What We’re Reading: May 12, 2016

Harvard to ban members of single-sex clubs from student leadership roles (Guardian)
by Alan Yuhas
“Harvard University will bar members of single-sex clubs, fraternities and sororities from fellowships and leadership roles on campus, college president Drew Gilpin Faust announced on Friday, in an effort to prevent sexual discrimination.”

Should We Really Be Keeping Cats And Dogs — And Geckos — As Pets? (NPR)
by Barbara J. King
“The pet industry encourages people to buy pets, and the way animals are advertised and sold gives the impression that pet keeping is easy and fun. You can buy an animal for less than you can buy a new pair of shoes. And this makes it easy to underestimate the seriousness of the decision to bring an animal into our homes, and feeds into an attitude that animals are disposable.”

North Carolina’s ‘bathroom bill’ battle embarrasses residents on both sides (Guardian)
by Matthew Teague and Lawrence Richards
“Every level of government – local, state, federal – has now asserted itself over the one below, like a series of civic nested dolls. Along the way, the contention has grown from a dispute over bathrooms to encompass civil rights protections for all lesbian, gay and transgender residents. The sequence of doings and undoings began in Charlotte, the state’s financial center.”

Germany had so much renewable energy on Sunday that it had to pay people to use electricity (Quartz)
by Michael J. Coren
“Critics have argued that because of the daily peaks and troughs of renewable energy—as the sun goes in and out and winds rise and fall—it will always have only a niche role in supplying power to major economies. But that’s looking less and less likely. Germany plans to hit 100% renewable energy by 2050, and Denmark’s wind turbines already at some points generate more electricity than the country consumes, exporting the surplus to Germany, Norway and Sweden.”

Finished reading? Check out Reply All’s “Milk Wanted,” an incredible podcast episode about how hard it is to obtain breastmilk in the United States.