Energy & Environment
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For Climate Migrants, Does the Past Shape Current Perceptions of Conflict?
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As climate change has altered environments across the globe, it has caused mass migration. For example, an intense drought in Honduras recently led thousands of people to leave their homes and head north to Mexico for an opportunity to earn an agriculture-based living. In Honduras and many other countries impacted…
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The Impact of Sanctions on Iran’s Energy Sector
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The recent withdrawal of the United States from the multilateral Iran Nuclear deal (commonly known as JCPOA) reimposes American sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil and natural gas. The decision from the Trump administration will have wide-reaching effects on everyone from bankers and insurers to international shipping companies and…
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Vulnerability: Agricultural Workers and Climate Change
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Since the broad discovery of climate change in the 1970s, researchers and scientists have attempted to understand its wide-ranging effects. Previous studies have extensively examined the relationship of climate to water access, human health, economic development, and global food supply. But as researchers tend to focus on the larger-scale threats…
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Does Fracking Put Infants at Risk?
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The emergence and development of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” has had a substantial impact on global energy production. In the United States, this process, by which water and other chemicals are forced into buried shale rock to extract natural gas and oil, has boosted energy self-sufficiency, led to…
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Increasing the value of energy storage in the wholesale electricity market
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The proliferation of renewable energy such as wind and solar power is rapidly changing the United States’ electrical grid. The growth of renewables has created a need for flexible resources capable of responding quickly to variability in electrical generation—a challenging characteristic of solar and wind power, but one that can…
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How the EPA is Generating Grassroots Support for its Mission
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Less than a month after the 2016 elections, a lame duck session of Congress passed the bipartisan Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Act of 2016, granting federal agencies explicit authority to advance their missions in partnership with individuals, private and nonprofit entities, and foreign governments through crowdsourcing and citizen science. Citizen…
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The Conservation Effects of a Variable Tax on Groundwater Withdrawal
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In the United States, water resources have been historically plentiful, and groundwater consumption is generally not well-managed. However, as demand increases and the effects of climate change strain groundwater resources, the need to monitor consumption habits rises. Policymakers must undertake the challenge of striking a balance between economic performance of…
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What are the True Costs of Natural Disasters?
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With a year that included severe monsoon flooding in Bangladesh, earthquakes in Mexico, and hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 2017 was an exceptionally bad year for natural disasters. Policies can help mitigate these tragedies, but to start we must better understand a disaster’s true costs. Conventional metrics consider…
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Can Vehicle Automation Help Us Save Energy?
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Technology for automated vehicles has developed rapidly over the past few years. The vehicles’ safety and convenience make them increasingly popular. At the same time, it has necessitated the introduction of new legislation to regulate an expanding market. On September 12, 2017, the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA)…
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Can Geo-Simulations Provide A Roadmap to Better Disaster Response?
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The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the priciest on record, mirroring a global trend of natural disasters becoming more expensive. Understanding the impacts of these natural disasters has become increasingly important. Researchers often model these impacts by creating relationships between indicators such as hurricane wind speed, predicted costs…
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Can a Low-Carbon Economy Grow GDP?
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In the face of climate change, the most effective way to ensure that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are slowed or stopped is by transitioning to a low-carbon economy. From an economic standpoint, however, this switch is no easy feat. A recently published study from the World Bank focuses on two…