Mar 4, 2020

Growing concern around climate change has ignited recent interest in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies and generated a series of studies on its global market potential.

Mar 9, 2020

Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program, speaks with Joseph Aldy, professor of the practice of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The discussion covers Aldy's experience in government service, and the prospects for meaningful and effective climate change policy in the United States.

Mar 26, 2020

Joseph Nye writes that while trade wars have set back economic globalization,  the environmental globalization represented by pandemics and climate change is unstoppable. Borders are becoming more porous to everything from drugs to infectious diseases to cyber terrorism, and the United States must use its soft power of attraction to develop networks and institutions that address these new threats.

Mar 26, 2020

In this paper, a quantitative Waste to Energy Recovery Assessment (WERA) framework is used to stochastically analyze the feasibility of waste-to-energy systems in selected cities in Asia.

Mar 26, 2020

In this edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff and Professor Joseph Aldy explore the role of climate-change and broader environmental policy in the U.S. federal government’s emergency economic stimulus funding package.

Mar 27, 2020

Columbia University Professor Scott Barrett assessed the massive global efforts underway to address COVID-19 and the potential impacts of the pandemic on our lives in the future in a special episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Mar 27, 2020

Columbia University Professor Scott Barrett assessed the massive global efforts underway to address COVID-19 and the potential impacts of the pandemic on our lives in the future in a special episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Listen to the interview here.

Apr 1, 2020

Today’s economic crisis leaves us with an unsettling and perplexing regret. Why weren’t financial portfolios already adjusted for risks that stem from health events such as pandemics? After all, financial portfolios are adjusted for liquidity risks, market risks, credit risks, and even operational and political risks.

Apr 2, 2020

In a recent podcast interview, Robert Stavins and Scott Barrett discussed lessons from historic pandemics, how economists can help with policymaking surrounding the coronavirus, and what the “post-pandemic economic equilibrium” might look like. Resources Magazine has published an abridged version of their conversation.

Apr 3, 2020

Robert Stavins: Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Finding the Best Policies to Fight COVID-19

Apr 6, 2020

The Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute co-hosted a workshop with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government entitled, Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean. The event convened global thought leaders, diverse stakeholders, and subject matter experts to begin developing a framework for tackling Arctic marine plastic pollution as one of the focus areas for the Icelandic Chairmanship. 

Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”

Apr 8, 2020

Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, shared her perspectives on how large organizations are changing in response to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change in the newest episode of "Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program," a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Listen to the interview here. Listen to the interview here.

Apr 20, 2020

Harvard University has created a Presidential Committee on Sustainability (PCS) to advise President Larry Bacow and the University's leadership on sustainability vision, goals, strategy, and partnerships. The Harvard Gazette spoke with committee chairs Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor; John Holdren, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; and Katie Lapp, executive vice president, about why it is so important to act now; the role of the PCS in developing collaborative and innovative projects; and how the campus community can get involved.

Apr 21, 2020

The Arctic Initiative is pairing policy and science scholars with local experts to find practical climate solutions.

Apr 22, 2020

In October 2019, the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center's Polar Institute co-hosted a workshop on Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council asked Magnús Jóhannesson, the Council's designated Special Coordinator on Plastics Pollution and Marine Litter, and Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit at the Saami Council — who both participated in the workshop — to comment on some of the points that the report raises.

Apr 26, 2020

Joseph Nye suggests that a new U.S. administration might take a leaf from the success of the post-1945 American presidents that are described in Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump. The United States could launch a massive COVID-19 aid program like the Marshall Plan.

Apr 29, 2020

Joel Clement appeared on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront on April 23, 2020.  In this blog post for the Union of Concerned Scientists, he elaborates on what he wishes he had said during that interview.

May 1, 2020

Joel Clement describes how the Arctic is transforming into a warmer, wetter, and less predictable climate state, what the consequences are for the Arctic's indigenous inhabitants, and what measures can be taken to build resilience.

May 8, 2020

Sue Biniaz, former lead climate negotiator for the United States, shared her thoughts on the postponement of COP-26, and on the possible re-engagement of the U.S. in the international effort to address climate change in the newest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” a podcast produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Michael Pollan writes in the New York Times about the connection between the American diet and the cost of health care; Surprisingly, conservative writers like Marie-Josée Kravis are saying much the same thing,

The New York Times devotes an entire issue of the magazine to food, and of course, Michael Pollan has a place on the menu. He takes our our beloved KFC double down sandwich, Froot Loops being a smart choice, and

Photo by Jaymi Heimbuch Bioneers 2009 - a weekend-long gathering in San Rafael, California of social and scientific innovators focused on environmental issues - kicked off on Friday with Michael Pollan as a headlining speaker. His talk came in the

The Mandometer was originally developed to treat eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia nervosa; it was developed to "teach patients how to eat and recognize hunger and satiety." There are clinics using the technology in Sweden, the USA and

Oprah treated her audience to an in-depth look at sustainable, cruelty-free eating with a show that included appearances from Michael Pollan and Alicia Silverstone. While Pollan talked about how eating local, organic food can cost

We usually start with "A Picture is Worth", but in this case the thousand words are much more powerful. Boingboing quotes designer Justin Perricone: "This is a poster I designed using all of the ingredients in a Ham & Cheese Hot Pocket. First in a

Saul's is part of only a handful of delis refashioning themselves as sustainably sourced eateries. Located in the gourmet ghetto of North Berkeley near Alice

The first Freakonomics book was a lot of fun; the second less so, as it sort of devolved into "if the scientific consensus and/or coast-hugging liberal elite are for it, we are against it" type of thing. Hence Freakonomics Watch; or perhaps it should

Michael Pollan's first food rule is simple: Eat Food, which he considers to be a different thing than what he calls edible foodlike substances, or "highly processed concoctions designed by food scientists, consisting mostly of ingredients derived from

Almost every time we post something on the meat debate we get a slew of emotional comments from readers that sit on either side. The vegan side was backed up by sustainable food icon Michael

This weekend's New York Times Magazine was their annual food issue, about a subject dear to TreeHugger's heart: "how the food revolution- from farm to table- is really a story about seeding and savouring communities." Christine Muhlke, in Growing

All the foodies are outraged by the New York Times Expose on the marketing of cheese. The front page story While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales by Michael Moss describes how Dairy Management helps

Michael Pollan said in the Omnivore's Dilemma that if you eat industrially, you are made of corn. In Corporate Knights, "the magazine for clean capitalism", Toby A.A. Heaps picks up on this theme and looks at the causes

If you don't subscribe to the print version of Mother Jones you may have missed what seems to be a really sort of creepy story about how the US beef industry is not so subtly waging war against sustainable and slow

Via Calorielab we learn of yet another thing that makes you fat: eating at your desk. It appears that when you are not paying attention to your food, you eat more and remember less.Researchers at The Universty

Darya Pino of Summer Tomato prepared this terrific flow chart to help navigate the supermarket.Marion Nestle of Food Politics liked it, noting:

With guests Kathy Freston and Michael Pollan, Oprah dedicated her full show yesterday to veganism and meat production. She and her staffers went vegan for a week, some of them have decided to continue the diet (or go "veganish") even

Now Michael Pollan's Food Rules wasn't my favorite book of his, but it was a best-seller and a new edition is being written--and Pollan is in general a fine writer. To help craft it Pollan is partnering with Slow Food USA for a user-generated portion

The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's News21 program and Good Magazine have shortlisted the three finalists in a competition to design a better food label. They "asked for designs that were informative, instructive and

Attend your own green film fest at home with filmmakers' live Q&A

While you may not have heard of the Good Food Awards, there is a good chance you've enjoyed food from some of their winners. The not-for-profit organization celebrates not only the kind of food we should be eating but the kind we want to eat.

In an interview with Democracy Now!, Michael Pollan says taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step to help make our food system more sustainable.

Recommended reading from two of America's biggest food writers.