Environments & Sustainability

Urgent prep work

Humanitarian relief workers and climate scientists gathered in Cambridge this week to discuss the connection between climate change and humanitarian disasters and what relief workers can learn from science.

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Posted in Alvin Powell, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Climate Change, Daniel Schrag, Environments & Sustainability, Global Warming, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University Center for the Environment, HarvardScience, humanitarian relief, Jennifer Leaning, Michael VanRooyen, Natural disaster, prediction | Comments Off

Cambridge, Harvard, and MIT sign compact

The city of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have signed a “Community Compact for a Sustainable Future,” aimed at leveraging the intellectual and entrepreneurial capacity of the public-private sectors in Cambridge to build a healthy, livable, and sustainable future.

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Posted in Akamai Technologies, Campus & Community, Christoph Reinhart, City Manager Robert Healy, city of cambridge, Community Compact for a Sustainable Future, Drew Faust, Energy, Environments & Sustainability, Harvard, Harvard Graduate School of Design, In the Community, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mayor Henrietta Davis, MIT, MIT President L. Rafael Reif, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Record temperatures, sea level, Sustainability, Sustainable future, Whole Foods | Comments Off

How to protect cyclists

Four Harvard School of Public Health students presented recommendations to the Boston City Council on how to make Boston a safer city for cyclists.

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Posted in Aaron Pervin, Accident, Alvin Powell, Ayanna Pressley, bicycle, bike safety, Boston City Council, Boston Police Department, Center for Public Health Leadership, City of Boston, Claire Albert, Environments & Sustainability, Fawn Phelps, Felix Arroyo, Harvard School of Public Health, HarvardScience, Hubway, Jack Danilecki, John McDonough, Marie McIntee, Safety, spring exercise, Sustainability, Temitope Olukowi | Comments Off

Building with an eye on the sky

Real estate developer Jonathan Rose highlighted recent progress in incorporating green features into affordable housing projects, saying America’s cities provide an energetic counterpoint to the stagnation in Washington, D.C.

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Posted in Alvin Powell, Climate Change, Daniel Schrag, Environmental justice, Environments & Sustainability, Future of Energy, Global Warming, green buildings, Harvard University Center for the Environment, HarvardScience, Jonathan Rose, Jonathan Rose Companies | Comments Off

Pitcher plants provide tipping point

New research out of the Harvard Forest offers insight on exactly when the tipping point occurs that can disrupt the intricate web of life in a lake.

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Posted in Aquatic ecosystems, Environmental, Environments & Sustainability, Harvard Forest, Harvard Forest Summer Research Program, HarvardScience, Jennie Sirota, Pitcher plant, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Water pollution | Comments Off

Earth feels impact of middle class

The rise of the middle class is a bigger environmental challenge than the rising global population, according to Sir David King, the former science adviser to the British government, who urged the adoption of sustainable development as a way to manage growing global demands in a finite world.

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Posted in Alvin Powell, Climate Change, Daniel Schrag, David King, Economic Development, Environments & Sustainability, Fossil Fuels, Future of Energy Lecture Series, Global Warming, Harvard University Center for the Environment, HarvardScience, Middle Class, Oil, Population | Comments Off

Warmth across 600 years

Harvard researchers are adding nuance to our understanding of how modern and historical temperatures compare.

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Posted in Environments & Sustainability, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Global Warming, HarvardScience, Martin Tingley, Nature, Peter Huybers, Peter Reuell, temperature increase, temperatures | Comments Off

Space and climate change

A lecturer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says that “dark clouds of gas and dust have the potential to alter Earth’s climate.

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Posted in CFA, Climate. Magnetic field, clouds, David Aguilar, Environments & Sustainability, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, HarvardScience, Heliosphere, Katherine Wyman, Observatory nights | Comments Off

Finalists selected in President’s Challenge

Harvard University today announced the selection of 10 teams of finalists in the 2013 President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship.

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Posted in 013 President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship, Alan Garber, Arts, Campus & Community, Diasaster relief, disaster preparation, Drew Faust, Energy, Environments & Sustainability, Gordon Jones, Harvard Innovation Lab, Health, i-lab, Learning, On Campus, President's Challenge, William Sahlman | Comments Off

A vision of floating cities

With the world’s sea levels rising and posing a long-term threat to coastal cities, Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi suggests building houses that float, but, taken together, still function as a community.

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Posted in African Water Cities, Corydon Ireland, Environments & Sustainability, H.W.J. “Henk” Ovink, Harvard African Development Conference, HarvardScience, Kunle Adeyemi, Makoko, Makoko Floating School, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, NLÉ, United Nations Development Programme | Comments Off