Sunday, April 28, 2024

Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - May 2024

These kinds of events below are happening all over the world every day and most of them, now, are webcast and archived, sometimes even with accurate transcripts. Would be good to have a place that helped people access them. This is a more global version of the local listings I did for about a decade (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html) until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s (https://theworld.com/~gmoke/AList.index.html).  


A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn’t already been done.  

If anyone knows of such a global listing of open energy, climate, and other events is available, please put me in contact.

Thanks for reading,
Solar IS Civil Defense,
George Mokray
gmoke@world.std.com

http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency 

https://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com - zero net energy links list

http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
http://geometrylinks.blogspot.com - geometry links list
http://hubevents.blogspot.com - Energy (and Other) Events
http://www.dailykos.com/user/gmoke/history - articles, ideas, and screeds

———
Index
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European Energy Security in Light of the War in Ukraine
Monday, April 29
12 – 1 p.m.
Salata Conference Room, Belfer 3.5, Harvard Kennedy School,79 JFK Street,Cambridge

---------- 

A Looming Famine: Starvation in Gaza Date & Time
Tuesday, April 30
11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online

----------

National Climate Resilience Framework: Food, Land and Water
Tuesday, April 30
3pm - 4pm ET [12pm to 1pm PT]
Online

-----------

From Data to Action: Leveraging Data Science for Effective Health Policy and Surveillance Against Emerging Infectious Disease Threats.
Tuesday, April 30
3:00 – 5:00 PM EST
BU, 72 East Concord St, Room L-403, Boston, MA 
And online

-----------

'True False, Hot Cold': Film Screening & Discussion
Tuesday, April 30
4:30pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 55, Atrium 21 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139

------------

ISO-NE Public Forum on the 2050 Transmission Study
Wednesday, May 1
10:00 a.m. (running for approximately 90 minutes)
Online

-----------

De-poisoning Catalysts for Sustainable Chemical Processing
Wednesday, May 1
12 – 1 p.m.
Online

----------

The Human Disease:  How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs
Wednesday, May 1
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 

-----------

Food Waste: Whose responsibility is it?
Thursday, May 2
9:00 - 10:30 ED [GMT-4]
Online

----------

Meeting Investor Expectations: Introducing the Nature Action 100 Company Benchmark 
Thursday, May 2
10:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online

----------

Future of Energy and Power Grids by 2050 Webinar-ICWS North America Chapter
Thursday, May 2
10 - 11:30am EDT
Online
Cost:  $45

----------

World Press Freedom Day - The Intersections of Press Freedom and the Environment
Thursday, May 2
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online

------------

Exploring Mars and the moon
Thursday, May 2
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Online

-----------

Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate
Thursday, May 2
4:30 pm – 5:45 pm
Princeton, McCosh Hall, Room 50, Princeton, NJ
And online

----------

American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion
Thursday, May 2
8:00PM ET
Online

----------

Processes of Dispossession, the Imminent Collapse of Tunisian Oases (and what can we do about it)
Friday, May 3
2 – 3:30 p.m.
Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge

----------

Beyond the Forecast: The Interplay of Climate Change and Health
Saturday, May 4
12pm EDT [9am MST]
Online

----------

The Spring 2024 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday,  May 4 
NOON to 2 pm
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday May 5, 12-2
at Fayette Park (near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Street)

----------

Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island Welcome Meeting
Sunday, May 5
3:00 PM

----------

Carbon and Biodiversity Consequences of Increasing Tree Cover in Savannas
Monday, May 6
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Princeton, Guyot Hall, Room 10, Princeton, NJ
And online

----------

Farming the Future: Livestock's Leap to Net Zero
Monday, May 6
4 PM ET
Online 

----------

Reducing GHG for Buildings and Industry Essential to Meeting 2030 and 2050 Targets
Monday, May 6 
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, Skilling Auditorium, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online

----------

Bridging the Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, and Development Nexus: Building systems for Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) for Populations Affected by War, Forced Displacement, and Resettlement through an Implementation Science Lens
Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 8
6:00am to 1:00pm

----------

Power & People Symposium: Mapping Community Exposure to Energy Infrastructure
Tuesday, May 7
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
BU, Building Center for Computing & Data Sciences (CDS), 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 1750, Boston, MA

----------

Get Smart Quickly on Climate Change from MIT
Tuesday, May 7
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online

----------

Bridging the Climate Science-Practice Divide through Community Engaged Research: Insights from the Caribbean
Tuesday, May 7
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Princeton, 10 Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online

-----------

Forum on The Boston Foundation's Food, Fuel and Shelter Fund 
Wednesday, May 8
9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 

----------

Making Climate Tech Work: Policies that Drive Innovation
Wednesday, May 8 
2:30pm to 3:20pm ET [11:30am to 12:20pm PT]
Stanford, Mitchell Earth Sciences, Room 350, 397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online

----------

How Might Genetic Technologies Contribute to Addressing Climate Change?
Wednesday, May 8
5-7 PM ET
BU Computing and Data Science (CDS) Conference Center17th floor, room CDS 1750, 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215

----------

Climate LIVE K12: Disasters and Climate Change in the Caribbean
Wednesday, May 8
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Online 

----------

Tropical Forest Resilience Under Global Change
Thursday, May 9 
11am - 12pm EDT
Online

----------- 

Webinar – States in Sync: The Western Win-Win Transmission Opportunity
Thursday, May 9
2 p.m. ET
Online

----------

MIT D-Lab End-of-Semster Student Showcase
Thursday, May 9
7:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT D-Lab, 310 Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

-----------

Autonomous Vehicles and the City 2024
Friday, May 10
4:30pm Et [1:30 PM PDT]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
Cost:  $0 -$25

----------- 

Finish What We Started:  The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy
Friday, May 10
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 

----------

The Move To Zero - How To Get To True Carbon Neutrality
Monday, May 13
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, Skilling Auditorium, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online

------------

Soil to Foil: Minerals for Sustainable Infrastructure 
Tuesday, May 14
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

-----------

Living Between Worlds, with Grace, Dignity, and Power
Wednesday, May 15
3:00 PM
Online

-----------

The Green Giants: Industry in 2050
Thursday, May 16
9:00 - 10:30 ET [GMT-4]
Online

----------

Mind and Matter: Healing and Mental Health in a Conflict-Driven World
Thursday, May 16
1:00 PM EDT TO 2:00 PM EDT
Online

-----------

Freeman’s Challenge:  The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit
Friday, May 17
7:00 PM ET Location
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

----------

Climate Mobilities: “Justice, Data, and Governance”
Monday, May 20  - Tuesday, May 21
Princeton, Robertson Hall, Bowl 16, Princeton, NJ
And online

-----------

Simulating Global Climate, Energy, and Land Futures
Monday, May 20
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
And online

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Living in a Future City
Tuesday, May 21
9:00 - 11:00 ED [GMT-4]
Online

-------------

The Light Eaters! 
Tuesday, May 21
7pm 
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

------------

Undue Burden:  Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America
Tuesday, May 21
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

-----------

Using Technology to Eliminate Hidden Emissions of the Furniture Industry 
Wednesday, May 22
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online

----------

Solve at MIT 2024
Wednesday, May 22
2:00pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building W16: Kresge Auditorium, 48 MASSACHUSETTS AVE, Cambridge, MA 02139

------------

Scaling Sustainability Innovation: Insights from DOE and Beyond - A Conversation with Dr. Steve Chu
Wednesday, May 22
2:30pm to 3:20pm ET [11:30am to 12:20pm PT]
Stanford, Mitchell Earth Sciences, 350, 397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online

----------

The Walls Have Eyes!
Wednesday, May 22
7pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

----------

Transitioning to the Future Grid in MA 
Thursday, May 23
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 600 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA 02210

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The Last Human Job!
Friday, May 24
7pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

----------

Building Social Capital for Climate Resilient Communities
Thursday, June 6
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA 02210
And online
Cost:  $15 - $45

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The History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future 
Friday, June 7
9:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday, June 8
9am to 3pm
MIT, Building E51, 115 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142

———— 
Events
———— 

European Energy Security in Light of the War in Ukraine
Monday, April 29
12 – 1 p.m.
Salata Conference Room, Belfer 3.5, Harvard Kennedy School,79 JFK Street,Cambridge
RSVP at https://web.cvent.com/event/06654215-58e9-4733-bd06-4d188bafaacc/regPage:126c5edf-8f2c-4a16-97d0-8a8e9eeeda4e

SPEAKER(S) Jozef Síkela, Czech Republic's Minister of Industry and Trade.
Discussion moderated by Dustin Tingley
Professor of Government in the Government Department and Deputy Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University.

The Salata Institute for Climate & Sustainability invites you for a discussion with Jozef Síkela, the Czech Republic's Minister of Industry and Trade, moderated by Dustin Tingley, Professor of Government in the Government Department and Deputy Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University. Lunch will be provided.

Jozef Síkela has spent most of his career as a banker and gradually managed to become one of the highest-ranked officials in the Erste Group. Shortly after being appointed the Minister of Industry and Trade, he chaired four ministerial councils, including the Energy Council as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, and succeeded in replacing Russian energy supplies by safeguarding alternative energy sources.

CONTACT INFO laura_hanrahan@harvard.edu

—————

A Looming Famine: Starvation in Gaza Date & Time
Tuesday, April 30
11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iunXWSKOSGySlZVJWMOn-w#/registration

Join the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights for a conversation about the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. According to the Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, and using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza which is a war crime according to international law. Our speakers will be Alex de Waal, an expert on mass starvation and the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation, Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, and Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the Gaza United Nations sub-office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories. The webinar will be moderated by FXB’s Director of Research, Professor Jacqueline Bhabha, JD, MSc. This webinar is co-sponsored by the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

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National Climate Resilience Framework: Food, Land and Water
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 
3pm - 4pm ET [12pm to 1pm PT]
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZoB3jvk8S7CRgmnoxnmhww#/registration

Released in September 2023, the US government's first-ever National Climate Resilience Framework establishes a vision for a climate-resilient nation and guidance for resilience-related activities and investments by the federal government and its partners. The framework establishes six objectives, but much still needs to be done to identify priorities within each and determine how to coordinate implementation from the federal government all the way down to local communities.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 30th for the second webinar in the National Climate Resilience Framework: From Ideas to Action series, presented by the Resilience Roadmap project. You'll hear from Stanford scholars and other experts about implementation of the Framework’s Objective 5: to sustainably manage lands and waters to enhance resilience while providing other benefits.    

This session will feature perspectives from:
Ertharin Cousin, Founder and CEO, Food Systems for the Future
Dylan McDowell, Executive Director, National Caucus of Environmental Legislators
Khalid Osman, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Moderator: Chris Field, Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

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From Data to Action: Leveraging Data Science for Effective Health Policy and Surveillance Against Emerging Infectious Disease Threats.
Tuesday, April 30
3:00 – 5:00 PM EST
BU, 72 East Concord St, Room L-403, Boston, MA 
RSVP in person at https://www.bu.edu/ceid/2024/04/10/from-data-to-action-leveraging-data-science-for-effective-health-policy-and-surveillance-against-emerging-infectious-disease-threats/
And online
RSVP at https://bostonu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nPA7uS8ORMGx2dbJTWCj3Q#/

Larry Madoff, MD, Medical Director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Alex Vespignani, PhD, Director of the Network Science Institute and Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University
Caroline Buckee, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Topics that will be covered include:
What education is needed to prepare a future workforce that is ready to address data science questions in emerging infectious diseases?
How to encourage more collaboration between institutions and sectors
Successes and challenges of working on a global scale
Improving equity in surveillance systems and data science work on emerging infectious disease threats

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'True False, Hot Cold': Film Screening & Discussion
Tuesday, April 30
4:30pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 55, Atrium 21 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139

Join the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) and the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences (EAPS) on Tuesday, April 30 from 

4:30-6:30pm in the Building 55 atrium for a film screening and discussion about climate change, belief, and talking with people you don't agree with.
The award-winning documentary series, True False, Hot Cold was filmed over three months in a county of Utah that has some of the least belief in climate change in the United States. Each short episode features conversations with farmers, ranchers, cowboys, coal miners, and other county residents about climate change. But instead of focusing on divisions, the series weaves these interviews and vignettes of everyday life to offer ideas about how to build bridges between people who have very different identities and beliefs.

Episode screenings will be punctuated with open conversation with the audience, filmmaker, and MIT staff and faculty incorporating these values and approaches into their MIT work.

Light refreshments will be served.

Featuring
Laur Hesse Fisher, program director at MIT Climate and founder of the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship
Ben Stillerman, filmmaker and founder of the Social Cohesion Lab
Prof. Deb Roy, faculty director, MIT Center for Constructive Communication

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ISO-NE Public Forum on the 2050 Transmission Study
Wednesday, May 1
10:00 a.m. (running for approximately 90 minutes)
Online
RSVP at https://www.iso-ne.com/event-details?eventId=154784

ISO New England will host a virtual public webinar to present its recently released report, the 2050 Transmission Study. This landmark longer-term transmission study provides a look at the ways in which the transmission system in New England may be affected by changes to the power grid driven by state policy, and includes roadmaps designed to assist stakeholders in their efforts to facilitate a smooth, reliable clean energy transition.

This webinar will provide an overview of the study methodology and results, and is designed for a non-technical audience. There will be an opportunity for limited questions, as time allows. A recording of the webinar will be posted shortly after the event.

The final report (https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2023/08/2050_study_ma_cetwg_2023_aug_final.pdf), and related study materials, can be found on the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) webpage on the ISO-NE website at https://environmentalbusinesscouncilofnewengland.growthzoneapp.com/ap/r/4d3cf3e3f19e42559f5e92853094d2dd  
To register for the webinar, please visit ISO-TEN, the online registration site for the ISO New England Training and Events Network. Information to access the webinar will be sent to those who register through ISO-TEN. If you are new to ISO-TEN, you will need to click the button to Register for an Account. There is no charge to set up an account. You will need to provide contact information, so we can send you information for your event, and establish a password.

Contact: Melissa Winne , mwinne@iso-ne.com , 413-540-4686

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De-poisoning Catalysts for Sustainable Chemical Processing
Wednesday, May 1
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2024-jane-p-chang-fellow-presentation-virtual

SPEAKER(S) Jane P. Chang, 2023–2024 Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow
In this virtual lecture, Jane P. Chang, 2023–2024 Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow, will explore the interdisciplinary intersection of microelectronics materials processing and physical chemistry, leveraging the studies and understanding of surface reaction controlled chemical selectivity in atomic layer etching to de-poison the catalysts, thereby realizing sustainability in chemical processing.

CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu

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The Human Disease:  How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs
Wednesday, May 1
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/sabrina_sholts/

Harvard Book Store welcomes SABRINA SHOLTS—curator of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History—for a discussion of her new book The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs. She will be joined in conversation by DR. LARRY MADOFF—Medical Director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

About The Human Disease
The COVID-19 pandemic won’t be our last—because what makes us vulnerable to pandemics also makes us human. That is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of The Human Disease, which travels through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making. Drawing on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about pandemic risks, biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts identifies the human traits and tendencies that double as pandemic liabilities, from the anatomy that defines us to the misperceptions that divide us.

Weaving together a wealth of personal experiences, scientific findings, and historical stories, Sholts brings dramatic and much-needed clarity to one of the most profound challenges we face as a species. Though the COVID-19 pandemic looms large in Sholts’s account, it is, in fact, just one of the many infectious disease events explored in The Human Disease. With its expansive, evolutionary perspective, the book explains how humanity will continue to face new pandemics because humans cause them, by the ways that we are and the things that we do. By recognizing our risks, Sholts suggests, we can take actions to reduce them. When the next pandemic happens, and how bad it becomes, are largely within our highly capable human hands—and will be determined by what we do with our extraordinary human brains.

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Food Waste: Whose responsibility is it?
Thursday, May 2
9:00 - 10:30 ED [GMT-4]
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/food-waste-whose-responsibility-is-it-tickets-853808573427

Across the UK, one-third of all food is wasted. As climate change is beginning to threaten crop yields, reducing our food waste presents a potential way to help mitigate this threat to global food security. To determine if reducing food waste is a realistic solution we must understand where the burden of responsibility lies. With the food producers themselves, with packagers and sellers, or with consumers?

We have invited three panellists, each representing a different stage in the food production, consumption, and post-consumption process. Discussions will include where the responsibility of food waste lies, projects that aim to reduce food waste and how reduction in food waste could mitigate food insecurity.
Chair of event: Ollie Chesworth (Grantham Scholar, University of Sheffield)

Ollie Chesworth’s research at the University of Sheffield explores what role places like community kitchens and other alternative food spaces play in the local area in relation to healthy and affordable food.
Speakers:
Dr Eleanor Kent (Beanies Co-operative)
Sheffield based wholefood shop, greengrocers and organic veg box supplier selling produce since 1986. Beanies is also a worker co‑op with 11 members, two trainee members and 12 part‑time staff.
David Dixon (Future Greens)
David is the co-founder of Future Greens - an urban farming startup that is growing a range of produce grown in an innovative substrate of their own design, and supplying local retailers in Sheffield.
Rene Meijer (Food Works Sheffield)
Rene Meijer joined Food Works Sheffield when it was founded in 2015 as ‘The Real Junk Food Project Sheffield’ and is the current CEO. Food Works is a social enterprise that aspires to create a more sustainable and fair food system in Sheffield.
Please note that this is an online event and you will receive the link once you register here on Eventbrite. The event has been organised by Grantham Centre PhD students as their public engagement activity.
The event is open to everyone - TUoS staff, students and also the general public.
If you tweet about the event, please use the Grantham Centre handle @granthamcsf.
The event is a part of the Festival of Debate 2024.


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Meeting Investor Expectations: Introducing the Nature Action 100 Company Benchmark 
Thursday, May 2
10:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://ceres-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aTxpuCB7Qi2AM_1YXsuR3w#/registration

Nature Action 100 is a global investor engagement initiative focused on driving greater corporate ambition and action to reduce nature and biodiversity loss. More than 200 institutional investors—representing over $28 trillion in assets under management or advice—are participating in the initiative and engaging 100 focus companies in key sectors to take timely and necessary action to protect and restore nature and ecosystems. 

Join us to explore how corporate progress will be assessed toward the Nature Action 100 Investor Expectations for Companies based on the newly released indicators of the initiative's forthcoming company benchmark.

In this webinar, participants will:
Gain insight into Nature Action 100 and its plans
Review the initiative's Investor Expectations for Companies

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Future of Energy and Power Grids by 2050 Webinar-ICWS North America Chapter
Thursday, May 2
10 - 11:30am EDT
Online
Cost:  $45

Agenda
10:00 AM
Panel 1 - Shifting to a sustainable energy landscape.
10:30 AM
Panel 2 - The future of the power grid: A transformative vision.
11:00 AM
1:1 Networking Session* - (*Only paid participants have access)

We will discuss the Evolving Landscape of North American Energy by 2050 with our experts and guests. The main focus will be on the production and transmission of energy by 2050. During this event, we will explore the transformational change in the energy landscape of North America. There will be a significant shift away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources, which will become the primary means of electricity generation.

We are eagerly looking forward to having updates from the main stakeholders in the following fields for the next decade:
- Energy Production: from fossil fuels to Renewable and distributed energy with Energy Storage.- Energy Transmission: Modernization of the grid, Smart Grid technologies, and New Infrastructure through cooperation and partnership.

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World Press Freedom Day - The Intersections of Press Freedom and the Environment
Thursday, May 2
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yuNtVb5ZSjGybsi9N2lstQ#/registration

This event, “The Intersections of Press Freedom and the Environment,” is co-hosted by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ). This 60-minute webinar is moderated by FPF’s Adam Glenn with Caitlin Vogus, who welcome freelance journalist Carlos Berríos Polanco and Halle Parker, journalist and SEJ board member. This panel discussion will address obstacles U.S. journalists face when reporting urgent climate change and environmental issues for their communities — whether violence or arrest when covering environmental protests or denials of access and legal obstructions when investigating centers of political and corporate power. - A. Adam Glenn, moderator, deputy editor at Freedom of the Press Foundation, and award-winning journalist. Glenn also serves as consulting editorial director for the Society of Environmental Journalists, teaches journalism at the City University of New York, and holds degrees in international environmental policy and journalism. - Carlos Berríos Polanco, writer and photojournalist from Caguas, Puerto Rico, specializing in climate and conflict topics. Polanco is a recognized fellow in Climate Tracker's Caribbean Climate Justice Journalism Fellowship, with contributions cited in "Environmental Justice in North America" and by the United States Congress. - Halle Parker, journalist and Society of Environmental Journalists board member, who covers the environment for WWNO's Coastal Desk and Sea Change podcast. She focuses on environmental justice, coastal land loss, and climate change's impact on communities. - Caitlin Vogus, deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, where she works to defend and protect press freedoms, journalists, and whistleblowers. Current advocacy efforts include passage of the PRESS Act, legislation that will protect all journalists, including those focused on climate change. 

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Exploring Mars and the moon
Thursday, May 2
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/exploring-mars-and-the-moon/

With a recent moon landing and plans for ambitious Mars launches, U.S. space exploration is accelerating rapidly. Private companies are assisting NASA and paving the way for dramatic new discoveries of the solar system. With knowledge gained from these ventures, several countries such as China, India, and a European consortium are hoping to make crewed launches to the moon within the next few years. On May 2, as part of the fifteenth annual A. Alfred Taubman Forum on Public Policy, join Governance Studies at Brookings for a forum on plans to explore Mars and the moon. Leaders from NASA will join Senior Fellow Darrell West to discuss new directions in space exploration, the role of private companies, and the hopes and challenges for continued ventures in space. 

Jenn Gustetic, Director of Early Stage Innovations and Partnerships - NASA
Curt Niebur, Lead Scientist for Flight Programs, Planetary Science Division - NASA
John M. Logsdon, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs - George Washington University
MODERATOR
Darrell M. West, Senior Fellow - Center for Technology Innovation, Douglas Dillon Chair in Governmental Studies

Viewers can submit questions for speakers by emailing events@brookings.edu or via Twitter at @BrookingsGov by using #SpaceExploration. 

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Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate
Thursday, May 2
4:30 pm – 5:45 pm
Princeton, McCosh Hall, Room 50, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RvMbWbIRSqiM6pkPhIxrhg#/registration

Speaker
Dr. David Sedlak, University of California at Berkeley

David Sedlak is the Plato Malozemoff Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Berkeley Water Center at the University of California at Berkeley.  Dr. Sedlak is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, chair of the Academies’ Water Science & Technology Board and recipient of numerous awards, including the Paul L Bush Award and the Clarke Prize.  His research focuses on the fate of chemical contaminants in engineered and natural systems.  Dr. Sedlak serves as the, “Lead Cartographer” for the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), a multi-year research effort of the US Department of Energy, where he directs efforts to create research roadmaps for advancing desalination in the municipal, industrial and agricultural sectors in the United States. He is also the author of Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate.
  
Free copies of Dr. Sedlak's book, Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate, will be handed out to the first 200 in-person attendees.

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American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion
Thursday, May 2
8:00PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-an-evening-with-american-precariat-tickets-872754521267

Fifteen essays coedited by a collective of award-winning incarcerated writers, featuring contributions from Lacy M. Johnson, Kiese Laymon, Valeria Luiselli, Kao Kalia Yang, and more, with a foreword by Zeke Caligiuri and an introduction by Eula Biss.

"This is a volume edited by the imprisoned, because the history of class has always been written by the powerful.”

This groundbreaking anthology of essays edited by incarcerated writers takes a sharp look at the complexity and fluidity of class and caste systems in the United States. Featuring accounts that include gig work as a delivery driver, homelessness among trans youth, and life with immense student loan debt, in addition to transcripts of insightful discussions between the editors, American Precariatdemonstrates how various and often invisible extreme instability can be. With the understanding that widespread recognition of collective precarity is an urgent concern, the anthology situates each individual portrait within societal structures of exclusion, scarcity, and criminality.

These essays write through the silence around class to enumerate the risks that our material conditions leave us no choice but to take. A rendering of the present moment told from below, American Precariat shares stories of the unseen and the unspoken and articulates the lines of our division. In doing so, it offers healing for some of the world's fractures.

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Processes of Dispossession, the Imminent Collapse of Tunisian Oases (and what can we do about it)
Friday, May 3
2 – 3:30 p.m.
Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/processes-dispossession-imminent-collapse-tunisian-oases-and-what-can-we-do-about-it

SPEAKER(S) Dr. Safouan Azouzi, Designer, Design Researcher & Commons Specialist; Affiliation: CMES, GSD, Harvard
Tunisia is one of the leading countries in date exports, especially of the 'Deglet Nour' variety, and Nefzawa, in the Kebili governorate, is the primary date-producing region. This stems from a national policy, dating back to French colonization and expanded post-independence, focusing on the intensive monoculture of that cultivar. Despite enduring for millennia, it is acknowledged that without voluntary action, Tunisian oasis ecosystems face imminent collapse.

This lecture examines the challenges facing oasis agro-ecosystems in Tunisia's Nefzawa region, focusing on the impact of historical, environmental, and socio-economic factors. It highlights the unsustainable exploitation of resources, exacerbated by climate change and state interventions, revealing the processes of dispossession and the inadequacies of current governance structures.

Ultimately, it discusses pathways for adaptation amid the looming threat of collapse by exploring the role of design in envisioning alternative economic landscapes for a socially and ecologically sustainable future in the region, through the remembrance and revision of ancient oasis commoning practices.

CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu

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Beyond the Forecast: The Interplay of Climate Change and Health
Saturday, May 4

Livestream participants may log on at anytime during the symposium to view and listen to any or all segments presented throughout the day.

Symposium Agenda
9:00 a.m.: Welcome and Introductions
C. Kent Kwoh, MD, MACR
Director, the University of Arizona Arthritis Center
Chief, Division of Rheumatology, UArizona Department of Medicine
Professor of Medicine and Medical Imaging, UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson
The Charles A. L. and Suzanne M. Stephens Endowed Chair in Rheumatology

9:05 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.: Wu Style T’ai Chi Chuan
Edna Silva, RN
T’ai Chi Specialist
The Edna Silva Center for Wu Style T’ai Chi Chuan – Tucson

9:50 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: The Eva M. Holtby Endowed Presentation
Beyond the Forecast: The Interplay of Climate Change and Health
Kacey Ernst, PhD, MPH
Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
the UArizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
Principal Investigator and Lead, the Southwest Center on Resilience for Climate Change and Health

11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Panel Discussion
Assessing the Health Implications of Climate Change and Our Environment
Fariba Donovan, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Research Scientist, the Valley Fever Center for Excellence
Member, BIO5 Institute
Brian Drummond, MD
Associate Professor, the UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson
Co-founder and Chair of the Steering Committee, Arizona Health Professionals for Climate Action
Randy Horwitz, MD, PhD
Professor, the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson;
Medical Director, the UArizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine
Julia Jernberg, MD, MBA
Associate Professor, the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson;
Lead, Arizona Climate and Health, supported by the UArizona Office of Research, Innovation and Impact

12:15 p.m.: Closing
You will receive the event webinar link on your registration confirmation and subsequent reminder emails.

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The Spring 2024 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday,  May 4 
NOON to 2 pm
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday May 5, 12-2
at Fayette Park (near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Street)

Bring anything you’d like to share. Elegant packaging not required, but please do write down the names of plants.  We expect to have perennials, seedlings, seeds, indoor plants, pots, tools, and lots of "whatever."  Feel free to just come, chat with neighbors, talk gardening.  Note: If you have jumping worms, please help avoid spreading them: wash off plant roots, and either pot the plants in clean soil or bring them bare-root, wrapped in newsprint. Thanks!

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Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island Welcome Meeting
Sunday, May 5
3:00 PM
RSVP at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kfuGurTkpHtCocGTXeF0iIQqvxXJgxMtc#/registration

Also happening on June 2, July 7, August 4

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Carbon and Biodiversity Consequences of Increasing Tree Cover in Savannas
Monday, May 6
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Princeton, Guyot Hall, Room 10, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZdneMRMCQkq_mwSQzJ8g4w#/registration

Carla Staver, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, will present “Carbon and Biodiversity Consequences of Increasing Tree Cover in Savannas” in Guyot Hall, Room 10, and online via Zoom. Staver is the final speaker in a series of Special Seminars focused on Biodiversity.
As anthropogenic climate change accelerates, interest in offsetting carbon emissions with ecosystem carbon storage has grown. In savannas, fire suppression and afforestation have been proposed as tools to increase carbon sequestration. However, large uncertainties remain about the outcomes of these interventions, both for carbon storage (especially the rate of carbon sequestration possible) and for savanna biodiversity. Dr. Staver will discuss recent work to clarify the ecosystem dynamics of management interventions aimed at increasing carbon sequestration in savanna ecosystems.

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Farming the Future: Livestock's Leap to Net Zero
Monday, May 6
4 PM ET
Online 
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2024-ermias-kebreab-lecture-virtual

Contributing over four percent of global emissions, methane plays a significant role in warming our planet, with the livestock sector as a major source. How can animal productivity be increased while aiming for absolute methane reduction? And how can the forces of private industry be marshaled in the pursuit of sustainable agricultural practices and net-zero commitments?

Ermias Kebreab, world-renowned animal scientist and chair of the United Nations Technical Working Group on Feed Additives, will explore methane mitigation strategies that emphasize both global and region-specific targets for addressing the climate crisis. He will also discuss cutting-edge advances in livestock science, with a focus on genetic selection, microbial engineering, and early-life interventions.

Speaker
Ermias Kebreab, Sesnon Endowed Chair of Animal Science; director, World Food Center; and associate dean for global engagement, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis

Moderator
Edo Berger, codirector of the science program, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and professor of astronomy, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

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Reducing GHG for Buildings and Industry Essential to Meeting 2030 and 2050 Targets
Monday, May 6 
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, Skilling Auditorium, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/the_energy_seminar_8787

From the homes we live in to the very food that sustains us, America’s buildings and industrial sectors are the foundation of our modern world. People spend 90% of their time in buildings and manufacturing generates more than 11 million jobs and makes up 11% of U.S. GDP. But today’s buildings and industrial sectors come at a high price. Together, these industries are responsible for more than 60% of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S. Addressing emissions from buildings and industry will be vital to achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s economy-wide goal of reducing such emissions 50–52% below 2005 levels by 2030 and reaching a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to accelerating the innovation needed to fully transform these sectors to net-zero. Deputy Assistance Secretary for Buildings and Industry Dr. Carolyn Snyder will join us on May 6, 2024, to present DOE’s all-hands-on-deck strategy, investments, and technical assistance programs that will move decarbonization technologies out of the lab and on to our nation’s factory floors.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Carolyn Snyder is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Buildings and Industry at the U.S. Department of Energy. In this role, she leads offices that advance energy efficiency and reduce emissions from our nation’s buildings and industry while supporting U.S. energy security and manufacturing competitiveness. She oversees over $800 million annually for R&D across U.S. national laboratories, private industry, and universities, as well as comprehensive partnerships with energy sector leaders, other federal agencies, and state and local governments to demonstrate and deploy these technologies and support the transition to a clean energy economy. Dr. Snyder oversees three offices. The Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office accelerates the innovation and adoption of cost-effective technologies that eliminate industrial greenhouse gas emissions. The Building Technologies Office invests in high-impact solutions to equitably and rapidly scale decarbonization technologies across the buildings sector. The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office drives innovation in energy-related materials and manufacturing technologies to increase global competitiveness and support a clean, decarbonized economy. Previously, Dr. Snyder served as the Director of U.S. EPA’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division where she led voluntary partnerships with thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations. She also served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a White House Fellow in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and Director of Delaware's Division of Energy & Climate. She earned a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, Masters Degrees as a Marshall Scholar from Oxford and Cambridge, and a B.A. from Amherst College. Her scientific research has been published in Nature, Paleoceanography, and Climatic Change.

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Bridging the Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, and Development Nexus: Building systems for Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) for Populations Affected by War, Forced Displacement, and Resettlement through an Implementation Science Lens
Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 8
6:00am to 1:00pm
Dial-In Information at https://vimeo.com/event/4064273/0c130e98b9

The Boston College Research Program on Children & Adversity (RPCA) and Trinity College Centre for Forced Migration Studies is pleased to announce our upcoming symposium titled, Bridging the Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, and Development Nexus: Building systems for Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) for populations, affected by War, Forced Displacement and Resettlement through an Implementation Science Lens, on the 7-8 of May 2024 in Dublin, Ireland. The symposium will feature in-person panel sessions focused on implementation science, MHPSS, and bridging the relief-to-development gap in post-conflict settings from key research institutions, community organizations, and international stakeholders.

Editorial Comment:  With so much war, forced migration, natural and unnatural disasters these days, this discussion is desperately needed.

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Power & People Symposium: Mapping Community Exposure to Energy Infrastructure
Tuesday, May 7
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
BU, Building Center for Computing & Data Sciences (CDS), 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 1750, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-people-symposium-tickets-877370247027

Energy infrastructure surrounds us — yet communities are often surprised to learn what types of fossil fuel hazards their neighborhoods are exposed to and how their health may be impacted. Some bear the biggest burden as environmental justice hotspots that are disproportionately affected.

Understanding the legacy of these fossil fuel exposures (and who is exposed to what) is critical to a healthy and just energy transition.

Join us for the Power & People Symposium featuring Boston University researchers who have spent the last year developing a new database that takes a far more expansive view of energy infrastructure exposures in the United States than ever before. The research team will share early findings from their work to comprehensively map community exposure across a complex system of energy sources and the supply chain, all in one place for the first time.

We look forward to discussing how the Energy Infrastructure Exposure Intensity and Equity Indices [EI3] Database for Public Health will be an actionable public tool to support inter-agency policymaking and interdisciplinary research that reflects the connection between energy and health.

The symposium will take place in the greenest building in BU's history and one of the most sustainable buildings in New England.

Hosted by the BU Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) and BU School of Public Health, which jointly funded this project through a Sustainability Research Grant.
 Contact Alison Gold  aligold@bu.edu

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Get Smart Quickly on Climate Change from MIT
Tuesday, May 7
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_L9wfetErRc6eZZd5D4S-Jg#/registration

MIT Climate, the institute’s climate engagement program, offers an array of content to help nonscientists get straightforward answers to their climate change questions. Serving more than 2 million readers and podcasts listeners, MIT Climate runs the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship and the Webby award-winning MIT Climate Primer. In this conversation with MIT Horizon’s executive editor, the founding director of MIT Climate, Laur Hesse Fisher, will explain how business professionals can use its nonpartisan, science-backed, easy-to-understand resources. They’ll also discuss strategies for effectively engaging the public on climate change.

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Bridging the Climate Science-Practice Divide through Community Engaged Research: Insights from the Caribbean
Tuesday, May 7
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Princeton, 10 Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_im0lHoLvTfyYW_9aTu8wtQ#/registration

Kevon Rhiney, the 2023-2024 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and visiting professor of HMEI, Anthropology, and African American Studies, will present “Bridging the Climate Science-Practice Divide through Community Engaged Research: Insights from the Caribbean” in Guyot Hall, Room 10, and online via Zoom. Rhiney is the final speaker in the spring 2024 HMEI Faculty Seminar Series.

The Caribbean is regarded as one of the most exposed regions in the world to climate-related natural disasters and is projected to be amongst the earliest and most severely impacted by climate change over the course of this century. Amidst the global community’s inability to meet crucial emission reduction targets, there is an urgent need across the region to develop adaptation strategies to safeguard vulnerable populations and communities from the worst impacts from climate induced changes. This requires close attention to the needs of local communities while guided by the best science in determining locally relevant adaptation pathways. In this talk, Rhiney draws from past and ongoing work in the Caribbean to explore some of the opportunities and challenges in conducting community engaged research in climate vulnerable farming communities. The presentation will cover some key methodological questions around conducting interdisciplinary research that utilize participatory and community-led methods to inform existing scientific and climate adaptation efforts.

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Forum on The Boston Foundation's Food, Fuel and Shelter Fund 
Wednesday, May 8
9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 
RSVP at https://www.tbf.org/Events/2024/May/Food-Fuel-and-Shelter-Fund-Forum

Built on more than a decade of experience with the Food and Fuel Fund at the Boston Foundation, and in recognition of the power and impact of proximate
leaders and organizations, the Food, Fuel and Shelter Fund is a partnership with our donors designed to meet both immediate and longer-term community
needs.

In the wake of the pandemic, many individuals and families are vulnerable to the rising costs of food, shelter, and utilities. Organizations serving these
communities can prevent people from “falling through the cracks” by helping them meet their food, fuel, and shelter needs.

Join the Boston Foundation for a conversation with our Food, Fuel, and Shelter Fund nonprofit partners to better understand their work and learn about
opportunities to continue supporting this initiative. 

Agenda
Welcome & Opening Remarks 
Julie Smith-Bartoloni, Associate Vice President Donor Services & Relations

Panel Discussion & Audience Q&A
Luisa Peña Lyons, CEO & Founder, Bridge Forward Fund
Jennifer Johnson, Founder & Executive Director, Gaining Ground
Tre’Andre Carmel Valentine, Executive Director, Massachusetts Transgender
Political Coalition
Tanveer Malik, Executive Director, New Lynn Coalition
Candace Burton, Program Officer, The Boston Foundation (moderator)

Contact Candace Burton, Program Officer, Safety Net Grants, The Boston Foundation
Candace.Burton@tbf.org

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Making Climate Tech Work: Policies that Drive Innovation
Wednesday, May 8 
2:30pm to 3:20pm ET [11:30am to 12:20pm PT]
Stanford, Mitchell Earth Sciences, Room 350, 397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online

Climate tech is critical for averting planetary chaos. Half the greenhouse gas reductions required to reach “net-zero” climate targets in 2050 will need to come from technologies that have not yet been invented.  Without effective government interventions, market incentives alone will not produce a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. The commercial value of innovative climate technology, especially in its early phases, remains underpriced—far below its social value. The good news is that smart policies can change these dynamics and catalyze the necessary creativity and investment in clean technology, and its deployment. The key question is: which mitigation policy approaches can also lead us to future carbon neutrality? Combining the latest evaluation data with anecdotes based on dozens of interviews, the talk assesses which strategies around the world have effectively reduced emissions while accelerating climate tech development and adoption. The presentation will serve as a launch for visiting professor Alon Tal’s latest book Making Climate Tech Work, Policies that Drive Innovation which is being published by Island Press this month.

 About the Speaker:
Alon Tal is a Tel Aviv University visiting professor at Stanford University. Between 2021 and 2022, he was a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament and served as chair of the subcommittee for Environmental and Climate Impacts on Health.  Previously, he was the chair of the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University where he served as scientific advisor to Israel’s State Comptroller’s Office in its national climate policy evaluation.

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How Might Genetic Technologies Contribute to Addressing Climate Change?
Wednesday, May 8
5-7 PM ET
BU Computing and Data Science (CDS) Conference Center17th floor, room CDS 1750, 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://hms.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cD6jfyNet7PM5WC

Panel
Melissa Hoffer, Massachusetts State, Climate Chief
Andrew Revkin, Climate Journalist, Sustain What? Webcast
Sir Richard Roberts, Nobel Laureate, CSO, New England Biolabs
Teal Brown Zimring, Executive Director, Lab to Land
Moderator
David Abel, Journalist and Professor of the Practice, BU College of Communication

Emerging genetic technologies offer a range of opportunities to address climate change.

What are some examples of genetic technologies for climate applications?
Trees genetically engineered to increase their ability to quickly sequester carbon are being planted in Georgia and Oregon by biotech company Living Carbon
Researchers in agricultural biotechnology have developed nitrogen-fixing microbial treatments for crop seeds to reduce application of nitrogen fertilizer and thereby reduce nitrous oxide emissions
Researchers are engineering bacteria to more efficiently remove methane gas from the air in contained industrial reaction chambers

As these technologies are developed and become available for us, policymakers and communities will have to consider vital questions, such as: Who should decide when technologies are developed and used? What are foreseeable consequences? Can we design and monitor use of technologies to address potential unforeseen consequences?

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Climate LIVE K12: Disasters and Climate Change in the Caribbean
Wednesday, May 8
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Online 
RSVP at https://events.columbia.edu/cal/event/eventView.do?b=de&calPath=/public/cals/MainCal&guid=CAL-00bbdb7c-8b1dcd5f-018b-200ea6a9-00005636events%40columbia.edu&recurrenceId=

Disasters and climate have impacts all across the globe, but the type and severity of climatic disasters vary geographically. This session will examine the impact of disasters and climate change on small islands, placing a special emphasis on extreme events in the Caribbean region. 

A link to join the session will be provided to all registered participants 24 hours in advance.

If you would like to submit any questions before the event, please send them to Laurel Zaima-Sheehy (lzaima@climate.columbia.edu)Contact Information
Laurel Zaima-Sheehy
212-854-0641
lnz2104@columbia.edu

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Tropical Forest Resilience Under Global Change
Thursday, May 9 

On Thursday, May 9 @ 11am ET, join Cary Institute for a virtual scientific seminar by Dr. Xiangtao Xu, Cornell University.
The resilience of tropical forests under changing climate and disturbance regimes is a critical uncertainty in predicting the future fates of the terrestrial biosphere. This uncertainty arises from a lack of (interpretable) observations and constraints on tropical forest growth and mortality that fundamentally drive tropical carbon cycles. This talk will present novel results on key environmental sensitivities of tropical tree growth and mortality estimated from a combination of remote sensing, tree rings, and terrestrial biosphere modeling.

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Webinar – States in Sync: The Western Win-Win Transmission Opportunity
Thursday, May 9
2 p.m. ET
Online

Today, Western states have the chance to make transformative investments that will unlock incredible economic opportunities enabled by new energy. However, to seize this opportunity, states will need to collaborate to expand the region’s electricity transmission system. In doing so, traditional energy export states will gain access to future investments in a new energy market as large as $45 billion per year, while states with clean energy goals will unlock significant cost savings on the necessary investments to meet those goals.  Join RMI for a webinar exploring the economic opportunity that an expanded transmission system presents for Western states and how state actors can work together to plan this system.  

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MIT D-Lab End-of-Semester Student Showcase
Thursday, May 9
7:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT D-Lab, 310 Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

Posters, prototypes, presentations, and conversations with students from six spring 2024 MIT D-Lab classes - D-Lab: Climate and Planetary Health, D-Lab: Design, Introduction to Energy in Global Development, D-Lab: Leadership in Design, Mobiles for Development, and D-Lab: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.

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Autonomous Vehicles and the City 2024
Friday, May 10
4:30pm Et [1:30 PM PDT]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
Cost:  $0 -$25

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionize transportation in our cities, offering increased accessibility and efficiency in our urban transport systems. The 8th Autonomous Vehicles and the City symposium at The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California will feature global discussions from senior executives and experts across the AV industry and the public sector. From integrating automation and AI within public transit systems to optimizing resources like curbs and city rights-of-way for autonomous vehicle operations to reduce vehicle miles traveled, the conference will touch on the variety of ways AV platforms are being used to serve diverse populations and help global cities meet climate goals.

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Finish What We Started:  The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy
Friday, May 10
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/isaac_arnsdorf/

Harvard Book Store welcomes ISAAC ARNSDORF—award-winning national political reporter for The Washington Post—for a discussion of his new book Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy. He will be joined in conversation by STEVEN LEVITSKY—author of Tyranny of the Minority and Professor of Government at Harvard University. 

About Finish What We Started
Inspired by Donald Trump’s election lies, a growing movement of grassroots activists mobilized around the country to pick up where the insurrection left off, laying the groundwork to succeed next time where Trump had failed to keep himself in power. But their own success in taking over and purging the Republican Party became their undoing as it drove away moderates and supplied the Democrats with a winning message in the 2022 midterms. Still, the MAGA Republicans proved uninterested in learning from that defeat, only becoming more extreme, divisive, and dead set on returning Trump to power.
Washington Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf has spent years at the forefront of reporting on this growing movement. Drawing on extensive, exclusive on-the-ground reporting around the country, and deepened by historical context, Arnsdorf has produced the defining journalistic account of the origins, evolution and future of the MAGA movement. Combining critical and rigorous reporting with the intimacy and complexity of a novel, this book is unlike any other in the decade since Donald Trump convulsed and transformed American politics.

Finish What We Started tells the story of the ordinary Americans driving this change, who they are and where they came from, what motivates them, and what their movement means for the survival of American democracy.

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The Move To Zero - How To Get To True Carbon Neutrality
Monday, May 13
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, Skilling Auditorium, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online
Today, climate change is a well-known, and reasonably understood, problem with mitigation efforts and technologies (carbon sequestration, electric mobility, renewables, policy updates, and others) starting to gel together at a system level. However, at the end-use demand end, less progress has been made, and as wealth and populations rise, and health-socio-economic indicators improve, consumption, and end emissions per capita, are also increasing, somewhat or entirely negating the progress made on decarbonizing society. This is paradoxical, and at a higher-level of systems thinking, poses a strong threat. In this world-energy-outlook talk, we re-familiarize ourselves with the core problem, how we got here, what are current approaches to tackle our energy and climate crisis, and how all of us can play a central part in reducing (often) unnecessary consumption of goods and services. To truly achieve a declivity in carbon and green house gas concentrations in our atmosphere, we must address both ends of the equation – how energy’s produced and sourced (supply), and how and why is energy used (demand). The latter part, starts with you.

Speaker Bio: Satyan Chandra is a ten-year veteran of Tesla, where he recently led systems design, architecture, and engineering for the Semi-Truck product, the world’s first long-haul electric Semi, helping take Semi from a concept of one to a volume produced product. In prior efforts at Tesla, Satyan led several engineering and design projects on passenger vehicles (Model S, X, 3, Y), helped pioneer and innovate on many technologies (48V, EtherLoop, FlexInterconnect, DOJO Autopilot Architecture, and others), and closely shaped Tesla’s product design, technology strategy, and system architecture from cars to trucks to Autopilot systems. Prior to Tesla, Satyan worked with BMW Germany, Autoliv, General Motors and Flowserve on a number of automotive, design and energy projects. Satyan’s also pursuing his M.S. (Masters) in Engineering at Stanford, where he is holistically focused on energy sustainability, from mechanical, electrical and environmental engineering to business, economics and policy. He has previously been invited by, and given keynote tech-talks and guest lectures at, a number of institutions including Harvard University, University of British Columbia, Stanford University, and Brigham Young University (BYU). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University (BYU). At BYU, he founded the university’s first sustainability organization, byuearth, bridging engineering, economics and policy to help reduce BYU’s carbon footprint, whilst navigating a strongly conservative political and social mindset in Utah. Along with General Motors, Satyan also led design efforts for the world’s first student-designed, full-scale, Formula-1 race car. Beyond his professional pursuits, Satyan likes mountain biking, jet skiing, ocean kayaking, meeting people and exchanging breakthrough ideas, and is currently taking a break from the past twelve years of non-stop hard work and running.

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Soil to Foil: Minerals for Sustainable Infrastructure 
Tuesday, May 14
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

A conversation with DUSP doctoral alumnus Saleem H. Ali about his new book Soil to Foil (Columbia University Press), which he has dedicated to MIT Professor and his doctoral mentor Lawrence Susskind

Bio: Saleem H. Ali is Chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware. He is also a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and served 2 terms on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility - the world's largest trust fund for the Environment held in trusteeship by the World Bank. His latest books are Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford University Press) and Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability (Columbia University Press). He received his doctorate in Environmental planning from MIT, a Masters in Environmental Studies from Yale and a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Tufts University. His laurels include being selected as a National Geographic Explorer, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and Bellagio Writers' Residency with the Rockefeller Foundation.

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Living Between Worlds, with Grace, Dignity, and Power
Wednesday, May 15
3:00 PM
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvf-mvrD8qGNUBS287pVRGQr77bUBhKQF4

"New worlds don't just happen. We speak them into being…" Please join us for our fifth year of monthly conversations exploring how we might live, with both impact and serenity, in these strange times. If if was in doubt before, it's clear now: We live between old worlds and new—as we move from the fossil age to renewables, from linear take-make-waste economies to circular, from the post-war geo-political-economic order to a world of climate crisis and geopolitical instability—something that we can't yet name. Between working inside the structures and norms of modern life, and challenging them from "outside;" between working to help institutions adapt, and working to re-invent or replace them. Between tinkering at the margins and committing to reinventing everything. Between fear and hope, resignation and ambition, despair and courage. Gramsci called it "the time of monsters." Arundhati Roy was more hopeful: "Another world is not only possible, She is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." In these monthly calls, hosted by Gil Friend and Ken Homer, we explore the challenges of navigating the world of messes we've inherited and built—from climate and Covid to biodiversity and fascism to identity and pluralism—with grace, dignity, and power. “Because people are hungry for meaningful conversations that move worlds. Let’s have some!” (You can find our previous sessions—and other gems—on Gil's YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/3wKcE9z. If you like what you see, please Like and Subscribe!) Who joins these conversations? Executives. Sustainability professionals. Investors. Activists. Entrepreneurs. Seekers. Up-and-comers. A poet or two. And you! And consider inviting someone who might enrich the conversation. (Maybe even someone who shares our concerns, but is different than you or me.) 

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The Green Giants: Industry in 2050
Thursday, May 16
9:00 - 10:30 ED [GMT-4]
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-green-giants-industry-in-2050-tickets-853821361677

Discover the future of industry as we explore the challenges and pathways for decarbonization and how we can navigate the polycrisis through systemic industrial change. A panel of sustainability experts and industry leaders will delve into the moral, economic, and technical complexities of decarbonization, exploring how policy shapes sustainable solutions and how they envision a sustainable path forward.

Chair: Professor Rachael Rothman (Co-Director, Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Sheffield)
Rachael Rothman is the Grantham Centre Co-Director and supervises a number of Grantham Scholars. Her research is in sustainable processes and clean energy systems. She is a Professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Sheffield.

Speakers:
Professor Solomon Brown (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield)
Professor Brown is a Professor of Process and Energy Systems whose research focuses on mathematical modelling, process analysis and optimisation with a particular focus on clean energy processes, energy storage and energy systems.
Dr Fanran Meng (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield)
Dr Meng's research focuses on resource efficiency and engineering sustainability driving reductions in environmental impacts and the development of sustainable engineering practices.
Professor Joan Cordiner (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield)
Professor Cordiner is Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Prior to this she had a distinguished career at Syngenta, a leading science-based agrotechnology company which spanned several global and senior management positions.
Stephen Winkley (UK Metals Sales Manager, ABB)
Stephen is UK Metals Sector Sales Manager for ABB, a technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future, and leads on the electrification of steel production away from coal & coke fired blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces.

Please note that this is an online event and you will receive the link once you register here on Eventbrite. The event has been organised by Grantham Centre PhD students as their public engagement activity.
The event is open to everyone - TUoS staff, students and also the general public.
If you tweet about the event, please use the Grantham Centre handle @granthamcsf.
The event is a part of the Festival of Debate 2024.

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Mind and Matter: Healing and Mental Health in a Conflict-Driven World
Thursday, May 16
1:00 PM EDT TO 2:00 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://pulitzercenter-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pPqVOV1UTLytL_OyuczQuw#/registration

Join the Pulitzer Center on May 16, 2024, for a special Mental Health Action Day webinar. Reporting Fellows will speak about reporting mental health crises in populations displaced by conflict in South Sudan and Ukraine, as well as a burgeoning psychiatry program in Sierra Leone.
Topics include reporting about mental health in vulnerable communities, how to start discussions of mental health in places where talking about it is uncommon or considered taboo, and mental health as a factor in physical well-being. Campus Consortium and Outreach Program Coordinator Ethan Widlansky will moderate the discussion. 

Panelists include: 
Emanuella Evans is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her reporting focuses on institutional injustices present in the criminal system, housing, transportation, and higher education. Her Pulitzer Center-supported project, The War After the War, explores South Sudanese youth in the U.S. diaspora navigating questions about generational trauma and healing in a culture that can stigmatize mental health. 
Diana Rayes is a doctoral student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health. Her research focuses on the impact of conflict and displacement on refugee mental health and integration in host country contexts, and particularly in high-income settings. Her Pulitzer Center-supported project, Ukrainian Refugees in Turkey: Displacement Impact on Mental Health, highlights the mental health and psychosocial needs of recently displaced Ukrainians who are in transit to Turkey. 
Blessed Sheriff is a fifth-year medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her work investigates how open conversations about mental health are transforming patients' lives around the world. Her Pulitzer Center-supported project, Mind Over Matter: Inside the Movement to Transform Mental Health in Sierra Leone, documents the first class of psychiatry residents trained in Sierra Leone.

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Freeman’s Challenge:  The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit
Friday, May 17
7:00 PM ET Location
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

Harvard Book Store and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies welcome ROBIN BERNSTEIN—Dillon Professor of American History at Harvard University and the author of Racial Innocence—for a discussion of her new book Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit. She will be joined in conversation by BRANDON M. TERRY—co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

About Freeman's Challenge
In the early nineteenth century, as slavery gradually ended in the North, a village in New York State invented a new form of unfreedom: the profit-driven prison. Uniting incarceration and capitalism, the village of Auburn built a prison that enclosed industrial factories. There, “slaves of the state” were leased to private companies. The prisoners earned no wages, yet they manufactured furniture, animal harnesses, carpets, and combs, which consumers bought throughout the North. Then one young man challenged the system.

In Freeman’s Challenge, Robin Bernstein tells the story of an Afro-Native teenager named William Freeman who was convicted of a horse theft he insisted he did not commit and sentenced to five years of hard labor in Auburn’s prison. Incensed at being forced to work without pay, Freeman demanded wages. His challenge triggered violence: first against him, then by him. Freeman committed a murder that terrified and bewildered white America. And white America struck back—with aftereffects that reverberate into our lives today in the persistent myth of inherent Black criminality. William Freeman’s unforgettable story reveals how the North invented prison for profit half a century before the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery “except as a punishment for crime”—and how Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and other African Americans invented strategies of resilience and resistance in a city dominated by a citadel of unfreedom.

Through one Black man, his family, and his city, Bernstein tells an explosive, moving story about the entangled origins of prison for profit and anti-Black racism.

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Climate Mobilities: “Justice, Data, and Governance”
Monday, May 20  - Tuesday, May 21
Princeton, Robertson Hall, Bowl 16, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAzBzxXBPWzylYt8aARwAPDKjWnictaZjxzLcKR07auLb4Pg/viewform

Climate mobility issues have been framed in various ways over time, beginning with the concept of “environmental migration,” moving to the “climate refugee” framing, and then evolving toward the dominance of the “migration as adaptation” approach.  New issues have been raised regarding immobility, both voluntary and involuntary; the historical sources of vulnerability; reparative justice, and loss and damage.  What are the ethical and pragmatic implications of framing climate mobilities through one or more of these lenses?  Are some framings more politically efficacious? What neglected climate mobility issues should future research consider?  Which existing international, domestic, and local institutions have most promise in addressing this issue?  The challenge of governing climate mobilities arises at various scales, from the local to the international–how are these challenges of scale best managed?  How might future climate (im)mobility governance be financed?

We are planning an exciting program with invited interdisciplinary speakers, combined with collaborative workshops and opportunities for networking.  Our aim for the conference is to curate a diverse and pluralistic conversation, not just within academia, but beyond it, drawing on a broad array of voices to encourage responsible and participatory research.

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Simulating Global Climate, Energy, and Land Futures
Monday, May 20
7:30pm to 8:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Skilling Building, 494 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/the_energy_seminar_8584

Join this special interactive seminar to explore global scenarios for addressing climate change. From clean energy and EVs, to planting trees and carbon removal technologies, we’ll dive into the climate and equity impacts of different climate solution pathways using the En-ROADS global climate simulator. Our speaker, Andrew Jones, developed En-ROADS with his team at Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan, and uses the tool with top decision-makers worldwide to shape climate policy and investments.  Speaker bio: Andrew Jones is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Climate Interactive and a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan. He is an expert on international climate and energy policy, a system dynamics modeler, a speaker, and a creator of policy simulations.
He led the teams at Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan that developed En-ROADS and C-ROADS, two climate simulators used widely to engage global decision-makers. His climate policy work has appeared in media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Jones was trained in modeling through degrees from MIT and Dartmouth College. He now teaches systems thinking and climate policy at MIT Sloan, Stanford, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

He co-accepted the ASysT Applied Systems Thinking Prize and the System Dynamics Society’s Applications Award as well as Dartmouth College’s Ray W. Smith Award for the most significant contribution to the status of the college.

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Living in a Future City
Tuesday, May 21
9:00 - 11:00 ED [GMT-4]
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/living-in-a-future-city-tickets-853814491127

What does "sustainable urban living" actually look like? We will explore what makes a city sustainable, from the perspectives of its residents, administrators and surroundings. How can safety, environmental protection, energy security and climate change adaptation be designed into new and existing urban areas? What are the challenges that come with sustainable urban adaptation, how can we overcome these, and what are consequences if we continue to ignore the importance of creating sustainable cities?

Chair of event: Fiona McBride (Grantham Scholar, University of Sheffield)
Fiona McBride’s research at the University of Sheffield explores the potential to power electric vehicles using the energy generated by trams and metro trains.
Speakers:
Dr Ryan Bellinson - University College London
Dr Tanzil Shafiq - Department of Architecture and Urban Institute, University of Sheffield
More speakers will be confirmed soon!

Please note that this is an online event and you will receive the link once you register here on Eventbrite. The event has been organised by Grantham Centre PhD students as their public engagement activity.
The event is open to everyone - TUoS staff, students and also the general public.
If you tweet about the event, please use the Grantham Centre handle @granthamcsf.
The event is a part of the Festival of Debate 2024.

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The Light Eaters! 
Tuesday, May 21
7pm 
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
RSVP at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/zo%C3%AB-schlanger-author-light-eaters-conversation-katherine-j-wu

Award-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom and reveals the astonishing capabilities of the green life all around us.

It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.

What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.

We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for—if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world.

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Undue Burden:  Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America
Tuesday, May 21
7:00 PM ET
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/shefali_luthra/ 

Harvard Book Store welcomes SHEFALI LUTHRA—award-winning national health policy reporter for The 19th—for a discussion of her new book Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America. She will be joined in conversation by DEBORAH BECKER—senior correspondent and host at WBUR.
About Undue Burden On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the impact was immediate: by 2023, abortion was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 21 states. As other nations largely expand legal abortion access, the U.S. has gone backwards; the bans being enforced in many states are some of the most severe in the entire world.

In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Outside of Houston, there’s a 16-year-old girl who becomes pregnant well before she intends to. A 21-year-old mother barely making ends meet has to travel hundreds of miles in secret to access care in another state. A 42-year-old woman with a life-threatening condition wants nothing more than to safely carry her pregnancy to term, but her home state’s abortion bans fail to provide her with the options she needs to make an informed decision. And a 19-year-old trans man struggles to access care in Florida as abortion bans radiate across the American South.

Before, it was a common misconception that abortion restrictions affected only people in certain states, but left one's own life untouched. Now, patients forced to travel to access care creates a domino effect across the entire country. As the landscape of abortion rights continues to shift, the experiences of these patients—those who had to cross state lines to seek life-saving care, who risked everything they had in pursuit of their own bodily autonomy, and who were unable to plan their reproductive future in the way that they deserved—illustrates how fragile the system is, and how devastating the consequences can be.

Through the perspectives of patients, providers, activists, and lawmakers, Undue Burden is a revelatory portrait of human rights, healthcare, and economic and racial inequality in America.

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Using Technology to Eliminate Hidden Emissions of the Furniture Industry 
Wednesday, May 22
12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RZWASVfgScG4uhUxMPu74A#/registration

We don’t buy furniture anymore; we consume it. Every year, millions of tons of furniture items are sent to landfills while more are made to replace them. The furniture industry contributes 2% to global CO2-equivalent emissions, which is at least as much as the aviation industry. Designer and climate tech entrepreneur Andrea Quiros-Balma talks about the ways technology can be used to decarbonize this industry and change the way we shop for durable goods. Avenues for more sustainable futures will consider carbon accounting, digital twins, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and image recognition in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of goods.  

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Solve at MIT 2024
Wednesday, May 22
2:00pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building W16: Kresge Auditorium, 48 MASSACHUSETTS AVE, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://events.solve.mit.edu/en-us/events/sam-kresge-2024

What does an equitable and sustainable future look like? How can we continue making progress amidst conflict, pandemics, and climate disasters? We’ve invited global leaders to our opening plenary, to address these universal questions, and share how they’re wielding technology through global crises. Join us for Solve at MIT 2024 on MIT’s Campus, where we’ll convene cross-sector leaders, new voices, and innovative tech-based solutions at the problem-solving table.

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Scaling Sustainability Innovation: Insights from DOE and Beyond - A Conversation with Dr. Steve Chu
Wednesday, May 22
2:30pm to 3:20pm ET [11:30am to 12:20pm PT]
Stanford, Mitchell Earth Sciences, 350, 397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/sustainability-accelerator-speaker-series-a-conversation-with-professor-steve-chu

Join us for an enlightening discussion with Professor Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and Former U.S. Secretary of Energy. Professor Chu will share his unparalleled insights on scaling sustainability innovation as well as key learnings from his experiences at the Department of Energy (DOE) and beyond. His expertise deeply aligns with our mission to accelerate sustainability innovation.

About the Speaker: Dr. Steven Chu, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics, Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University, is a Nobel laureate and former U.S. Secretary of Energy. Currently, he chairs the Faculty Advisory Council of the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator.

As U.S. Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013, Dr. Chu initiated several impactful programs, including ARPA-E, the Energy Innovation Hubs, and the Clean Energy Ministerial meetings. He was instrumental in recruiting top scientists and engineers to the Department of Energy and played a key role in addressing the BP Oil leak.

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The Walls Have Eyes!
Wednesday, May 22
7pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
RSVP at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/petra-molnar-author-walls-have-eyes

A chilling expos of the inhumane and lucrative sharpening of borders around the globe through experimental surveillance technology
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was training "robot dogs" to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border against migrants. Four-legged machines equipped with cameras and sensors would join a network of drones and automated surveillance towers--nicknamed the "smart wall." This is part of a worldwide trend: as more people are displaced by war, economic instability, and a warming planet, more countries are turning to AI-driven technology to "manage" the influx.

Based on years of researching borderlands across the world, lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar's The Walls Have Eyes is a truly global story--a dystopian vision turned reality, where your body is your passport and matters of life and death are determined by algorithm. Examining how technology is being deployed by governments on the world's most vulnerable with little regulation, Molnar also shows us how borders are now big business, with defense contractors and tech start-ups alike scrambling to capture this highly profitable market.

With a foreword by former UN Special Rapporteur E. Tendayi Achiume, The Walls Have Eyes reveals the profound human stakes of the sharpening of borders around the globe, foregrounding the stories of people on the move and the daring forms of resistance that have emerged against the hubris and cruelty of those seeking to use technology to turn human beings into problems to be solved.

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Transitioning to the Future Grid in MA 
Thursday, May 23
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 600 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA 02210
RSVP at https://www.masscec.com/event/transitioning-future-grid-ma-event-series-2

This is Event 2 of NECEC's Transitioning to the Future Grid in MA Event Series.

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The Last Human Job!
Friday, May 24
7pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
RSVP at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/allison-pugh-author-last-human-job-conversation-carolyn-hax

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and labor-saving technologies like self-checkouts and automated factories, the future of work has never been more uncertain, and even jobs requiring high levels of human interaction are no longer safe. The Last Human Job explores the human connections that underlie our work, arguing that what people do for each other in these settings is valuable and worth preserving.

Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations with people in a broad range of professions—from physicians, teachers, and coaches to chaplains, therapists, caregivers, and hairdressers—Allison Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor,” a kind of work that relies on empathy, the spontaneity of human contact, and a mutual recognition of each other’s humanity. The threats to connective labor are not only those posed by advances in AI or apps; Pugh demonstrates how profit-driven campaigns imposing industrial logic shrink the time for workers to connect, enforce new priorities of data and metrics, and introduce standardized practices that hinder our ability to truly see each other. She concludes with profiles of organizations where connective labor thrives, offering practical steps for building a social architecture that works.

Vividly illustrating how connective labor enriches the lives of individuals and binds our communities together, The Last Human Job is a compelling argument for us to recognize, value, and protect humane work in an increasingly automated and disconnected world.

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Building Social Capital for Climate Resilient Communities
Thursday, June 6
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA 02210
And online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/building-social-capital-for-climate-resilient-communities/
Cost:  $15 - $45


As the climate crisis unfolds, we are also facing an epidemic of loneliness. While most climate resilience public investment has been in physical infrastructure, research and experience tell us that it is people and relationships that matter when a crisis hits. Strong webs of trusting relationships, community control of local infrastructure, and spaces for communities to practice governance roles are essential ingredients for successful climate outcomes. That is why, increasingly, climate adaptation funding sources historically reserved for physical projects are opening up for investments in social resilience. But how do we know where these investments are most needed and what kinds of interventions can have the most impact?

This forum will explore the connection between social capital and disaster response and recovery outcomes, how communities are putting social resilience at the forefront of their climate adaptation efforts, and specific strategies for building social resilience in priority communities.
Forum Speakers
Dr. Daniel Aldrich, Professor, Political Science and Public Policy, Director of the Resilience Studies Program, Co-Director of the Global Resilience Institute. Northeastern University
Montanna Cassel, Sustainability Planner & Grant Coordinator, Town of Cohasset
Lydia Lowe, Executive Director, Chinatown Community Land Trust
Peyton Siler Jones, Urban Planner, Siler Climate Consulting

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The History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future 
Friday, June 7
9:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday, June 8
9am to 3pm
MIT, Building E51, 115 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142
The MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society will host an exploratory symposium on “The History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future.”

Over twenty scholars will make brief presentations about their view of the field and what they consider needs and opportunities for its future development.

Ranging from distinguished senior scholars to recently minted Ph.D.'s, the participants promise to bring fresh perspectives to the history of technology as an academic discipline. The time is ripe to take stock of the field, assess where it currently stands, and ask what next steps might be taken to advance it further.
 
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