Earth and Environmental Science

Kathleen Morrison on biodiversity and climate change

The faculty director of the Environmental Innovations Initiative, her research spans anthropology, archaeology, and paleoecology, involving the study of historic climates and environments, with a focus on South Asia.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

The soils beneath the solar fields

How do solar farms impact soil health? It’s a question that master’s student Hannah Winn is exploring at the central Pennsylvania site where solar energy production is helping Penn progress toward carbon neutrality.

Katherine Unger Baillie

COP28 takeaways

Perry World House Fellows and Advisors Lolita Jackson, Stephen Hammer, and Wolfgang Blau offered their insights from the conference in a discussion last week, moderated by Perry World House Interim Director Michael Weisberg.

Kristen de Groot



In the News


Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Scientists struggle to explain ‘really weird’ spike in world temperatures

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that tendencies to exaggerate climate science in favor of “doomist” narratives helps no one except the fossil fuel industry.

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Vox.com

Spring is here very early. That’s not good

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that plant-flowering, tree-leafing, and egg-hatching are all markers associated with spring that are happening sooner.

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The New York Times

We don’t have time for climate misinformation

In a co-written Op-Ed, Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that meaningful decarbonization in the U.S. is in jeopardy of being blocked or slowed if a significant portion of the electorate does not accept the basic scientific facts and implications of climate change.

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NPR

A famous climate scientist is in court, with big stakes for attacks on science

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences is suing a right-wing author and a policy analyst for defamation against the “hockey stick” climate change graph.

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USA Today

‘Category 5’ was considered the worst hurricane. There’s something scarier, study says

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Earth is experiencing a new class of monster storms thanks to the effects of human-caused warming.

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CNN

The Doomsday Clock reveals how close we are to total annihilation

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the Doomsday Clock, while an imperfect metaphor, remains an important rhetorical device to remind people of the tenuousness of their current existence.

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