In an article for The Huffington Post about the Paris climate agreement, senior lecturer Jason Jay argues that the agreement “represents a possibility - that the world can come together and solve one of the most complex problems we face as a civilization.”
Prof. John Sterman writes for The Huffington Post about the Paris climate agreement. Sterman asks “Is the agreement a triumph, as the negotiators and heads of state declare, or another weak pronouncement that will do little to stave off climate catastrophe? The answer is both: The Paris agreement represents real progress. It also falls significantly short.”
A recent analysis by researchers from the MIT Sloan School of Management and Climate Interactive demonstrates how the structure of the Paris climate agreement “could lead to a scenario in which temperatures are held to about 1.8 C,” reports Chris Mooney for The Washington Post.
In a letter to The Boston Globe, a number of MIT faculty members argue that much more is known about climate change than a skeptic admitted in a recent opinion piece for the Globe. The authors write that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “presents strong evidence that more than half of the climate change seen in recent decades is human-driven.”
Prof. Jessika Trancik writes for The Christian Science Monitor that cutting greenhouse gas emissions can lower the cost of further cuts. Trancik explains that Paris climate talk pledges, “will support the development of cheaper low-carbon technologies, allowing industrialized nations to increase their commitments.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Evan Halper speaks with MIT Corporation member and alumna Leslie Dewan, co-founder of Transatomic Power, about nuclear energy and climate change. “I became a nuclear engineer because I am an environmentalist,” said Dewan. “The world needs a cheap source of carbon-free power.”
In an article for the Financial Times, Martin Sandbu argues that renewable energy should be seen as an opportunity for investment, highlighting an MIT report on renewable energy costs. The report documents the “extraordinary fall in renewable electricity generation costs and the good reason to expect them to continue to fall.”
Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley writes about a new MIT study that found trade may not help countries cope with climate-induced agricultural problems. The researchers found countries needed the “ability to substitute new crops for the ones that don’t grow as well under climate change.”
Senior lecturer John Reilly writes for CNN about how to effectively combat climate change. “I am confident that sound economic measures—a broad carbon price—will unleash the creativity of people and industry to use existing solutions and invent new ones,” he explains.
Scientific American reporter David Biello writes about the growth of clean energy technologies, highlighting a new MIT report that finds that commitments from the U.S., Europe and China to cut greenhouse gas emissions could drive cost reductions in wine and solar technologies.
Prof. Maria Zuber, Vice President for Research, speaks with WGBH Morning Edition host Bob Seay about MIT’s plan to confront climate change. Underscoring the need to engage everyone in the solution -- academic research institutions, governments and industry -- Zuber remarked, "MIT, although we're a top institution, we are humble enough to realize that we can't do this alone. Climate change is a complex problem, it's a global problem, and it's going to require all the smart people... to scale up and make this a global solution."
In an article for USA Today, Colin Chilcoat highlights a study co-authored by Prof. Elfatih Eltahir that indicates that climate change could cause the Persian Gulf to experience severe heat with greater regularity. Greenhouse-gas buildup could raise “temperatures to intolerable seasonal highs and [increase] the frequency and severity of extreme heat waves,” writes Chilcoat.
In an op-ed published by The Christian Science Monitor, Prof. Robert Armstrong of the MIT Energy Initiative argues that tackling climate change must be a common cause. “To achieve the kind of sustainable future we will want our grandchildren to inherit, we need everyone on board.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi writes for The Wall Street Journal that businesses need to safeguard their supply chains against “black swan” events, rare situations that wreak havoc. Sheffi explains that the “changing nature of supply chains has made it more important to consider the potential impact of the black-swan event.”
“A study predicting deadly heat waves in the Persian Gulf by the century’s end has underscored concerns about the effects of rising global temperatures on cities in other parts of the world, including the United States,” writes Joby Warrick of a new study co-authored by MIT researchers in a piece for The Washington Post.