All environment stories

Policy can empower technological climate change solution

404132862 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:12:00 -0400

The chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming struck an optimistic tone about the planet’s climate crisis last night, saying that an energy revolution is in the offing if government can just get the policy right.

Are building environmental and health disasters result of climate change?

404132862 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:11:15 -0500

Disagreement over the public health impact of global warming emerged in a symposium this morning at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The colloquium, titled “Sustaining Human Health in a Changing Global Environment,” addressed what hazards can be expected as a result of rapid and continuing climate change.

Engineered weathering process might mitigate climate change

404132862 — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:34:16 -0500

Researchers at Harvard University and Penn State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human emissions.

By electrochemically removing hydrochloric acid from the ocean and then neutralizing the acid by reaction with silicate (volcanic) rocks, the researchers say they can accelerate natural chemical weathering, permanently transferring CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean. Unlike other ocean sequestration processes, the new technology does not further acidify the ocean and may be beneficial to coral reefs.

Over the river, through the woods

jake — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:43:32 -0400

For close to 30 Hyde Park preschool children, a recent trip to the Arnold Arboretum, the majestic 265-acre botanical garden run by Harvard University in Jamaica Plain, meant a journey to a world alive with natural wonders and surprises.

In a grove of horse chestnut and buckeye trees flooded with late afternoon sunlight and autumn’s shades of ginger and honey, the eager 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds filed off a bus and paired with volunteer guides from the arboretum. Together they explored their colorful environment, examining the leaves on the trees, inspecting their trunks, and carefully studying the fallen chestnuts that littered the ground.

Biologists remember landmark theory

404132862 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:12:41 -0400

Forty years ago, Edward O. Wilson and Robert H. MacArthur described how size and isolation determine how many species an island can support. Last week, biologists gathered to mark the theory’s anniversary, calling it a “pivotal point” in ecology’s relatively short history.

Professor Lord Robert May of Oxford University said the word “ecology” — which describes the interaction between an organism and its environment — was coined just a little more than a century ago. By the 1960s, he said, the science of ecology was still mainly a descriptive one, lacking theories to tie together the observations by scientists in the field.

Harvard brings the Earth to high school

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:16:26 -0400

Steam vents in Yellowstone National Park are part of the area’s unique environment, seen in a case study exploring Yellowstone and the reintroduction of wolves into the park. This case study is part of a new environmental science course for high school science teachers.

Harvard scientists and media specialists unveiled an online environmental science course Monday (Oct. 1) aimed at high school teachers and, through them, high school students — the future inheritors of the Earth’s environmental problems.

The course, called “The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science,” features a scientific “dream team” of experts from Harvard and elsewhere who describe their fields, relevant problems, and potential solutions in a series of online videos.

Digging for solutions to energy crisis

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:20:06 -0400

In the 1970s, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it is one of the richest, with a per capita GDP higher than that of Denmark, from which it won full independence in 1944.

How did it accomplish this remarkable transformation? A key element was the shift from imported coal and oil to geothermal energy. Iceland now uses geothermal energy to generate a large portion of its electricity and nearly all of its heating needs.

Harvard to limit greenhouse gas emissions in new Allston construction

404132862 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:15:17 -0400

Harvard University this week reiterated its long-standing commitment to improving the environment, voluntarily agreeing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings constructed on its Allston campus in ways that will keep those emissions levels well below current national standards for similar facilities. This commitment begins with the Allston Science Complex, the first project in Harvard’s 20-year master plan.

The agreement between the University and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) ensures that the four-building, 589,000 square-foot Allston Science Complex will produce only half the greenhouse gas emissions of a typical laboratory building already meeting current national standards.

“This is a first,” EEA Secretary Ian Bowles said of the University’s commitment. “Governor Deval Patrick and I applaud Harvard for its leadership in voluntarily capping greenhouse gas emissions from its Allston campus project,” he said. “Harvard’s Allston project will now be watched carefully around the country and I expect other institutions and states will step forward and take on similar commitments in the years to come,” Bowles added.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said this collaborative agreement between Harvard and the state “further advances our green vision for Boston. … This project appropriately demonstrates a deep commitment to the city and the state’s goals for sustainability,” Menino said.

According to the EEA, the voluntary agreement with Harvard is the first in the nation to legally bind a developer to reducing greenhouse gases beyond the current standards. Research has shown greenhouse gases to be a prominent cause of global warming. Harvard will be providing ongoing reports to confirm compliance with these requirements.

Chris Gordon, chief operating officer of the Allston Development Group, said that “Harvard’s Allston campus ultimately will be the University’s greatest expression of environmental sustainability. This agreement advances a long-standing environmental strategy that benefits both the University and the community, and reflects our continuing commitment to work with the state, city, and community to protect and improve the environment.”

Bowles issued three written decisions in accordance with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) in response to Harvard University’s proposed campus 20-year master plan for Allston. In these decisions, the secretary:

Determined that the proposed Allston Science Complex would not have any environmental impacts requiring further review under MEPA, and included a commitment to limit greenhouse gas emissions in the complex to 50 percent below current baseline standards;
Established the terms of future environmental review under MEPA of Harvard’s 20-year Allston master plan, which includes a commitment to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below current baseline standards;
Established a special review procedure for Harvard’s Allston campus development that, while maintaining the same environmental standards as under the standard MEPA review process, will allow for planning and environmental review to take place over several years, allowing specific projects to go forward concurrent with environmental review of the master plan.

Harvard’s voluntary commitment to cap Science Complex greenhouse gas emissions well below the nationally required level is another example of the environmental progress being made in Boston under the leadership of Mayor Menino. The Mayor’s Green Building Task Force has led to several green policies in force, including changes to the city’s zoning code requiring green buildings. Harvard has been working in partnership with the cities of Boston and Cambridge for several years to advance green building development and operations on its campus.

“Boston has an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by the year 2050 and is the first in the nation to have green building zoning, and this Science Center will achieve the US Green Building Council’s gold standard,”said Menino. “We have a campaign to plant 100,000 trees in neighborhoods throughout Boston, and Harvard has committed to planting thousands of trees in the Allston-Brighton area.”

Among strategies Harvard is implementing to reduce the environmental footprint of the new Science Complex are:

Including high performance building design minimizing heating and cooling losses;
Using cogeneration and microgrid distribution of power, geothermal wells, solar chimneys, and other renewable energy strategies to heat and cool the buildings;
Having extensive natural day lighting to reduce energy demand;
Including sophisticated ventilation and building controls strategies, the careful selection of energy efficient equipment, and high performance building systems such as motors, fans, lights, pumps, freezers, and fume hoods.

Other concepts under consideration for the new extended campus in Allston include the use of windmills, a geothermal loop, and the capturing of potential heating energy from the sewage system.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with the state and the city in tackling the critical issue of climate change and environmental sustainability as it relates to our campus development,” said Leith Sharp, director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative. “The Harvard community — staff, students, and faculty alike, understand that Harvard has a profound responsibility to the local, state, national, and international communities on addressing these issues.”

“Harvard is doing pioneering development in Allston on a project that is the way of the future in terms of research and technology,” said Paul Berkeley, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, the president of the Allston Civic Association, and a lifelong Allston resident. “In some ways this is new territory. Harvard is taking land once industrial that has been sitting for all these years and will transform it into an area that looks to the future. This is a unique opportunity to set the tone for how this building will be developed.”

Harvard has distinguished itself as an environmental leader for many years by adopting the recognized industry standard for sustainable design, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard, in over 26 building renovation and construction projects, expanding campus renewable energy projects and green power purchases, undertaking extensive campus waste reduction and recycling efforts, reducing single-occupant vehicle use, and meeting or exceeding all environmental compliance requirements. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative engages thousands of staff and students across the University in green practices by encouraging the Harvard community to be a living laboratory, a learning organization, and a global leader in campus sustainability. Harvard operates under University-wide campus sustainability principles. In combination, all of these efforts have set Harvard on a path to achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions across its campus.

Harvard launches major initiative to help design international climate agreements

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:54:08 -0400

Harvard University announced in early July a two-year project to help identify key design elements of a future international agreement on climate change, drawing on the ideas of leading thinkers from academia, private industry, government, and advocacy organizations, both in the industrialized world and in developing countries.

Ingenious use of indigenous tree reaps award

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:38:17 -0400

The jatropha tree is a humble — some might even say homely — plant, with large, maple-like leaves and clusters of inedible fruit that, when mature, look too brown and shriveled to be of much use to anyone. But to thousands of rural eastern and southern Africans, the jatropha is a beautiful thing. It represents hope that they’ll someday have electric lamps to light their homes, refrigerators to keep medicines and vaccines cold in local clinics, and computers and telephones in the schools and orphanages — hope for sustainable energy. And on Tuesday (May 8), the people behind that hope were honored with the 2007 Roy Family Environmental Award in a day of events at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG).

At Radcliffe, microbiologist explains 'biocomplexity'

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:24:01 -0400

The scientist who revolutionized the study of cholera paid a visit to Harvard this week.

On March 6, microbiologist and oceanographer Rita R. Colwell, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher, delivered the last in a series of science talks in the 2006-2007 Dean’s Lecture series at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

In three decades of research, Colwell has made major contributions to the understanding of cholera, an intestinal disease so ancient that its symptoms were first described in Sanskrit.

World's largest oil firm chief touts research to make fossil fuels 'cleaner'

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:39:26 -0400

The head of the world's largest oil company said that renewable sources can't meet the world's growing energy needs so research dollars should be aimed at both developing renewable sources and at making fossil fuels cleaner.

Abdallah S. Jum'ah, president and chief executive officer of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco, said that expected growth in the industrialized world coupled with a growing global population and industrialization of the developing world will significantly increase global energy needs over the next 25 years.

Green Campus Initiative looks at global environment

50443248 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:25:31 -0400

The Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) invites University faculty, staff, students, and alumni to its upcoming conference, titled "Harvard Vision 2020: A Bridge to Campus Sustainability," to contribute their thoughts on how Harvard can address the demands of environmental sustainability in its future campus design, development, and operations.

Global warming yields 'glacial earthquakes' in polar areas

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:25:43 -0400

Seismologists at Harvard University and Columbia University have found an unexpected offshoot of global warming: "glacial earthquakes" in which Manhattan-sized glaciers lurch unexpectedly, yielding temblors up to magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, the researchers found, are most common in July and August, and have more than doubled in number since 2002.

Scientists Göran Ekström and Victor C. Tsai at Harvard and Meredith Nettles at Columbia reported on Greenland's glacial earthquakes in the journal Science. Ekström, Nettles, and colleagues first described glacial earthquakes in 2003, but that report did not recognize the seasonality or growing frequency of the phenomenon.

Suzuki's passionate plea for change

50443248 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:33:49 -0400

David Suzuki, the Japanese-Canadian scientist and environmentalist, professed astonishment at having been awarded this year's Roger Tory Peterson medal from the Harvard Museum of Natural History. "I'm not a birder," Suzuki said, referring to the great ornithologist for whom the medal is named. "I've always been an insect and fish guy myself," he told his audience for the Peterson Memorial Lecture at the Science Center Sunday afternoon (March 19).