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College. By the following morning, six people were dead, and 43 others were … Continue reading