A citizenship question on 2020 census would cost some states their congressional seats by Dudley Poston for the Conversation 3/19/19

AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith

The census is conducted every 10 years to count the U.S. population. The U.S. Census Bureau then uses these population numbers to determine how the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are distributed. The number of seats that a state receives also determines the size of its delegation to the Electoral College.

In addition, a state’s total population dictates the amount of federal dollars that it receives. In 2015 alone, the federal government used census data to distribute more than US$675 billion to the states. So, it’s to a state’s economic advantage to have all its residents counted in the decennial census.In our research, we projected the population of each state in 2020, assuming that the states’ annual population growth rates from 2010 to 2017 would continue through to 2020. We then used these data to predict how the U.S. House would be apportioned.

Our work suggests that, in 2020, there should be a net change of nine seats in the U.S. House. Texas should gain three seats; Florida, two; and Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Oregon, one. Nine states should lose one seat: Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

Jamaica leads in Richard Branson-backed plan for a Caribbean climate revolution by Masao Ashtine and Tom Rogers, 3/15/2019

Branson at a Climate-Smart Accelerator event. Photo Credit: Adrian Creary/Studiocraft, CC BY

Its aims include convincing global financial institutions to fund ambitious climate mitigation efforts in the Caribbean, upgrading critical infrastructure across this vulnerable region. Well before Branson’s arrival, however, some Caribbean countries were already working to break their dependence on fossil fuels.

Jamaica’s modern energy grid

Even prior to the debilitating 2017 hurricane season, polling showed that a strong majority of people in the Caribbean see climate change as a very serious threat. The region – where we study renewable energy and climate change – is home to 16 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries.

That is because the stronger and more frequent storms, extreme droughts and coastal flooding that result from rising global temperatures hit rural island nations hard.

Before Branson took up the cause, several Caribbean nations were upgrading their electric grids to improve energy independence and better prepare islands for the impacts of storms that knock out power.