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Earth and Environmental Science
Contest fosters local solutions to global sustainability challenges
Contest fosters local solutions to global sustainability challenges
SoleProvider won the Sustainable Solutions competition created by rising senior Richard Ling. The automated texting system offers Philadelphia’s homeless a simple way to request a particular need and for users to fulfill it.
Keeping rain out of the drain
Keeping rain out of the drain
From cisterns beneath Shoemaker Green to the green roof on New College House, special features of campus buildings and landscapes are helping manage stormwater to keep rain from the sewer lines, and scholars are using the infrastructure as a research opportunity.
A unique perspective on renewable energy
A unique perspective on renewable energy
In a conversation with Rachel Kyte, the U.N. special representative and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All discusses how this energy sector has changed in the past decade and what happens when political will doesn’t match the science.
Predilections of a destructive pest
Predilections of a destructive pest
The spotted lanternfly is emerging as a serious threat to agriculture and forested areas. At The Woodlands Cemetery near campus, Benjamin Rohr hopes to determine the types of trees the insect prefers to shape control strategies moving forward.
With unprecedent threats to nature at hand, how to turn the tide
With unprecedent threats to nature at hand, how to turn the tide
One million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction due to human activity, according to a U.N. assessment issued earlier this month. Here, experts highlight the report’s major messages and offer ideas for moving from inertia to action to stem threats to biodiversity.
A sense of place on shifting shores
A sense of place on shifting shores
Roderick Coover, whose work merges cinema, science, and history, is the 2019 Mellon Artist-in-Residence for the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH). His recent film “Toxi-City: A Climate Change Narrative” screened at PPEH’s “Teaching and Learning with Rising Waters” event.
Five events to watch for in May
Five events to watch for in May
Happening around campus this May: the second-annual Sachs Grant Awards, the Philadelphia Children’s Festival, and the screening of a 1930s Hollywood B-movie.
Protecting the planet at Penn
Protecting the planet at Penn
Earth Day and every day, the University community is at work to make the world a little better. Here are some highlights from those efforts.
The Green New Deal: What it says, what it doesn’t say, and how close we are to adopting it
The Green New Deal: What it says, what it doesn’t say, and how close we are to adopting it
Mark Alan Hughes, director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, discusses the basics of this energy-mobilization proposal.
Confronting inequities, sharing solutions
Confronting inequities, sharing solutions
At the annual meeting of the Global Water Alliance, faculty, students, and practitioners shared solutions and challenges around the issues of water access, sanitation, and hygiene in the U.S. and around the world.
In the News
Associated Press
Here’s why experts don’t think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai’s downpour
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that many people blaming cloud seeding for Dubai storms are climate change deniers trying to divert attention from what’s really happening.
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Salon.com
“Record-shattering” heat wave in Antarctica — yep, climate change is the culprit
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that persistent summer weather extremes like heat waves are becoming more common as people continue to warm the planet with carbon pollution.
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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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