Magazine

Benjamin Alexander, City University of New York Eighty-five years ago, on April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order allocating US$10 million for “Emergency Conservation Work.” This step launched one of the New Deal’s signature relief programs: the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. Its mission was to put unemployed Americans to work […]

Greg Dotson, University of Oregon The Trump administration is poised to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, it could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the Chinese. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is expected

Eric Hittinger, Rochester Institute of Technology and Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology The market for energy storage on the power grid is growing at a rapid clip, driven by declining prices and supportive government policies. Based on our research on the operation and costs of electricity grids, especially the benefits of new technologies, we

Jeffrey French, University of Wyoming and Sarah Tessendorf,  University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Water is a valuable resource that affects nearly all aspects of life on earth. It also is limited, so people use a variety of methods to ensure that supply meets demand. One such technique is cloud seeding – adding particles to the atmosphere

Naga Srujana Goteti, Rochester Institute of Technology; Eric Hittinger, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology Carbon-free energy: Is the answer blowing in the wind? Perhaps, but the wind doesn’t always blow, nor does the sun always shine. The energy generated by wind and solar power is intermittent, meaning that the

Katherine Levine Einstein, Boston University; David Glick, Boston University, and Maxwell Palmer, Boston University Despite almost universal scientific consensus that climate change poses a growing threat, President Donald Trump’s recent infrastructure plan makes no mention of the need to build resilience to rising global temperatures. Instead, it actually seeks to weaken environmental reviews as a

Johan Hollander, Lund University It is rare to encounter a scientific fact that stirs widespread debate and distrust quite like the matter of climate change. Despite consensus among climate specialists about a theory that is supported by a mountain of facts from the physical, natural, and cultural sciences, the debate continues to be perpetrated by

Joshua M. Pearce, Michigan Technological University Falling costs for solar power have led to an explosive growth in residential, commercial and utility-scale solar use over the past decade. The levelized cost of solar electricity using imported solar panels – that is, the solar electricity cost measured over the life of the panels – has dropped

By Janna Thompson, La Trobe University Let us imagine that humanity has almost died out and only a few people remain. Out of resentment or despair, the survivors cater to their destructive urges by destroying as much of the natural world as they can. They poison rivers and lakes, drop napalm on forests, set off a

By Jason Kirk, Elon University The World Bank, which provides developing countries about US$60 billion a year in financial assistance, is officially phasing out its support for the oil and gas industries. This move brings its actions more in sync with its overarching commitment to slowing the pace of climate change and keeping the Paris