Environment

Explained: Radiative forcingWhen there’s more energy radiating down on the planet than there is radiating back out to space, something’s going to have to heat up

Action needed to save climate, create jobsMIT Energy Conference speakers see need to boost clean-energy businesses through a price on carbon and incentives for manufacturing

3 Questions: Hunt Allcott on behavioral economics and the energy crisisCan understanding human irrationality help solve our energy problems? An MIT researcher explains

Ecological balancing actPhytoplankton diversity depends on balance between competition and the ocean’s physical dynamics, new research suggests

Ancient hurricanesIntense hurricane activity millions of years ago may have caused and sustained warmer climate conditions, new research suggests

John Heywood on reducing greenhouse gas emissionsPresented by Transportation@MIT

MIT's chapter of Engineers Without Borders launches first projectStudents hope to bring electricity and clean water to Ugandan health clinic

A silver lining to the Copenhagen cloud?Though widely seen as a failure, December’s climate conference may actually have set the world on the right path, panelists suggest

CRTs going down the tubes? HardlySurprisingly, old-style television sets and computer screens are still in demand — to make new TV sets

Power from down underEarth’s own heat could provide vast amounts of clean electricity, and current MIT research could help make it feasible

Architecture student wins $15K in worldwide competitionProposal Would Create Large Recreational Network in Mumbai

Reporter's Notebook: Even in the cold, Clover is hotCampus food truck is filmed for upcoming TLC show

Figuring out where to put the carbonIf we plan to keep using fossil fuels, we need to figure out how to sequester the resulting carbon dioxide. New tools from MIT could help evaluate where to do it — and how to keep it contained.

The Future of Urban MobilityA Global Collaboration to Make Urban Transport Sustainable

Not easy being greenMIT historian Harriet Ritvo explains how a battle to save an English lake helped found modern environmentalism — but might worry greens today

MIT’s big wheel in CopenhagenNew bicycle wheel not only boosts power, but also can keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic

Harnessing the world’s collective intelligence to deal with climate changeClimate Collaboratorium lets the public review the impacts of plans now being discussed and debated internationally

MIT goes to CopenhagenDelegation of MIT professors, students and alumni attend historic global warming conference to present research and report on event

3 Questions: Henry Jacoby on CopenhagenThe co-director of MIT’s Global Change program discusses what to expect from the U.N. Climate Change Conference, and the effects of ‘Climategate’

Solving history’s ‘largest mass poisoning’Research points to carbon in man-made ponds as catalyst for arsenic contamination in Bangladeshi wells

Of Note: MIT celebrates America Recycles Day

Good food nationMIT researchers think America's obesity epidemic can be reversed via ‘foodsheds,’ in which healthier, more affordable food is produced and consumed regionally.

Energy, environment, health care discussed at annual Systems Thinking ConferenceOn Oct. 22-23, MIT faculty and industry leaders discussed the need for a systems-based approach to tackle complex challenges such as health care, energy, and the environment at the 2009 MIT conference on systems thinking for contemporary challenges.

The politics of climate fixesJudith Layzer says there’s no easy way out when it comes to climate change — but that geo-engineering might be a last-ditch solution.

3 Questions: Sergey Paltsev on the costs of climate-change legislationMIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change has pegged the annual cost of the proposed cap-and-trade legislation in Congress at $400 per U.S. household. But estimating the cost of doing nothing is far more difficult.

Renewable fuels may have hidden costs, study saysNew analysis shows that without proper regulation, biofuels programs aimed at curbing greenhouse gases could do just the opposite