all Michael B. McElroy stories

McElroy says it's time to stop seeing global warming as political issue

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:56 -0400

Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and director of Harvard's Center for the Environment, is among the scientists who since the 1970s have been using paleoclimatic data to chart changes in the earth's atmosphere. To obtain these data, researchers drill several kilometers down into polar ice sheets and extract gases from the tiny air bubbles trapped inside. Through these, says McElroy, "you can not only infer a surrogate for temperature, but you can also measure the composition of the atmosphere at that point in the earth's history.

'Evergreen Revolution' called for

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:10:56 -0400

M.S. Swaminathan, a world-renowned agricultural scientist, outlined a plan that focuses on educating women in developing countries, getting new technology out to rural areas, and incorporating into farming practices scientific advances such as genetically engineered crops and new techniques to conserve water. "If the future is to be truly sustainable, it must have all these factors: economics, equity, and employment," said Swaminathan, who addressed about 100 people who gathered March 9, 2001, in the Science Center at Harvard University. Swaminathan's lecture was sponsored by the University Committee on the Environment, the School of Public Health's Program on Water and Health, the Working Group on Environmental Justice and the Education Development Center Inc.

Helping clear the air in China

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:08:14 -0400

Across China's industrial areas, black soot settles into people's lungs and bronchial tubes, producing an annual epidemic of respiratory disease. That's the result of heating homes, schools, and offices with coal. In the past, Chinese policy-makers paid only a small amount of attention to the pollution issue, believing that to force companies to clean up their smoky pollution would hold back progress. Such a policy, it was widely thought, would not be in the country's best long-term interests, regardless of the health gains that might be made. But what if it were possible to calculate the economic costs of air pollution? If Chinese officials knew how much their country was paying for air pollution, wouldn't they be more motivated to do something about the problem?