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 (http://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
http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com - zero net energy links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
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Index
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Conference on Sustainable Development, Energy Transitions & Climate Action
Friday, November 28 3:00am - Saturday, November 29 12:00 GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conference-on-sustainable-development-energy-transitions-climate-action-tickets-1118862881999
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AI for Climate Science Seminar Series: From AI Ethics to Citizen Literacy - Challenges and Directions
Monday, December 1
9am EST [15:00 - 16:30 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iiasa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__6uXfIUESguot00UdS1Jdw#/
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COP30 Debriefing: A Decade After Paris – What's Next for Global Climate Action?
Monday, December 1
12:00pm to 1:30pm EST
MIT, Building 10-105, 222 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpwisQk4La4ZM6NtPg9vD7DhxYfyEcdFe5MgDdpdlxjgNjjg/viewform
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Author Talk: Rewiring Democracy
Monday, December 1
6:00pm to 7:00pm EST
MIT Museum, 314 Main Street, Gambrill Center, Cambridge MA 02142
RSVP at https://tickets.mitmuseum.org/events/0199cf40-761e-5168-4a0c-d5d8e84ac8f9
Cost: $5
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Author Talk: Rewiring Democracy
Monday, December 1
6:00pm to 7:00pm EST
MIT Museum, 314 Main Street, Gambrill Center, Cambridge MA 02142
RSVP at https://tickets.mitmuseum.org/events/0199cf40-761e-5168-4a0c-d5d8e84ac8f9
Cost: $5
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Sudan's Silent Genocide: An Unfolding Humanitarian Disaster
Monday, December 1
6:00pm EST
Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/@HarvardIOP/streams
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HEET's Thermal Party
Monday, December 1
6 - 9pm EST
Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, 306 Congress Street Boston, MA 02210
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/heets-thermal-party-tickets-1782469808179
Cost: $10 - $10,000
Editorial Comment: HEET started by doing weatherization parties then began tracking and fixing fugitive methane emissions and has gone on to spearhead USAmerica’s first utility-owned geothermal microgrid. They do very good work, are great people, and will use any donations to great advantage for us all.
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Capitalism: A Global History
Monday, December 1
7pm
Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
https://www.harvard.com/event/sven-beckert25
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The Climate Crossroads: Why Haven’t We Changed — and How We Do Now
Tuesday, December 2
11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET [8:00 – 9:30 am PT]
Online
RSVP at https://secure.everyaction.com/YRWcz4qbrUClbeXqAFWeRA2
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Roadmap to 100: Electrifying the Full US Bus Fleet
Tuesday, December 2
1:00 - 2:30pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.wri.org/events/2025/12/roadmap-100-electrifying-full-us-bus-fleet
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A Conversation with Fiona Hill
Tuesday, December 2
3:30pm to 4:30pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m1P7E6_-TqeOR9vkQql2Xg#/registration
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What Are We Up to in Space?
Tuesday, December 2
5:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/5017636490168/WN_3sJOg9JFSyC1VOF9u1TdCw#/registration
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Phenomenal Moments: Revealing the Hidden Science Around Us
Tuesday, December 2
6pm
Cambridge Public Library 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/felice-frankel-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1958021879149
Cost: $0 - $23.36
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Boston Green Drinks Happy Hour
Tuesday December 2
6-8pm
5 Horses, Davis Square, 400 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-green-drinks-happy-hour-tuesday-december-2-2025-6-8pm-tickets-1972914836385
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Understanding How People Respond to Climate Risks in the Real World
Wednesday, December 3
12am to 1am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/understanding-how-people-respond-to-climate-risks-in-the-real-world-tickets-1974954115925
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Climate, from space to action: Accurate eyes on Earth’s Energy Balance
Wednesday, December 3
2am to 3am GMT-5
Online event
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-from-space-to-action-accurate-eyes-on-earths-energy-balance-tickets-1969126629757
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Climate Watch Training: Tracking Commitments Beyond COP30
Wednesday, December 3
10:00 - 11:00am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.wri.org/events/2025/12/climate-watch-training-tracking-commitments-beyond-cop30
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Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
10am to 11am PT
Online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/woods-book-talks-sherri-goodman#about_stream
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Learning for Life: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being
Wednesday, December 3
12:00pm to 1:00pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.addevent.com/event/ggqpjdy9jngl
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Floods Splintering Earth's Ice Sheets
Wednesday, December 3
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2025-laura-a-stevens-fellow-presentation-virtual
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Learning for Life: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being
Wednesday, December 3
12:00pm to 1:00pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.addevent.com/event/ggqpjdy9jngl
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Promise and Peril: AI Policy in the Biden Administration
December 3
12:00-1:30 PM
MIT, 600 Technology Square, NE49-3100, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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Tackling Climate Disinformation
Wednesday, December 3
2pm to 4pm GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tackling-climate-disinformation-tickets-1924139295429
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We The People with Jill Lepore
Wednesday, December 3
5pm
Boston College, Burns Library, Thompson Room, 153-189 College Road, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmeW5GHlisvrfvXNGUIqEmleMjophzhsdztNTTN4MRuCPJ3w/viewform
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Politics of Global Rescue: Region, Perception, & Humanitarian Intervention
Wednesday, December 3
5pm to 6:15pm EST
Northeastern, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston, Ma
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/politics-of-global-rescue-region-perception-humanitarian-intervention-tickets-1777796239409
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Learning in an AI-Augmented World: Practices and Applications | Askwith Education Forum
Wednesday, December 3
5 – 6:30 p.m.
Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://calendar.gse.harvard.edu/en/36YmkP6/g/54VVVpBN0P/learning-in-an-ai-augmented-world-practices-and-applications-4a5YUYdtz7/overview
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Opening Night: Planetary Visions
Wednesday, December 3
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/PlanetaryDiplomacyNextGenVisions
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Jonathan Foley: 2025 Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Communication
Wednesday, December 3
9pm EST [6:00 PM PST]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And onine
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-12-03/jonathan-foley-2025-stephen-schneider-award-outstanding-climate-science
Cost: $5 - $25
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Re-WIRE Agri-Food Value Chains: Public Consultation Webinar
Thursday, December 4
8-9:15am EST [1-2:15pm GMT]
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2025/12/re-wire-agri-food-value-chains-public-consultation-webinar
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Online dialogue: COP30 post-match analysis
Thursday, December 4
9am EST [15:00 CET ending at 16:00 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/post-cop30-online-dialogue/
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Webinar – Empowering Energy Access with a Community-Centric Approach
Thursday, December 4
9am ET [3:00-4:30 p.m. WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-empowering-energy-access-with-a-community-centric-approach/
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Reflecting on COP30: What it means for cities, climate change and nature
Thursday, December 4
11am to 12pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reflecting-on-cop30-what-it-means-for-cities-climate-change-and-nature-tickets-1973011077244
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In Thoreau's Time: Temporal Imagination as Collective Resource
Thursday, December 4
12 – 1PM
Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ejDLULjYTF2Tbd0o-9Jutg#/
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A Conversation & Lunch with Expert & Author Michelle Amazeen
Thursday, December 4
12pm to 1:30pm EST
BU Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-lunch-with-expert-author-michelle-amazeen-tickets-1796061711929
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Busting Tech Hype: Ever-Emerging Tech Expectations & Geopolitical Realities
Thursday, December 4
12:15 PM - 1:45 PM ET
Harvard, One Brattle Square 350
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/busting-tech-hype-ever-emerging-tech-expectations-geopolitical-realities
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Bay State Without Beaches: Stories of the Shoreline
Thursday, December 4
5pm to 7pm EST
15 Necco Street, Boston, MA 02210
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-state-without-beaches-stories-of-the-shoreline-tickets-1969963370471
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Uncharted Risks: How Financial Institutions Are Preparing for What's Next
Thursday, December 4
5pm to 7:30pm EST
1 Court Street, Boston, MA 02108
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uncharted-risks-how-financial-institutions-are-preparing-for-whats-next-tickets-1967709461970
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Will Artificial Intelligence Be the End of Civilization, or the Beginning?
Thursday, December 4
6:30pm to 8:00pm EST
MIT, Building 32, G449 (Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
And online
RSVP at https://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/8917630641635/WN_FKvNEH5NQAO5nzIM_jWxxw#/registration
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Experiential Book Talks: Raising Anti-Doomers & Surviving Climate Anxiety
Thursday, December 4
7pm to 8pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/experiential-book-talks-ari-cook-shonkoff-dr-thomas-doherty-tickets-1924772368969
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30 Years of the Roundtable: Electricity Restructuring and the Pursuit of Clean Energy in New England
Friday, December 5
9:00 am-12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Blvd 17th Floor Boston, MA 02210
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/12-5-2025-ne-electricity-restructuring-roundtable-tickets-1816662038059
Cost: $0 - $110
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Dubious News & the Aging American: Discernment & Engagement Among Older Adults
Friday, December 5
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Harvard, Wexner Building - W-434 A.b. Conference Room, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/dubious-news-aging-american-discernment-engagement-among-older-adults
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Information Technologies at the Fundamental Physical Limits
Friday, December 5
1:00pm EST
Harvard, Pierce Hall, 209, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud at MA Independent Comics Expo
Sunday, December 7
5 - 7pm
BU, Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.micexpo.org/
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Climate Resilience and Adaptation Design Symposium
Monday, December 8
9:00 am - 11:00 am EST
Online
RSVP at https://forms.office.com/r/HRijdrYwFH
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Empowerment through openness: the future of energy modelling
Monday, December 8
9:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://agora-thinktanks-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yC15ixZeQ5e2uhT7vTR56w#/registration
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Passive House Symposium
Tuesday, December 9
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, 100 W 2nd Street, Boston, MA, 02127
RSVP at https://phmass.org/symposium-25/
Cost: $85 - $270
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Beyond COP30: climate finance, justice and action in 2026
Tuesday, December 9
9am to 10:15am GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-cop30-climate-finance-justice-and-action-in-2026-tickets-1960452108029
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Land Use Change Emissions: Bringing Consistency to GHG Accounting and Reporting
Tuesday, December 9
9:00-10:00 amET
Online
RSVP at https://landcarbonlab.org/events/land-use-change-emissions-consistency-ghg-accounting-reporting/
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Conflict-Sensitive Conservation in a Changing Climate
Tuesday, December 9
9am EST [2:00 pm - 3:00 pm GMT/UTC]
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_neToCVb0TD2YoCcYpRU-gQ#/registration
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Powering What Matters: How Partnerships Take Energy Solutions from Concept to Scale
Tuesday, December 9
12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/powering-what-matters-how-partnerships-take-energy-solutions-from-concept-to-scale/
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Bioeconomy-green finance-innovation nexus: what is the role for policy?
Tuesday, December 9
12:30pm ET [17:30 GMT ending at 19:00 GMT]
London, 11 Montague St , WC1B 5BP, United Kingdom
And online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/bioeconomy-green-finance-innovation-nexus-what-is-the-role-for-policy/
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The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician. A Political Giant And A Comedian Walk Into A Kitchen...
Tuesday, December 9
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scott-kerman-with-michael-dukakis-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1964502684412
Cost: $32.00 (book included)
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The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Tuesday, December 9
7pm
Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
https://www.harvard.com/event/john-fabian-witt
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The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home
Tuesday, December 9
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://secure.everyaction.com/7cR7gtXz40m9mhQAleZXlA2
Cost: Free - donation
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Voices for the future: Empowering adolescents and youths through climate education and action across eastern and southern Africa
Wednesday, December 10
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/voices-for-the-future-empowering-adolescents-and-youths-through-climate-education-and-action-across-eastern-and-southern-africa/
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Chains: Advancing deforestation-free supply chains
Wednesday, December 10
9am EST [3:00 pm - 4:30 pm CET]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iisd.org/events/sustainable-resilient-value-chains-deforestation
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2025 AC215 AI Project Showcase
Wednesday, December 10
9:00am to 12:00pm EST
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), Suite 1.312 (OMPP), 150 Western Avenue, Allston, MA 02134
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The Value of Human Empathy: Comparing Perceived Human and AI-Generated Empathy
Wednesday, December 10
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2025-anat-perry-fellow-presentation-virtual
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Monthly Dose of Climate Hope! With Daan Walter
Wednesday, December 10
12pm to 1pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monthly-dose-of-climate-hope-with-daan-walter-tickets-1901609197299
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From Professional to Partisan: Civil-Military Norm Replacement in Eroding Democracies
Wednesday, December 10
12:00-1:30 PM
MIT, 600 Technology Square, NE49-3100, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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Starr Forum: America’s Culture War and its Impact on Universities, Innovation, and National Security
Wednesday, December 10
5:30pm to 7:00pm EST
MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, Building 45, 51 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmvKp8Ga2xkv1L3JjrFS9IVXWIggoHxBS7cnmakItKT7YyPw/viewform
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Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World
Wednesday, December 10
7pm
Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
https://www.harvard.com/event/william-rankin
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After Neoliberalism: From Left to Right
Thursday, December 11, 8:00 AM ET - Friday, December 12, - 2:00 PM ET
Harvard, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://airtable.com/appS8pG2vAl6Bl9hn/pagQUSmNJbnAOAl1j/form
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Climate change, the energy transition and oil and gas strategies
Thursday, December 11
8am to 9am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-the-energy-transition-and-oil-and-gas-strategies-tickets-1702263027539
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Introducing RMI’s Transition Pathway Repository: A Tool to Empower Transition Intelligence (1 of 2)
Thursday, December 11
10:00-11:00 a.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-introducing-rmis-transition-pathway-repository-a-tool-to-empower-transition-intelligence-1-of-2/
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Phenomenal Moments: Capturing inspiration through scientific imagery
Thursday, December 11
4:30pm to 6:00pm EST
MIT, Building 12, 12-0168, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://mitnano.mit.edu/events/studionano-phenomenal-moments/register
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Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America
Thursday, December 11
7pm
Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
https://www.harvard.com/event/trent-preszler
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We Need to Talk: What if Staying is No Longer an Option?
Friday, December 12
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/we-need-to-talk-what-if-staying-is-no-longer-an-option/
Cost: $15-$45
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Public Literacies: Civic Systems, Media & Emotional Intelligence
Friday, December 12
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/2NIAyi1zTSGPykFaol1Q_Q#/registration
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Rethinking Democratic Structures in the Face of Climate & Other Threats
Friday, December 12
12:00pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/XXS7mramQBe54tpjqlIpUg#/registration
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Introducing RMI’s Transition Pathway Repository: A Tool to Empower Transition Intelligence (2 of 2)
Friday, December 12
9pm ET [10:00-11:00 a.m. SGT]
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-introducing-rmis-transition-pathway-repository-a-tool-to-empower-transition-intelligence-2-of-2/
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Carbon Countdown 2025: State Support for Local Climate Initiatives
Saturday, December 13
9:30am to 11am EST
Follen Church, Lexington, MA
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/carbon-countdown-2025-state-support-for-local-climate-initiatives-tickets-1969496055720
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Tomorrow’s News Today: Reporting on Futures That Haven’t Happened Yet
Monday, December 15
9pm ET [ 6:00 PM PST]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-12-15/tomorrows-news-today-reporting-futures-havent-happened-yet
Cost: $10 - $25
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Zero Carbon Deadline
Wednesday, December 31
6:59pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/net-zero-tickets-146172268189
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Allocating Electricity
Monday, January 5
7:30PM EST [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Building 370, 370, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 370, Stanford, CA 94305
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-allocating-electricity-klass
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Events
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Conference on Sustainable Development, Energy Transitions & Climate Action
November 28 at 3am to November 29 at 12pm GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conference-on-sustainable-development-energy-transitions-climate-action-tickets-1118862881999
Join us for a virtual conference discussing sustainable development, energy transitions, and climate action!
The Centre for Sustainable Development, Energy Transitions, and Climate Change at the University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom is delighted to invite you to the Global Conference on Advancing Sustainable Development, Energy Transitions, and Climate Action.
Venue: Virtual
This international, multi-disciplinary conference provides a platform to explore the critical intersections of sustainable development, clean energy transitions, and climate resilience. It aims to foster dialogue on innovative policies, strategies, and technologies that can accelerate global efforts toward a sustainable future.
The conference brings together global experts, policymakers, academics, and multi-stakeholders to address pressing global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, inequality, and poverty. Discussions will center on leveraging innovation, collaboration, and governance to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote equitable and resilient transitions for a sustainable planet.
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AI for Climate Science Seminar Series: From AI Ethics to Citizen Literacy - Challenges and Directions
Monday, December 1
9am EST [15:00 - 16:30 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iiasa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__6uXfIUESguot00UdS1Jdw#/
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) methods are becoming increasingly important in both science and society. In climate science - where complex biophysical and societal processes interact across diverse temporal and spatial scales, and datasets are often large, heterogenous and incomplete - AI and ML methods offer new powerful solutions.
Join us for the next session of the IIASA-wide seminar series, AI for Climate Science!
We are pleased to announce the next talk in the series, featuring Eugenia Stamboliev from the University of Vienna.
Abstract: The talk will give a brief overview on ethical concerns and topics regarding AI design and narratives (like responsibility, autonomy and discrimination). It will conclude on the topic of literacy, focusing on the challenges citizen’s face when using, implementing but also critiquing the ubiquity of AI.
About the speaker: Dr. Eugenia Stamboliev is a philosopher of technology and media scholar at the University of Vienna and the Prague University of Business and Economics. Until autumn 2025, she was a visiting professor at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus. Her research focuses on the ethical and democratic aspects of artificial intelligence and digital infrastructures. She pays particular attention to topics such as trustworthiness, democratic participation, visibility, and equality.
Currently, she leads two research projects – one on democracy and large language models, and the other on decentralized structures and trust. As a board member of Women in AI Austria and together with partners such as the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Austrian Funding Agency for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI), she is currently developing a scientific concept for the implementation of the first Austrian federal LLM.
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COP30 Debriefing: A Decade After Paris – What's Next for Global Climate Action?
Monday, December 1
12:00pm to 1:30pm EST
MIT, Building 10-105, 222 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpwisQk4La4ZM6NtPg9vD7DhxYfyEcdFe5MgDdpdlxjgNjjg/viewform
Join us for a timely debriefing on the outcomes of COP30 in Belém, Brazil—a pivotal moment marking the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. As the world reflects on a decade of progress and the ongoing challenges in global climate governance, this event will examine key developments from COP30 and explore their implications for climate policymaking and international cooperation. It will bring together a multidisciplinary panel of MIT climate experts and COP attendees to reflect on the summit and discuss priorities for the next phase of climate action.
Opening Remarks: Evelyn Wang, MIT Vice President for Energy and Climate and Ford Professor of Engineering
Panelists: Kent Larson, Professor of the Practice and Director of City Science, MIT Media Lab
Catherine Wolfram, William Barton Rogers Professor of Energy Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management
Andre Zollinger, Senior Policy Manager, MIT J-PAL Global, Environment, Energy, and Climate Change sector
Moderator: Evan Lieberman, Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT and Professor of Political Science.
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Author Talk: Rewiring Democracy
Monday, December 1
6:00pm to 7:00pm EST
MIT Museum, 314 Main Street, Gambrill Center, Cambridge MA 02142
RSVP at https://tickets.mitmuseum.org/events/0199cf40-761e-5168-4a0c-d5d8e84ac8f9
Cost: $5
Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan Sanders as they discuss their new book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, in conversation with MIT’s Crystal Lee.
Together, they will explore how to cut through the AI hype and examine the many ways AI is transforming democracy—for better and for worse.
In this highly readable and advisably optimistic book, the authors describe how the sophistication of AI will fulfill demands from lawmakers for more complex legislation, reducing deference to the executive branch and altering the balance of power between lawmakers and administrators. They show how the scale and scope of AI are enhancing civil servants’ ability to shape private-sector behavior, automating either the enforcement or neglect of industry regulations. They also explain how both lawyers and judges will leverage the speed of AI, upending how we think about law enforcement, litigation, and dispute resolution.
Copies of Rewiring Democracy will be available for purchase and signing after the talk, courtesy of the MIT Press Bookstore.
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Sudan's Silent Genocide: An Unfolding Humanitarian Disaster
Monday, December 1
6:00pm EST
Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/@HarvardIOP/streams
A panel of experts will unpack the worsening crisis in Sudan and how it evolved, where the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), is in dire conflict with the powerful paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UN recently reported ongoing cases of starvation, bombardment, the collapse of hospitals, and the systematic and deliberate use of rape as a weapon. Join us for this urgent discussion co-sponsored by the Carr Ryan Center for Human Rights, and the Center for African Studies.
Featuring:
Sahar Atif, Public Service Fellow; MC/MPA Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Nicholas Coghlan, Canada's first Resident Diplomat in Sudan
Yasir Yousif Elamin, President, Sudanese American Physicians Association
Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director, Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health
Zoe Marks (Moderator), Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies
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HEET's Thermal Party
Monday, December 1
6 - 9pm EST
Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, 306 Congress Street Boston, MA 02210
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/heets-thermal-party-tickets-1782469808179
Cost: $10 - $10,000
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Capitalism: A Global History
Monday, December 1
7pm
Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
https://www.harvard.com/event/sven-beckert25
No other phenomenon has shaped human history as decisively as capitalism. It structures how we live and work, how we think about ourselves and others, how we organize our politics. Sven Beckert, author of the Bancroft Prize–winning Empire of Cotton, places the story of capitalism within the largest conceivable geographical and historical framework, tracing its history during the past millennium and across the world. An epic achievement, his book takes us into merchant businesses in Aden and car factories in Turin, onto the terrifyingly violent sugar plantations in Barbados, and within the world of women workers in textile factories in today’s Cambodia.
Capitalism, argues Beckert, was born global. Emerging from trading communities across Asia, Africa, and Europe, capitalism’s radical recasting of economic life rooted itself only gradually. But then it burst onto the world scene, as a powerful alliance between European states and merchants propelled them, and their economic logic, across the oceans. This, Beckert shows, was modern capitalism’s big bang, and one of its epicenters was the slave labor camps of the Caribbean. This system, with its hierarchies that haunt us still, provided the liftoff for the radical transformations of the Industrial Revolution. Fueled by vast productivity increases along with coal and oil, capitalism pulled down old ways of life to crown itself the defining force of the modern world. This epic drama, shaped by state-backed institutions and imperial expansion, corresponded at no point to an idealized dream of free markets.
Drawing on archives on six continents, Capitalism locates important modes of agency, resistance, innovation, and ruthless coercion everywhere in the world, opening the aperture from heads of state to rural cultivators. Beckert shows that despite the dependence on expansion, there always have been, and are still, areas of human life that the capitalist revolution has yet to reach.
By chronicling capitalism’s global history, Beckert exposes the reality of the system that now seems simply “natural.” It is said that people can more easily imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. If there is one ultimate lesson in this extraordinary book, it’s how to leave that behind. Though cloaked in a false timelessness and universality, capitalism is, in reality, a recent human invention. Sven Beckert doesn’t merely tote up capitalism’s debits and credits. He shows us how to look through and beyond it to imagine a different and larger world.
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The Climate Crossroads: Why Haven’t We Changed — and How We Do Now
Tuesday, December 2
11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET [8:00 – 9:30 am PT]
Online
RSVP at https://secure.everyaction.com/YRWcz4qbrUClbeXqAFWeRA2
A live event from The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations Podcast
We know the science— still we haven’t changed. Why? Join three of the leading voices on Climate for lively dialogue about breaking the deadlock.
Bill McKibben, Dr. Rupert Read, and Brian McLaren, in a live conversation moderated by Dr. John Izzo, confronting the hard truth of where we stand and explore what it will take to move from paralysis to action.
Hosted by Elders Action Network, Elders Climate Action, and The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations Podcast, this 90-minute event blends wisdom and urgency, moral clarity and practical hope. Webinar attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions.
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Roadmap to 100: Electrifying the Full US Bus Fleet
Tuesday, December 2
1:00 - 2:30pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.wri.org/events/2025/12/roadmap-100-electrifying-full-us-bus-fleet
The next three years will be pivotal for achieving 100% electrification of the U.S. school bus fleet. The current phase of early adoption—largely driven by incentives—must evolve into a sustainable model built on scale, financing, and operational readiness.
This webinar brings together leaders from school districts, government agencies, bus operators, manufacturers, utilities, financing institutions, and advocacy groups to chart the road ahead for school bus electrification.
The discussion will reflect insights from a new WRI publication, Roadmap to 100: Overcoming Barriers to a Fully Electric US School Bus Fleet, which draws on expert opinions from across the school bus ecosystem. Join us to explore the next phase of school bus electrification—and discover how you and your organization can help drive the transition.
Speakers:
Robert Blake, Executive Director, Native Sun Community Power Development
Chris Budzynski, Director of Utility Policy, Exelon Corporation
Carolina Chacon, Coalition Manager, Alliance for Electric School Buses
Mark Childers, Powertrain and Technology Sales Manager, Thomas Built Buses
Paul D'Andrade, Executive Director, Transportation Services, Fairfax County Public Schools
Whitney Kopanko, Director of Marketing and School Bus Sales, Sonny Merryman
Davante Lewis, Commissioner, 3rd District, Louisiana Public Service Commission
Kevin Matthews, Head of Electrification, First Student, Inc
Duncan McIntyre, CEO, Highland Fleets
Adam Ruder, Director, Clean Transportation, NYSERDA
Kirsten Stasio, CEO, Nevada Clean Energy Fund
Sue Gander, Director, Electric School Bus Initiative (Moderator)
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A Conversation with Fiona Hill
Tuesday, December 2
3:30pm to 4:30pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m1P7E6_-TqeOR9vkQql2Xg#/registration
Speaker:
Fiona Hill is a senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings Institution and Chancellor of Durham University. Hill served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the US National Security Council from 2017 to 2019, as well as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the US National Intelligence Council from 2006 to 2009. She has researched and published extensively on issues related to Russia, the Caucasus, regional conflicts, and strategic issues, as well as the link between deindustrialization and political populism. She is the author of the bestselling memoir "There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century" and co-author of "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin." In December 2023, Hill was recognized by the United Kingdom as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, for services to international relations and in July 2024, she was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be an external reviewer for a Strategic Defense Review for the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom.
Discussants:
Carol Saivetz is a senior fellow in the MIT Security Studies Program at the Center for International Studies (CIS). She is the author and contributing co-editor of books and articles on Soviet and now Russian foreign policy issues.
Elizabeth Wood is Ford International Professor of History at MIT. She is the author most recently of Roots of Russia’s War in Ukraine as well as articles on Vladimir Putin, the political cult of WWII, right-wing populism in Russia and Turkey, and U.S.-Russian Partnerships in Science. She is director of the MIT-Ukraine Program at CIS.
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What Are We Up to in Space?
Tuesday, December 2
5:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/5017636490168/WN_3sJOg9JFSyC1VOF9u1TdCw#/registration
Back in the 1950s, NASA set lofty and noble ambitions for humanity: to “explore the unknown in air and space, to innovate for the benefit of humanity, and to inspire the world through discovery.” And for the past 75 years, it is true that NASA has made the seemingly impossible, possible. However, the agency’s agenda has shifted dramatically over the ensuing years with the advent of Star Wars and the creation of commercial enterprises that carried research payloads into space on board the shuttle, for profit.
This Forum will provide a reality check on our current role in space, to consider what is really motivating our actions, driving our expensive excursions to Mars, and shaping our international satellite placement industry. Have we really considered our role, responsibility, and stewardship in space alongside the potential profits to be made? We are joined by two astrophysicists: Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute and author of The Secret Life of the Universe; and Erika Nesvold, former researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and author of Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space.
Join the conversation. https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/5017636490168/WN_3sJOg9JFSyC1VOF9u1TdCw
Speakers
Nathalie Cabrol
Nathalie Cabrol is a French American explorer and astrobiologist, and director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute. She researches habitability and life beyond Earth, develops science exploration strategies at NASA for Mars and Titan, designs robotic field tests, and leads projects in planetary science and astrobiology. Cabrol documents life’s adaptation to extreme environments and the effects of rapid climate change. She has authored over 600 peer- reviewed publications and conference proceedings and has published four books on planetary science. Her latest book, The Secret Life of the Universe, explores humanity’s most profound questions: are we alone in the universe and how did life on Earth begin?
Erika Nesvold
Erika Nesvold has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland and has performed computational astrophysics research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Carnegie Institution for Science, NASA Ames, and SETI. She now works as an astrophysics engineer on Universe Sandbox, a physics-based astronomy video game. Erika is the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance, a nonprofit advocating for a more inclusive and ethical future in space. She is the author of Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space and the co-editor of Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration.
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Phenomenal Moments: Revealing the Hidden Science Around Us
Tuesday, December 2
6pm
Cambridge Public Library 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/felice-frankel-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1958021879149
Cost: $0 - $23.36
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Felice Frankel—award-winning science photographer and research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the department of Chemical Engineering—for a discussion of her first book for young adults, Phenomenal Moments: Revealing the Hidden Science Around Us. She will be joined in conversation by Melissa Franklin—the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Director of Graduate Studies at Harvard University.
About Phenomenal Moments
Visual learners rejoice! A world-renowned photographer imagines the intersection of art, science, and the ordinary-extraordinary world around us in a stunning work of interactive nonfiction.
Enlisting readers to “be the scientist” through vivid fine-art photographs, internationally acclaimed science photographer Felice Frankel zooms in and out on beautiful and brilliant moments all around us to reveal the chemical, natural, or physical processes—from viscosity and venation to chlorophyll and capillary action—behind scientific phenomena. Organized into five thematic sections that explore light and shadow, form, surfaces, traces left behind, and transformation, this ingenious book is both a visual feast to savor in its own right and a guessing game that trains readers to look in a more layered, curious, and questioning way. Close-up spreads offer abstract clues to phenomena revealed at the page turn. Full-color images of similar scientific “moments” broaden context. Sophisticated and inspiring, this invitation to engage with and understand our surroundings—the worlds we can see and the worlds we can’t—is a ticket to everyday wonder.
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Boston Green Drinks Happy Hour
Tuesday December 2
6-8pm
5 Horses, Davis Square, 400 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-green-drinks-happy-hour-tuesday-december-2-2025-6-8pm-tickets-1972914836385
Join Green Drinks at 5 Horses, Davis Square, Somerville on December 2nd - Last Green Drinks of 2025
This month Boston Green Drinks is meeting at 5 Horses on Tuesday, December 2nd! Our group will be there between 6:00-8:00pm, everyone is welcomed to stop by at any point (no need to book an eventbrite ticket!).
Find us inside near the bar, or just ask the host or bartender if you can't find us!
What kind of professionals usually are usually there? Those involved with:
sustainability
clean tech
policy at the local and national levels
organizing and NGO activists
research
design and architecture
green finance
environmental and climate justice
students
job seekers
You!
Come discuss our current environmental and climate challenges, hopes, resources, news, or just nerd out with your fellow environmentalists. To support the group by volunteering for the steering committee, chat with me, Brock, to learn more, or email me at brockadler@gmail.com.
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Understanding How People Respond to Climate Risks in the Real World
Wednesday, December 3
12am to 1am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/understanding-how-people-respond-to-climate-risks-in-the-real-world-tickets-1974954115925
Findings from two large-scale projects in Australia examining the behavioural and perceptual impacts of climate-related events.
How do people’s experiences with weather and climate risk shape their beliefs and actions? This talk presents findings from two large-scale projects in Australia examining the behavioural and perceptual impacts of climate-related events. The first project investigates how chronic weather anomalies, such as temperature and rainfall deviations, and acute disasters, such as wildfires, floods, and cyclones, relate to pro-climate beliefs, political attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviours over the past decade. The second project focuses on predictors of household adaptation behaviours, including home renovation and insurance uptake, using survey and spatial risk data. It explores how factors such as exposure to flood, fire, and cyclone risk, prior experience, demographic characteristics, and climate beliefs interact with different communication frames that vary in intention, time horizon, and message focus. Together, these projects aim to advance our understanding of how lived experience and risk communication can foster informed, resilient, and sustainable responses to a changing climate.
About the Speaker
Omid Ghasemi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Institute for Climate Risk & Response. His research examines how people form judgments and make decisions about climate change, with a focus on risk perception, emotions, trust, and policy communication. Drawing on large-scale survey and behavioural data, he explores how experiences of extreme weather, risk communication, and policy framing shape beliefs, decisions, and public support for climate solutions. His broader goal is to bridge behavioural science and climate research to better understand how people make sense of complex risks and how this understanding can support more adaptive and sustainable choices.
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Climate, from space to action: Accurate eyes on Earth’s Energy Balance
Wednesday, December 3
2am to 3am GMT-5
Online event
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-from-space-to-action-accurate-eyes-on-earths-energy-balance-tickets-1969126629757
A presentation on ESA satellite mission concepts designed to provide timely feedback on climate policies, allowing for adjustments.
Earth Observation Australia welcomes you to join us for an evening talk focussed on space-based observations that are crucial to climate models and providing timely feedback on the effectiveness of climate policies.
Speaker
Thomas August holds a PhD in Astrophysics and Planetology, obtained in 2002 on Synthetic Aperture Radar and sub-surface exploration, from CNES and University of Bordeaux. He then worked 20 years at EUMETSAT, taking mission science responsibilities for the European hyperspectral infrared sounders IASI, IASI-NG and MTG-IRS. This involved various application fields including NWP, nowcasting, climate, air quality, atmospheric composition, marine and continental surfaces.
He joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2023, where he is mission scientist for the Earth Explorer 12 candidate mission ECO and for TRUTHS, as well as for the MetOp-SG MWI/ICI and radio-occultation missions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-august-4036a0/
Abstract
Our climate is changing. This is now beyond doubt, as evidenced by decades of direct in situ measurements, surface and satellite observations. At the root of this change lies a delicate balance between the incoming solar energy that powers the Earth system and the energy our planet reflects and emits back to space. Since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has upset this balance, primarily by burning fossil fuels. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions continue to trap energy, causing Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) and increasing ocean and surface temperatures at an unprecedented pace. This, in turn, impacts our climate, upsets the water cycle, and threatens ecosystems.
Scientists model our Earth system and project different climate trajectories, depending on how humanity manages fossil fuel use. To meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, global carbon emissions must peak by 2025, fall by 43% by 2030, and reach net-zero by 2050. While the climate direction is clear, uncertainties remain in the magnitude of the changes ahead of us. These uncertainties stem from the complexity of physical processes, the limits of our knowledge and computational tools, and from the limitations of the observations used to inform models.
Space-based observations are crucial to climate models, providing global and process-dedicated measurements to better understand and predict the Earth system. With the current knowledge and observing systems, the effect of today’s climate measures can, however, only be verified in a couple of decades from now. In this seminar, we will introduce a mission candidate to ESA Earth Explorer 12. ECO, the Earth Climate Observatory, would for the first time directly measure the Earth’s Energy Imbalance on annual basis at the required accuracy. It would also deliver high-resolution maps of reflected solar radiation (RSR) and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), to benchmark the future generation of climate models and enable Earth’s Radiation Budget closure studies. We will also introduce the objectives pursued and the results with the mission TRUTHS (Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio-Studies), whose development was discontinued, and its legacy for the in-orbit calibration mission required to establish a radiometric reference in space and ensure interoperability and quality assurance of Earth observation systems.
Such missions would provide timely feedback on the effectiveness of climate policies and help societies and decision-makers to adjust our course of actions in the climate emergency.
More information:
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Preparing_for_tomorrow/ESA_selects_four_new_Earth_Explorer_mission_ideas
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Earth_Explorers_ESA_s_pioneering_science_missions_for_Earth
https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/EarthObservation/EO4policies_brochure_250922.pdf
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Climate Watch Training: Tracking Commitments Beyond COP30
Wednesday, December 3
10:00 - 11:00am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.wri.org/events/2025/12/climate-watch-training-tracking-commitments-beyond-cop30
Join us on December 3 for a snapshot of the latest outcomes from the COP30 Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil. At this year’s conference, nations face a defining moment to bridge the gap between current climate commitments, also known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and what’s needed to unlock a safer, more sustainable future for both people and planet.
WRI’s experts are closely following the UN climate talks. Watch our Resource Hub for new articles, research, webinars and more.
At this webinar, WRI experts will provide insights into the progress — or remaining gaps — in advancing the goals of the Paris Agreement and demonstrate how the Climate Watch platform can be used to gather insights on countries’ climate progress. Participants will learn about the latest updates from Climate Watch, including our NDC Tracker that reveals how recent national climate plans are closing the emissions gap toward 1.5°C and 2°C by 2035, as well as tools that track related commitments such as long-term strategies.
This session will include a hands-on demonstration of how to use Climate Watch to access and download data, create and explore key visualizations, and monitor global climate action over time.
Speakers:
Nathan Cogswell, Senior Associate, International Climate Action, World Resources Institute
Leandro Vigna, Data Partnerships and Outreach Manager, Climate Watch, World Resources Institute
Irene Berman-Vaporis, Head of Communications, Climate Watch, World Resources Institute (moderator)
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Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
10am to 11am PT
Online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/woods-book-talks-sherri-goodman#about_stream
Sherri Goodman, the Pentagon's Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security will discuss the urgent connections between climate change and national security in her book, "Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security." Her book gives readers an inside account, from the Pentagon to the battlefield, of today’s military on the front lines of a changing climate, the energy transition, technology upheavals and new health challenges.
Goodman, a senior fellow at The Wilson Center, serves as the Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, the leading international organization for national security and military leaders on climate and energy security. Recognized by both military and environmental officials for her leadership in national security, energy and sustainability, Goodman has twice received the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Environmental Peacebuilding Association, and an Honorary Doctorate from Amherst College.
For more information, contact: woods-events@stanford.edu
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Floods Splintering Earth's Ice Sheets
Wednesday, December 3
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2025-laura-a-stevens-fellow-presentation-virtual
A presentation from 2025–2026 Radcliffe fellow Laura A. Stevens
Laura A. Stevens is a geophysicist whose research focuses on hydrological drivers of ice-sheet deformation, combining a range of observational techniques and theoretical approaches to understand ice-sheet dynamics in our warming climate. At Radcliffe, Stevens is interrogating a newly collected dataset to explore whether emerging, high-elevation lakes on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet could augment this ice sheet’s contribution to sea-level rise, alongside collaborating with Harvard’s polar oceanographers to reimagine directions for the joint field of fjord-ice-sheet dynamics.
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Learning for Life: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being
Wednesday, December 3
12:00pm to 1:00pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.addevent.com/event/ggqpjdy9jngl
“Learning for Life: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being” with Bia Adams
An Open Conversation hosted by Curt Newton
Question and answer session to follow.
Join neuropsychologist and lifelong learner Bia Adams in conversation with Curt Newton, Director of MIT OpenCourseWare, as they discuss how curiosity and continuous learning can transform personal growth and mental well-being. From neuroscience to quantum physics, Bia’s journey illustrates how open-access education empowers individuals to thrive in an ever-changing world.
About the speakers
Bia Adams is a neuropsychologist and therapist. She combines knowledge and experience from psychology and medical neuroscience, but also from less conventional domains in order to understand and help minds, bodies, machines and technology. Adams uses all of her knowledge and expertise to ensure she achieves the desired results for her clients and patients.
Curt Newton leads MIT OpenCourseWare in supporting millions of global learners and educators every year with freely shared materials from over 2,500 MIT courses. Newton joined OpenCourseWare in 2004, shortly after its launch, captivated by the promise of open education, and worked as a Publication Manager and Site Curator prior to becoming Director in 2018.
Newton is also a recognized leader in building more effective and equitable climate action through open knowledge practices and resources, at MIT and around the world, through a wide range of professional and civic engagements.
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Promise and Peril: AI Policy in the Biden Administration
December 3
12:00-1:30 PM
MIT, 600 Technology Square, NE49-3100, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies presents both transformative opportunities and significant challenges for policymakers. Under the Biden Administration, AI policy was a priority area of focus, balancing the promise of innovation with the need to address ethical, security, and societal risks. This seminar will discuss the administration's approach to AI governance, including initiatives to promote innovation, responsible development, safeguard privacy, and ensure global competitiveness.
Diane Staheli recently returned to MIT from a tour of duty in government, where she held multiple positions related to AI and national security. She served in the White House in the Office of Science Technology Policy and the National Security Council, and at the Pentagon as Chief of Responsible AI. She also had an appointment as a visiting fellow at NIST, where she worked on practical guidance for AI risk management. She currently works at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and has held leadership roles in multiple research groups, focused on AI Technology, Homeland Security, and Cyber Operations. She has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry, including a global information security company and home networking startup.
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Tackling Climate Disinformation
Wednesday, December 3
2pm to 4pm GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tackling-climate-disinformation-tickets-1924139295429
Join us for an engaging and interactive workshop on how to respond to disinformation campaigns that challenge meaningful change.
Welcome to Tackling Climate Disinformation!
Join St Albans Greener Together, for an engaging and interactive 2-hour online event on Tackling Climate Disinfromation
Throughout history the powerful have been able to control and distort the news for their own gain, but in the modern digital age has disinformation become a much more serious problem? In this innovative and interactive workshop we will learn about some of the main causes of the spread of disinformation and explore together what the main ways to tackle it might be.
Approaches include:
Work on the Media: Platform regulation and strengthening journalism
Educate: Media literacy and critical thinking
Community: In tackling disinformation we are better together
This 2 hour session will begin with an active learning phase. This will be followed by discussion groups where you hear ideas from others and share your own. By the end of the workshop you will discover the ways forward that are most popular.
We recommend joining on a laptop, NOT a phone or tablet.
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Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab Public Presentations
Wednesday, December 3
1 PM – 3 PM EST (GMT-5)
Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab Public Project Presentations
Wednesday December 3
1-3pm
Online
RSVP at https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/yseacademicaffairs/rsvp_boot?id=2312495
Final project presentations will be shared with the public by four student teams and their community project partners as part of the Regenerative Agriculture & Just Food Systems Lab Course from Fall 2025 at the Yale School of the Environment. This work is also supported through the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. The Projects that will be presented are:
Achieving Net-Zero Coffee Through Soil Strategies & Sustaining Smallholder Farmers w/Biofilia Mexico, Lalo Perez and ClimateB2C, David Griswold & Student Team: Karly Beaumont, Willie Freeman, Marigold S-Darko, Meryl Braconnier, Christy Dey
Advancing Microgreens Business & Cooperative Governance for a CT Black and Brown Farmer Cooperative w/ Liberated Land Cooperative, Dishan Harris, Vetiveah Immanuel & Student Team: Camilla Ledezma, Maegan Bogetti, Amy Bee, Sara Sherburne, Emily Evans
Decoding Regenerative Agriculture Certifications for Retail Grocery Supply Chains w/ A Fortune 500 Grocery Retailer & Student Team: Rose Waltz-Peters, Sonia Klein, Zaizuo Gong, Katie Ryan-O'Flaherty, Eliana Colzani
Increasing Impact of Oyster Shell Recycling & Habitat Restoration in Long Island Sound w/ Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration, Tim Macklin, Todd Koehenke & Student Team: Rachel Allred, Davis Recht, Mia Ambroiggio, Maya Dutta, Riki Bertoldi
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We The People with Jill Lepore
Wednesday, December 3
5pm
Boston College, Burns Library, Thompson Room, 153-189 College Road, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmeW5GHlisvrfvXNGUIqEmleMjophzhsdztNTTN4MRuCPJ3w/viewform
Jill Lepore is Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of the international bestseller These Truths: A History of the United States (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018), an overview of American history in relation to the values we consider fundamental to this country. She studies the history of evidence, and her work examines inconsistencies in the historical record. Her essays have been collected in the book The Deadline, which explores personal and political life in contemporary America. She has won the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.
Professor Lepore’s most recent book, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution (2025) discusses successful and unsuccessful amendments to the constitution and argues that the Framers did not intend for the Constitution to remain stagnant, “like a butterfly under glass,” but rather that it should be continuously amended and modified. The Clough Center is delighted to welcome Professor Lepore for the Clough Distinguished Lecture. Please join us for a thought-provoking lecture, and the final event of our fall semester.
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Politics of Global Rescue: Region, Perception, & Humanitarian Intervention
Wednesday, December 3
5pm to 6:15pm EST
Northeastern, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston, Ma
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/politics-of-global-rescue-region-perception-humanitarian-intervention-tickets-1777796239409
Book Launch: The Politics of Global Rescue with Sidita Kushi
Why do some humanitarian crises, like Kosovo and Libya, spur humanitarian military intervention, while others, such as Darfur or Myanmar, are relegated to the margins of global agendas? In her newest book, From Kosovo to Darfur, Sidita Kushi shows that this selectivity gap is not about geopolitical interests or humanitarian norms alone, but also about where crises occur and how they are perceived by Western political elites. Intrastate crises closer to the Western sphere and framed as genocide or systematic killing are more likely to prompt third-party intervention than distant crises narrated as identity-based civil wars. Drawing on new global data and case studies of Kosovo, Libya, and Darfur, this talk will unpack the regional biases, the politics of perception, and their consequences for understanding the humanitarian military intervention phenomenon.
Sidita Kushi, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College and a Non-Residential Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater State University. She has also served as research director at the Center for Strategic Studies, where she led the Military Intervention Project (MIP). She is the author of Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy (2023, Oxford University Press), From Kosovo to Darfur: The Regional Biases within Humanitarian Military Interventionism (2025, University of Michigan Press), and numerous academic articles on military interventions, intrastate conflict, and the gendered dynamics of economic crises, published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Affairs, International Relations, Comparative European Politics, European Security, World Affairs, International Labour Review, amongst others. Sidita also contributes to public scholarship on the Western Balkans, U.S. foreign policy, and transatlantic security within outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Newsweek, and Al Jazeera.
Sidita holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northeastern University, an M.A. in Political Science and Economics from Northeastern University, and a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from St. John Fisher University.
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Learning in an AI-Augmented World: Practices and Applications | Askwith Education Forum
Wednesday, December 3
5 – 6:30 p.m.
Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://calendar.gse.harvard.edu/en/36YmkP6/g/54VVVpBN0P/learning-in-an-ai-augmented-world-practices-and-applications-4a5YUYdtz7/overview
Join us for the second Askwith Education Forum this year focused on artificial intelligence in education. This event will explore how AI is being used in K–12 settings—from classroom instruction to district-level strategies—and will feature voices from education, research, and policy. We’ll spotlight innovative efforts, including district partnerships with Khan Academy and broader initiatives to integrate AI into daily learning.
Speakers include:
Keith Parker, Superintendent, Elizabeth City - Pasquotank Public Schools, NC
Yenda Prado, Learning Sciences Research Analyst, Digital Promise
Kedaar Sridhar, Co-founder and Chief Product and Tech Officer, M7E AI
Moderator: Ying Xu, Assistant Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Registration is required. Seating is first-come, first-seated. Once Askwith Hall reaches capacity, guests will be redirected to overflow seating. Light refreshments will be available. This event will also be livestreamed.
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Opening Night: Planetary Visions
Wednesday, December 3
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/PlanetaryDiplomacyNextGenVisions
Swissnex presents the opening of Planetary Visions, an exhibition by young artists and thinkers reimagining how humans might collaborate with the planet—through empathy, care, and new forms of dialogue across species and ecosystems.
What might diplomacy look like if rivers, forests, and fungi had a seat at the table? What if we could change how we relate to the planet—not as masters, but as collaborators within a living web of connections?
In 2025, Swissnex invited thinkers, artists, and researchers under 30 to imagine a “planetary diplomacy,” a new way of engaging with the more-than-human world. Now, Swissnex presents the opening of Planetary Visions, an exhibition showcasing four visionary projects selected from over 100 submissions from around the world. From speculative lawmaking to trans-species cohabitation, from listening to the Earth’s rhythms to learning from mangroves, these projects open portals to futures where care, empathy, and ecological intelligence shape diplomacy.
The opening will feature a panel discussion with next-gen planetary diplomats, including two of the featured artists and members of the Villars Fellowship Program, an initiative by the Villars Institute to empower a new generation of systems leaders for a healthier planet.
Featured works include:
I am Earth by Abhinay “Renny” Thummaluru | Five empty chairs, representing nature and natural elements, invite us to imagine a time when we deeply listen to the Earth, to nature, and to the silent signals already all around us.
Blutpilz: Systems of Care in Mycelium Structures by Sulamith Tamborriello | A year-long living collaboration between the artist and a slime mold, exploring processes of codependency?, symbiosis?, and transformation?.
Imagining the Futures of Rights of Nature by Lydia Dai, Beniamin Strzelecki, Genaro Matías Godoy González, Iqra Bano, and Pierre Mikhiel | A series of narratives envisioning pathways from today’s property-based paradigm toward futures where ecosystems are recognized as legal and political subjects.
Tidal Movements: Thinking with the Mangrove by Yassine Rachidi — A text installation examining the mangroves of Lamu, Kenya, as fascinating biotopes and living metaphors, exploring how their intricate ecosystems can inform alternative understandings of urban growth, with water as medium of relation and encounter.
The opening of the exhibition also marks the launch of Swissnex’s Planetary Embassy in Boston, a six-month series transforming Switzerland’s science and technology consulate into a laboratory for planetary diplomacy, featuring talks, film screenings, and more—more to be announced soon!
Together, we will explore what it means to practice diplomacy not only among nations — but across species, systems, and futures.
Program
5:30pm – Doors open
6:00pm – Opening remarks
6:10pm – Video contributions
6:20pm – Panel discussion
7:00pm – Q&A
7:20pm – Reception
This event is presented in collaboration with the Villars Institute, a nonprofit foundation to accelerate the transition to a net zero and nature positive economy and to restore the health of the planet.
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Jonathan Foley: 2025 Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Communication
Wednesday, December 3
9pm EST [6:00 PM PST]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And onine
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-12-03/jonathan-foley-2025-stephen-schneider-award-outstanding-climate-science
Cost: $5 - $25
Climate One is delighted to present the 2025 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown.
Project Drawdown is the world’s leading science-based guide to climate solutions. According to Foley, it aims to be the Consumer Reports for Climate Change. “We synthesize every paper ever written in science, engineering, technical, economic literature, all the data, and bring it together and say, Hey, does this actually work? And if so, how much would it cost? And how long would we have to wait for it?”
Foley is not just an expert on the intricacies of hundreds of potential climate solutions; he’s also an expert at explaining complex ideas in easily digestible terms. As he said on a past Climate One episode, “The great news about addressing climate change is we also build a better world in the process. Imagine going to the doctor and they're like, Wow, you're really sick and I'm gonna give you this medicine, but, and its side effects are, you're gonna feel better . . . Climate solutions are like that.”
Join Climate One for this special in-person conversation with Jonathan Foley, environmental scientist and executive director of Project Drawdown.
About the Award
Established in honor of Dr. Stephen H. Schneider, one of the founding fathers of climatology, Climate One’s Schneider Award recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear, compelling fashion. Past winners include Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ben Santer, Katharine Hayhoe, Robert Bullard, Jane Lubchenco and Michael Mann. Winners receive $15,000.
About Dr. Schneider Dr. Stephen H. Schneider was the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, professor of biological sciences, professor (by courtesy) of civil and environmental engineering, and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. Schneider received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and plasma physics from Columbia University in 1971. He studied the role of greenhouse gasses and suspended particulate material on climate as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1972 and was a member of the scientific staff of the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1973 to 1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project. In 2002, Schneider was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Internationally recognized for research, policy analysis and outreach in climate change, Schneider focused on climate change science, integrated assessment of ecological and economic impacts of human-induced climate change, and identifying viable climate policies and technological solutions. He also consulted with federal agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations. His work is chronicled at climatechange.net.
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Re-WIRE Agri-Food Value Chains: Public Consultation Webinar
Thursday, December 4
8-9:15am EST [1-2:15pm GMT]
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2025/12/re-wire-agri-food-value-chains-public-consultation-webinar
Join FOLU for our public consultation on Re-WIRE: an analytical framework designed to help the private sector strengthen efforts to transition agricultural value chains to become more sustainable and resilient.
After going live at Climate Week NYC, the Re-WIRE framework has been discussed in a series of consultations with private sector stakeholders—including dedicated sessions and discussions at World AgriFood Innovation Conference (WAFI) in China. Now, it’s time to bring the broader community into the dialogue.
We’re inviting business leaders, policymakers, funders, civil society, and producer organizations to learn more about what it will take to Re-WIRE food value chains, test how this analytical framework can strengthen problem diagnosis and strategies in the beef and soy value chains and share their feedback on the approach.
Join us for a dynamic panel discussion and live Q&A featuring voices from across geographies and sectors.
Speakers:
Morgan Gillespy, Executive Director, FOLU
Elinor Newman-Beckett, Co-Director of Knowledge Generation, FOLU
Kevin Chen, Head of East and Central Asia Office of IFPRI, Qiushi Chair Professor of the School of Public Affairs and International Dean of China Academy for Rural Development (CARD) at Zhejiang.
Ms Shuyuan Zhang, Head of Sustainability and Branding, China Shengmu
Dr. Gracie Verde Selva, Executive Manager, Climate and Nature, Minerva Foods
Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Sustainability (Food and Feed), Olam Agri
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Online dialogue: COP30 post-match analysis
Thursday, December 4
9am EST [15:00 CET ending at 16:00 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/post-cop30-online-dialogue/
Join us for this annual online dialogue, where leading experts and policymakers will come together to reflect on the key outcomes and implications of COP30 and what COP30 means for global and national climate governance.
As the world met in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UNFCCC, global attention focused once again on progress in climate action, ambition and implementation. COP30 marked an important moment for accelerating efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals, as countries submitted the third round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and negotiated key issues including adaptation, climate finance and just transitions.
In this annual online dialogue, leading experts and policymakers will come together to reflect on the key outcomes and implications of COP30. What advances were made in global climate negotiations? Where do major challenges remain? And how do the results of COP30 shape future action for governments, civil society, businesses and research communities?
Moderator
Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Change, Linköping University and co-director CSPR
Speakers
Mattias Frumerie, Sweden’s Climate Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the UNFCCC, Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise; Member of the Swedish Climate Policy Council
Annika Markovic, Engagement and Impact Director, Stockholm Environment Institute
Mairon G. Bastos Lima, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
Eva Lövbrand, Professor, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Change, Linköping University
Paul Watkinson, Independent expert on international climate action, former chief negotiator, and former chair of SBSTA
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Webinar – Empowering Energy Access with a Community-Centric Approach
Thursday, December 4
9am ET [3:00-4:30 p.m. WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-empowering-energy-access-with-a-community-centric-approach/
Join RMI and UNDP, as part of the Africa Minigrids Program (AMP), for this webinar on our recently published Community-Centric Minigrids Toolkit. The webinar will present:
The Community-Centric Minigrid Toolkit, highlighting the community-centric framework and lessons learned to date
Hands-on experiences and insights on enhanced community engagement and participation from minigrids and rural electrification practitioners
A panel discussion sharing learnings and exploring how to integrate community-centric approach to future minigrids deployment
About the Africa Minigrids Program
The AMP regional component is a technical assistance and investment support program for minigrids aimed at increasing access to electricity by improving financial viability of solar PV minigrids. For more information please visit: https://africaminigrids.org/ SPEAKERS
CHRISTELLE ODONGO-BRAUN, Regional Project Manager, Africa Minigrids Program Learn More
ZIHE MENG, Manager, Africa Energy Program/Global South Program, RMI
FRANK BERGH, Senior Electrical Engineer, NRECA International
AYU ABDULLAH, Managing Director, COMET
SASCHA FLESCH
WASHIMA MEDE
Chief Executive Officer, Prado Power Limited
ROBERT HANNA, Director of Sustainable Energy Botswana (SEB)
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Reflecting on COP30: What it means for cities, climate change and nature
Thursday, December 4
11am to 12pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reflecting-on-cop30-what-it-means-for-cities-climate-change-and-nature-tickets-1973011077244
This Collaboratory focuses on the events and decisions of COP30, and we will be joined by experts from ICLIE, WWF, and the World Bank!
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) is an annual, multilateral decision-making forum that brings together representatives from around the world to discuss climate issues, including financing, government policies, and justice.
This year, COP30 takes place in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November. Business leaders, young climate activists, scientists, Indigenous Peoples and civil society groups have all gathered to discuss and advocate for collective and inclusive climate action.
In this Collaboratory meeting, we are delighted to be joined by 3 experts who will reflect on some of the outcomes of COP30. At the end of the session, we will open the floor to participants to engage with the speakers and ask questions. We will be joined by:Vanessa Morales, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Ingrid Coetzee, Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)
Xueman Wang, World Bank
As always, we want the Collaboratory to be a space for shared learning and collaboration amongst the Naturescapes network(www.naturescapes-project.com). If you have any questions, please reach out to JJ Blackwatters at j.e.blackwatters@uu.nl.
What is NATURESCAPES?
The focus of the NATURESCAPES project is nature-based solutions from a landscape perspective. We are exploring how this is happening and adding up on the ground, and what it means for nature and society.
Can we work with multiple nature-based solutions to create outcomes that address long-standing socio-economic challenges, enhance biodiversity and respond to climate change? Or do we face trade-offs between different places, people and outcomes?
Working in a transdisciplinary consortium involving universities, consultants and NGOs, we hope to identify how new kinds of NATURESCAPES can generate transformative change for the future.
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In Thoreau's Time: Temporal Imagination as Collective Resource
Thursday, December 4
12 – 1PM
Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ejDLULjYTF2Tbd0o-9Jutg#/
This lecture explores Henry David Thoreau’s engagement with time as an environmental, personal, and political dimension of experience. While Thoreau is often celebrated for his environmental imagination, this talk focuses on his temporal imagination—his effort to resist the thin, linear time of industrial capitalism and reclaim a richer, cyclical sense of duration rooted in the natural world. At the heart of this inquiry is Thoreau’s late-life project, the Kalendar, a series of charts tracking seasonal phenomena across years, designed to reveal patterns of recurrence and change in the more-than-human world. The speaker argues that Thoreau’s attention to time and seasonality offers a powerful model for rethinking our relationship to the worlds we occupy and create.
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A Conversation & Lunch with Expert & Author Michelle Amazeen
Thursday, December 4
12pm to 1:30pm EST
BU Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-lunch-with-expert-author-michelle-amazeen-tickets-1796061711929
"Content Confusion" reveals how fossil fuel advertisers and news outlets blur the line between journalism and ads.
This event is hosted by Boston University's Institute for Global Sustainability and co-sponsored by the College of Communication, School of Law, and Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets, and Society.
Join us for lunch and to discuss Content Confusion, a new book on how mainstream news outlets are being leveraged by advertisers to blur the boundaries between journalism and advertising, making it increasingly difficult for audiences to distinguish fact from spin.
Drawing on strategies that echo—but are not identical to—those once used by the tobacco industry, the fossil fuel sector now collaborates with news organizations to produce and legitimize misleading content. This partnership shapes an “alternate reality” that confuses the public, undermines trust in the media, and impedes informed dialogue on critical sustainability issues.
Author Michelle Amazeen is an Associate Professor of Mass Communication, Associate Dean of Research, and Director of the Communication Research Center at the Boston University College of Communication (COM), and core faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS).
This event will be moderated by Jill Abramson, Distinguished Professor of Practice and Senior Fellow at Northeastern University and former Executive Editor at The New York Times, with opening remarks by Arunima Krishna, Associate Professor of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations, and Associate Dean, Faculty Development at COM, and an Associate Director at IGS.
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Busting Tech Hype: Ever-Emerging Tech Expectations & Geopolitical Realities
Thursday, December 4
12:15 PM - 1:45 PM ET
Harvard, One Brattle Square 350
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/busting-tech-hype-ever-emerging-tech-expectations-geopolitical-realities
This project investigates how so-called emerging and disruptive technologies may have structuring effects for the international security environment. New developments in artificial intelligence, hypersonic delivery vehicles, autonomous systems, quantum sensing, and space technology are frequently portrayed as revolutionary, transformative, or game changing. Yet, these characteristics are often taken for granted rather than derived from rigorous scientific analysis.
The research advances a theory of hyperbolized claims about new technologies. When such capabilities become “press-released” weapons and “status-faking” instruments, they may contribute to a technology-driven security spiral.
The project has three objectives. First, it seeks to develop a new theoretical framework for studying technology and associated hype in the discipline of security studies. Second, it aims to identify pathways that lead to technology hype and its consequences for international security. Third, it endeavors to spell out policy-relevant recommendations for countering tech hype and redirecting these narratives toward improved technology governance.
Admittance is on a first come–first served basis. Tea and Coffee Provided.
Speaker
Dominika Kunertova, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Security Program
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Bay State Without Beaches: Stories of the Shoreline
Thursday, December 4
5pm to 7pm EST
15 Necco Street, Boston, MA 02210
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-state-without-beaches-stories-of-the-shoreline-tickets-1969963370471
A multi-media exhibit of personal coastal climate change stories
Bay State Without Beaches: Stories of the Shoreline is a multi-media exhibit highlighting personal stories about how coastal climate change is affecting people and communities across Massachusetts, featuring photos and paintings of our treasured shoreline, ocean-inspired beats, portraits, and artwork from local artists. We believe that lived experience is just as important as scientific data when it comes to understanding climate change.
These stories from community members of all ages who work, live, and play on the harbor can help us reaffirm our commitment to protect the state’s natural resources and create a new story for generations to come.
Visit our online storytelling exhibition anytime to read the full stories from our participants here: https://www.savetheharbor.org/bay-state-without-beaches
Additionally, we believe that art and storytelling can help us process and cope with climate anxiety and look towards solutions. Art & Soul Clinic will lead an interactive art workshop to create ocean-themed clay mosaics. Art & Soul Clinic provides arts resources and communal healing experiences as a form of emotional and spiritual care.
Featured artists: Nedret Andre, Karen Lee Sobol, Carolyn Lewenberg, and Melissa Roberts.
Light refreshments will be served.
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Uncharted Risks: How Financial Institutions Are Preparing for What's Next
Thursday, December 4
5pm to 7:30pm EST
1 Court Street, Boston, MA 02108
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/uncharted-risks-how-financial-institutions-are-preparing-for-whats-next-tickets-1967709461970
AI, climate, and trade shocks are reshaping financial risk. Discover how leading institutions are preparing for what’s next. Are you ready?
Join PRMIA Boston as we bring together top experts from industry and academia to explore the “never-seen-before” challenges facing banks and asset managers from artificial intelligence and climate risk to major global trade disruptions.
Discover how leading organizations are preparing to respond effectively and strategically to emerging threats.
Learn practical approaches and forward-looking strategies to stay ahead in an unpredictable risk environment.
5:00pm - 5:25pm Check in
5:30pm - 6:50pm Conversation and Q+A
6:50pm - 7:30pm Networking Reception
Esteemed Speakers
Vipul Bhushan, Moderator
Vipul continues his long career driving many of the “quant” efforts within the many areas of State Steet Corporation. His current area of focus is the development of private asset markets. With a dual-track academic background in both business and nuclear physics, Vipul a has a global perspective and deep quantitative knowledge that will ensure a masterful seminar.
Emilian Belev
Emilian has more than two decades of experience leading the quant development and innovation in modeling the full spectrum of investment assets - stocks, bonds, derivatives, private equity, debt, real estate, and a long list of exotic, and esoteric investments. He has published seminal and innovative research articles in peer reviewed industry publications on these topics and has made public appearances presenting at various industry events in North America, Europe, and APAC. Emilian is an actively involved CFA charter holder, holder of the Certificate in Advanced Risk and Portfolio Management, and an expert contributor to the curriculum of the CFA Institute and PRMIA. He is a winner of the 2013 New Frontiers in Risk Management award by the Professional Risk Management International Association, and the 2015 Best Practitioner Research award of the American Real Estate Society.
James Cataldo, PhD
Jim is currently a faculty member of the business school at the University of Rhode Island. He was previously associated with the Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University. His lengthy career in industry includes working as a federal bank regulator, and senior risk management positions with both public and private institutions such as the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Citizens Bank. He has a long list of peer-reviewed publications including two that have won awards from the American Accounting Association and the New York Society of Chartered Financial Analysts.
Alik Sokolov, PhD, CFA
Alik Sokolov is founder and CEO of Sibli, a Canadian firm pioneering artificial intelligence applications for financial institutions. He continues in his role as Managing Director of the Risk Lab at the University of Toronto which develops machine learning methods for finance and risk applications. He is lead author of a prominent paper on use of AI to discover causal relationships between economic and financial variables. His diverse industry background includes a six-year period at Deloitte, and working for the investment organization by tech entrepreneur Peter Theil.
Marcus Cree, Risk Management Specialist, FIS
Marcus has accumulated 30 years of experience in financial risk management, working across banks, investment firms, and software companies. His expertise spans market, credit, and liquidity risk, as well as stress testing and capital management. Currently, he serves as a global SME for risk management at FIS. He has delivered speeches, authored articles, and published papers on risk management, with a recent focus on climate-related financial risk management. Additionally, he has developed and teaches a course on Finance and Risk Management at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
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Will Artificial Intelligence Be the End of Civilization, or the Beginning?
Thursday, December 4
6:30pm to 8:00pm EST
MIT, Building 32, G449 (Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
And online
RSVP at https://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/8917630641635/WN_FKvNEH5NQAO5nzIM_jWxxw#/registration
Henry Lieberman, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and Christopher Fry, MIT Media Lab, Sloan, IBM, startups (Retired)
Indicate on the registration form if you plan to attend in person. This will help us determine whether the room is close to reaching capacity. We plan to serve light refreshments (probably pizza) before the talk starting at around 6:30 pm. Letting us know you will come in person will help us determine how much pizza to order.
We may make some auxiliary material such as slides and access to the recording available after the seminar to people who have registered.
Abstract: Popular press articles whipsaw the public between two starkly different views of Artificial Intelligence. On one hand, AI is presented as a magic genie that can solve all of our problems with superhuman intelligence. On the other hand, it's presented as an unprecedented threat to humanity, with the danger of loss of jobs, loss of privacy, automated discrimination, even some kind of "robot rebellion". No wonder the public is confused. Which is it?
We present a view that is different from both the self-interested promotion of the tech companies, and from the pessimism of the social critics. Believe it or not, the biggest value of AI will lie, not in simply improving the operations of today's industry and government, but in making it possible to have a more cooperative, less competitive world.
Our view is:
Optimistic. Mitigating possible dangers of AI in today's society is important. But we don't want to let fear cause us to miss the potential for AI to tackle big problems people now think are intractable: war, poverty, climate, etc.
Radical. Many tech boosters imagine simply pouring AI into today's economy and electoral politics. We think these systems need to be redesigned from scratch for the AI era. We have two concrete proposals: Makerism (economics) and Reasonocracy (governance).
Original. Not conventionally Left or Right, though our ideas share some design goals with both sides. Not (yet) heard on mainstream or activist media.
About the speakers:
Henry Lieberman is a Research Scientist in the InfoLab group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). His career started at the original MIT AI Lab in the 1970's, with Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert, and he was head of the Software Agents Group at the MIT Media Lab. He pioneered real-time memory management, prototype object systems, and Programming by Example. He works at the intersection of AI and HCI, and was twice program chair of the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces conference. He served a term on the AAAI Executive Committee. He has a BS in math from MIT, and an HDR (PhD equivalent) from the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was also a visiting professor. He has about 120 publications and four books.
Fry moved to Boston in 1973 to attend Berklee College of Music (the MIT of Jazz). Realizing his musical skills needed augmentation, he moved across the river to MIT (The Berklee of Computers). He’s worked at BBN, IBM, MIT’s Experimental Music Studio, MIT Sloan (Business) School, MIT Media Lab, and a host of start-ups. He’s written languages for music composition, general purpose computing, decision support, and robotics. He also works on Personal Rapid Transit, an innovative "packet-switched" transportation network.
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Experiential Book Talks: Raising Anti-Doomers & Surviving Climate Anxiety
Thursday, December 4
7pm to 8pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/experiential-book-talks-ari-cook-shonkoff-dr-thomas-doherty-tickets-1924772368969
The authors will speak about their books, engage in conversation, and offer experiential exercise around resilience and climate change.
Join us to hear from Ari Cook Shonkoff and Thomas Doherty, mental health practitioners and authors of two recently released books on climate and mental health.
"Raising Anti-Doomers: How to Bring Up Resilient Kids Through Climate Change and Tumultuous Times" by Ariella Cook-Shonkoff, MFT, ATR
"Surviving Climate Anxiety: A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving" by Dr. Thomas Doherty
Meet the Authors
Ariella Cook-Shonkoff is a licensed psychotherapist and eco-art therapist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with children, teens, parents and adults to help cultivate authentic empowerment, heal and regulate in the face of distress, grief and trauma, rebuild relationships with the natural world, and connect with renewed creativity, hope and purpose.
Ariella previously served on the executive committee of the Climate Psychology Alliance North America, and currently co-chairs the Expressive Arts committee. Her writing has appeared in major outlets, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Glamour, and Salon.
Thomas Doherty is a clinical and environmental psychologist based in Portland, Oregon, who has helped pioneer the fields of eco and climate therapy. His paper “The Psychological Impacts of Global Climate Change,” co-authored by Susan Clayton, has been cited over 1300 times. He was a President of the Society for Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology, Founding Editor of the journal Ecopsychology, and founder and director of the Ecopsychology Certificate program at Lewis & Clark Graduate School. Thomas co-hosts the Climate Change and Happiness podcast with Finnish climate emotions scholar Panu Pihkala. Thomas’s book Surviving Climate Anxiety: A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving was published in October 2025.
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New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable: Thirty Years of the Roundtable: Electricity Restructuring and the Pursuit of Clean Energy in New England
Friday December 5
9AM to 12:30PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, 17th Floor
And Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/12-5-2025-ne-electricity-restructuring-roundtable-tickets-1816662038059
Cost: $0 - $110
AGENDA:
8:00 Breakfast Refreshments and Networking
9:00 Introduction by Co-Moderator, Janet Gail Besser
9:05 Reflections on the Roundtable over 30 Years: Phil Giudice Interviews Jonathan Raab
9:25 Panel I: Accomplishments to Date – Dr. Jonathan Raab, Moderator
Gordon van Welie, President and Chief Executive Officer, ISO New England
Secretary Rebecca Tepper, MA Excutive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
Susan F. Tierney, Senior Advisor, Analysis Group
10:30 Break
11:00 Panel II: Essential Steps Going Forward – Janet Gail Besser, Moderator
Commissioner Katie Dykes, CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection
Sheri Givens, President & CEO, SEPA
Jamie Dickerson, Sr. Director, Climate & Clean Energy Programs, Acadia Center
Jesse Jenkins, Assistant Professor, Princeton University
12:15 The Roundtable Transition – Dr. Jonathan Raab and others
Introducing the New Moderation Team, Apex Analytics – Dr. Jonathan Raab
Remarks – Others
12:30 Adjourn
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Dubious News & the Aging American: Discernment & Engagement Among Older Adults
Friday, December 5
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Harvard, Wexner Building - W-434 A.b. Conference Room, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/dubious-news-aging-american-discernment-engagement-among-older-adults
Why do older adults engage more with misinformation online, even when they often identify falsehoods correctly in surveys? Professor Ben Lyons investigates that paradox using a host of survey experiments and behavioral trace data. Analyses across multiple nationally representative samples show that older Americans disproportionately consume and share low-credibility political and health content -- but not due to simple cognitive decline or inability to detect false claims. Rather, this gap emerges from contextual and motivational factors. Older adults possess relatively high news literacy and cognitive reflectiveness, yet these traits do not reliably predict real-world sharing behavior. Instead, high political interest and strong partisan identity contribute to a heightened tendency to trust and share politically congruent misinformation among this group, and smaller, more like-minded social networks incentivize sharing it. Importantly, the media ecosystem older adults inhabit is asymmetrically skewed: most dubious online content leans right, intensifying engagement especially among older conservatives. This asymmetry helps explain why discernment ability appears high in controlled experiments with balanced content but breaks down in naturalistic settings. Lyons extends these findings to health misinformation and video-based platforms to show that engagement patterns mostly generalize across domains and modalities, suggesting an underlying preference for clickbait among these consumers. Ultimately, Lyons argues that the age–misinformation relationship is less about cognitive vulnerability than about interactions between identity, social context, and the media environment.
Ben Lyons is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah studying the intersection of media, politics, and public understanding of science. His research centers on misinformation and misperceptions—their origins, effects, and how to address them—using surveys, experiments, digital trace data, and spatial data. His work has been published in journals such as Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Risk Analysis, and Vaccine, and featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and Der Spiegel, among other outlets.
*Members of the public will need to show photo ID at the main HKS entrance to enter the building.
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Information Technologies at the Fundamental Physical Limits
Friday, December 5
1:00pm EST
Harvard, Pierce Hall, 209, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Volkan Gurses
Abstract: Fundamental physical laws dictate the performance bounds of all technologies. Over the last century, advances in nanotechnology and integrated circuits have driven the performance of computing, communications, and sensing toward these bounds. As scaling continues, classical limits are increasingly constraining further improvements. The advent of quantum technologies opens paths to overcoming some of these limits and to building technologies that operate at the fundamental physical limits. In this talk, I give an overview of the fundamental physical limits in computing, communications, and sensing. Across these three domains, I present integrated systems we realized in silicon photonics and electronics that serve as a proof-of-concept for deployable technologies operating at these limits. The demonstrations include (i) photonic quantum computers, (ii) quantum-limited coherent transceivers, and (iii) quantum phased arrays. For each system, I address the theory, design, experiment, and application, and outline a vision for how these technologies can be practically deployed in the future.
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Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud at MA Independent Comics Expo
Sunday, December 7
5 - 7pm
BU, Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.micexpo.org/
As a special edition of the Tuesday Night Lecture Series (TNLS), Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts in partnership with the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) present a conversation with Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud, organized by the MFA Visual Narrative program.
This talk will close out MICE's weekend long expo on BU's campus, and takes place
Raina Telgemeier is a bestselling cartoonist and the award-winning author of Smile, Drama, Sisters, and Guts. Her deeply relatable, autobiographical storytelling has helped redefine contemporary graphic novels for young readers, inspiring a new generation of artists and audiences.
Scott McCloud is a cartoonist, theorist, and the author of the landmark books Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics. Known for breaking down how visual storytelling works, his writing and lectures have shaped the way artists, educators, and readers think about the comics medium.
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Climate Resilience and Adaptation Design Symposium
Monday, December 8
9:00 am - 11:00 am EST
Online
RSVP at https://forms.office.com/r/HRijdrYwFH
Join us in person or remotely to support the Engineering Design 100 students at Penn State New Kensington as they present their final designs for the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Design Symposium! Solutions will focus on designing for climate-related problems in power generation, transmission, and distribution. Learn about climate resilience and adaptation with electric power systems. In-person attendees can even enjoy a hot catered breakfast. The symposium will take place in the Art Gallery with presentations starting promptly at 9:05 am (you may come early to grab a bite to eat and your seat). Please sign up to indicate your interest in attending and we will send you a reminder as we get closer to the date of the symposium. WE WILL SEND YOU A LINK TO THE ZOOM MEETING IF ATTENDING VIRTUALLY. Contact cmc6503@psu.edu for additional questions.
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Empowerment through openness: the future of energy modelling
Monday, December 8
9:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://agora-thinktanks-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yC15ixZeQ5e2uhT7vTR56w#/registration
For decades, energy system planning has relied on commercial software. However, such tools can result in lock-in, high costs and reduced transparency. At the same time, for many low- and medium-income countries, increasing license fees and declining financial support from international partners have made continued access to these tools increasingly challenging, potentially slowing Paris-aligned energy transitions.
Open-source modelling frameworks such as PyPSA and OSeMOSYS have now reached a high-level of maturity and are used by leading institutions beyond academia, including ACER, Elia Group, ENTSO-E and TenneT. These models offer a cost-effective, transparent approach to policymaking and benefit from a vibrant global community that fosters innovation and collaboration.
To advance the use of open-source modelling for energy system planning, Agora Energiewende is hosting this event to discuss how open-source tools can strengthen science-based, transparent and robust energy planning. The discussion will be accompanied by the launch of our open-source model builder – PyPSA-SPICE (PyPSA-based Scenario Planning and Integrated Capacity Expansion).
Join us to hear from different high-level representatives on the needs and impact of open-source modelling. Leaders from a range of organisations – from governments, think tanks, academia and philanthropic organisations – will share how the community can best cooperate to build a stronger open-source modelling ecosystem. Building on Agora’s long-standing experience connecting modelling with policymaking, this event will explore practical ways to connect the open-source modelling community with policy action.
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Passive House Symposium
Tuesday, December 9
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, 100 W 2nd Street, Boston, MA, 02127
RSVP at https://phmass.org/symposium-25/
Cost: $85 - $270
Under the theme "Raising Standards, Lowering Costs," the 2025 Passive House Symposium will bring hundreds of people from across the building industry and beyond for an intense day of learning and networking. Anyone and everyone interested in high-performance building in the Commonwealth is encouraged to join. Continuing Education credits will be available.
Raising Standards, Lowering Costs
Alexander Gard-Murray, Passive House Massachusetts
In the Zone: What Would Goldilocks Say About This Messy Moment?
Zack Semke, Passive House Accelerator
Leveraging Optimization in the Delivery of Cost-Efficient, Energy-Efficient Affordable Housing
Mike Steffen, Walsh Construction
Who Stole My Flashing? Controversies in Passive Enclosure Design
Matthew Colturi, SGH
Cheryl Saldanha, SGH
The Price of Prevention: Avoiding Cost Overruns in Passive Building
Britt Clark, Sustainable Comfort
Christopher Straile, Sustainable Comfort
Submission Ready: The Best Strategies to Avoid Costly Certification Delays
Spencer Gorman, New Ecology
Nathan Wicksman, New Ecology
Choosing your Performance Path: Navigating Energy Code Compliance Options for Affordable Housing
Gabby Aitcheson, ICON Architecture
Designing for Equity and Efficiency: Passive House Meets Affordable Multi-Family Housing
Ben Wan, RODE Architects
Madeline Lee, Just A Start
Pushing Boundaries: Cost-Effective Strategies for Internal Load-Dominated Buildings
Lauren Gunther, DiMella Shaffer
Conn O’Farrell, SWA
Christyn MacDougall, DiMella Shaffer
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Beyond COP30: climate finance, justice and action in 2026
Tuesday, December 9
9am to 10:15am GMT-5
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-cop30-climate-finance-justice-and-action-in-2026-tickets-1960452108029
This event will unpack the outcomes of COP30 and explore how they will shape priorities and action in the year ahead.
For the first time, the UN Climate Conference (COP30) is being hosted in Belém, Brazil, in the largest rainforest in the world.
Amid intensifying climate disasters, seismic geopolitical shifts and persistent barriers to participation, the UN climate conference (COP30) represents a critical moment for climate and nature. The need to mobilise finance, scale up adaptation and secure national climate plans has never been greater.
The question is clear: will COP30 rise to the challenge, especially for those already hardest hit by climate impacts?
This IIED Debates event brings together speakers working at the forefront of climate science, policy and action to explore the major outcomes from COP30.
Speakers will consider national climate commitments (or NDCs), progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation, and developments on the Just Transition Mechanism.
The discussion will situate these outcomes within broader developments in 2025, including the International Court of Justice advisory opinion and debt distress in vulnerable economies.
Together, panellists will consider how these dynamics are shaping the global climate and nature agenda for the year ahead, and make predictions about the key challenges and opportunities for action in 2026.
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Land Use Change Emissions: Bringing Consistency to GHG Accounting and Reporting
Tuesday, December 9
9:00-10:00 am ET
Online
RSVP at https://landcarbonlab.org/events/land-use-change-emissions-consistency-ghg-accounting-reporting/
For businesses in the agri-food sector, tackling land use change emissions is critical to meet climate and nature targets and build resilient supply chains – but accurately measuring emissions has long been a challenge. Join our webinar to learn about new tools that improve corporate GHG accounting.
Land Use Change Emissions: Bringing Consistency to GHG Accounting and Reporting Session description
Join Land & Carbon Lab and Quantis for a webinar on December 9 where we will show how to navigate the complexity and challenges of land-use change emissions accounting in corporate GHG inventories. Learn more about our new, standardized methodology, aligned with the GHG Protocol, for calculating land-use change emissions from deforestation. The open-source methods and metrics will enable more accurate GHG accounting, better Scope 3 reporting and more targeted interventions within the value chain.
We’ll be sharing more about how we have combined the latest geospatial data and methods with agri-food sector expertise to develop a reliable industry reference for improved land-use change emissions accounting.
Presented in English with live interpretation in Portuguese and Spanish.
Speakers
Lizz Aspley, Metrics Architect, HowGood
Emily Dionizio, GHG Protocol Specialist, World Resources Institute
Lucia Fitts, GIS Research Associate, World Resources Institute
Oliver James, Land Sector Associate, Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Yazmin Leon Casos, Global Carbon Manager, ECOM Agroindustrial Corp
Alexandra Stern, US Land and Agriculture Lead, Quantis
Antonio ValleNeto, Senior Manager, Global Climate Team, Bunge
Janjoris van Diepen, Footprint Director - North America, Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk
Caroline Winchester, Head of Responsible Supply Chains, World Resources Institute
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Conflict-Sensitive Conservation in a Changing Climate
Tuesday, December 9
9am EST [2:00 pm - 3:00 pm GMT/UTC]
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_neToCVb0TD2YoCcYpRU-gQ#/registration
On December 9, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) will host a webinar to explore the links between climate change, biodiversity loss, and conflict, and the role that protected areas can play in addressing these challenges. The session will unpack what conflict-sensitive conservation is, why it matters, and how to design and implement effective interventions. Drawing on the panel’s expertise and real-world examples, the webinar will highlight how conflict-sensitive approaches can help people and ecosystems thrive together in times of dramatic change.
Protected areas are increasingly seen as an essential tool in tackling the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. In addition to being critical refuges for flora and fauna, the health of these ecosystems and the services they provide underpins the resilience of local populations and economies.
Unfortunately, the impacts of both climate change and ecosystem degradation are rapidly changing protected areas and the context in which decisions on their management and conservation are made. Conservation planning and interventions have always been linked to conflict management, given that they are typically concerned with competing visions of natural resource control, access, and use. This is not necessarily a bad thing; such conflicts, if handled peacefully, can often lead to positive change. Climate change and ecosystem degradation are, however, complicating this context and can often be contributing factors in the rise of local resource-, water-, and land-based conflicts, tensions, and grievances.
As such, it is imperative that conservation interventions consider the broader social, economic, and environmental context in which they are designed, implemented, and evaluated, so that they do not unintentionally create new conflicts or exacerbate existing ones. This involves applying a conflict-sensitive approach to conservation matters.
Conflict-sensitive conservation encompasses activities designed and implemented to protect and conserve ecosystems and landscapes in a way that considers the causes, actors, dynamics, and impacts of conflict.
This 1-hour webinar will:
explore the links between climate change, biodiversity loss, and conflict, and the role of protected areas in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises;
introduce conflict-sensitive conservation, exploring the benefits it offers to both people and nature, and why it is a vital component of both biodiversity protection and climate adaptation;
showcase real-world examples of what this approach looks like in practice, including the conservation efforts in the Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) initiative (with a focus on human–wildlife conflicts driven by drought in Zambia);
highlight a Conflict-Sensitive Conservation e-learning course and some practical tips for designing and implementing conflict-sensitive conservation activities and interventions.
Speakers
Alec Crawford, Director, Nature for Resilience, IISD
Nalucha Nganga, Country Director, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zambia
Hesta Groenewald, Senior Associate Consultant – Conflict Sensitivity, PeaceNexus
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Powering What Matters: How Partnerships Take Energy Solutions from Concept to Scale
Tuesday, December 9
12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/powering-what-matters-how-partnerships-take-energy-solutions-from-concept-to-scale/
Join RMI experts for an inside look at how our Think–Do–Scale model transforms bold energy ideas into measurable impact. Moderated by Bryan Hannegan, RMI Board member and President and CEO of Holy Cross Energy, this session highlights how RMI and our partners collaborate across research, policy, and markets to drive system-wide change:
THINK bigger: Maria Castillo on how smart efficiency and policy design can cut US energy burdens and lower costs while reducing emissions.
DO boldly: Sidney Jules on deploying resilient, community-driven solutions that protect people and infrastructure today.
SCALE globally: Caroline Winslow on how passive daytime radiative cooling solutions (“cool roofs”) can lower costs and improve comfort in India and worldwide.
You’ll hear how targeted partnerships accelerate the journey from pilot to policy to scale, delivering real climate solutions that are clean, affordable, resilient, and accessible to all.
SPEAKERS
BRYAN HANNEGAN, Trustee and People Committee Chair
MARIA CASTILLO, Senior Associate, Carbon-Free Electricity
SIDNEY JULES, Manager, Global South
CAROLINE WINSLOW, Manager, Third Derivative
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Bioeconomy-green finance-innovation nexus: what is the role for policy?
Tuesday, December 9
12:30pm ET [17:30 GMT ending at 19:00 GMT]
London, 11 Montague St , WC1B 5BP, United Kingdom
And online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/bioeconomy-green-finance-innovation-nexus-what-is-the-role-for-policy/
In this seminar event the panel members will present on and discuss the nexus between bioeconomy, finance mechanisms and innovation. The event will also focus on public actors and policies, and on the fundamental role of innovation policy and robust state capacity for steering a green transition based on the “bioeconomy”.
The discussion will assess current policy frameworks and introduce key new research. Insights will be drawn from the UNEP Climate Technology Progress Report 2025, which this year focuses on the bioeconomy, and from recent IPCC reports.
Both panel members have been co-authors of UNEP CTPR 2025. Dr Rocio A. Diaz-Chavez was the lead author of the finance chapter of the UNEP CTPR 2025 report. Dr Francis X Johnson was the lead author of the Governance chapter. Both were authors in the IPCC special report on Climate Change and Land, and Dr Francis X Johnson also contributed to the writing team for the IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report.
Meet the panel:
Speaker: Dr Rocio A Diaz-Chavez, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy of Imperial College London
Speaker: Dr Francis X. Johnson, Senior Research Fellow at SEI HQ in Stockholm on the Agriculture, Land and Bioeconomy Team – Resources, Rights and Development Division
Discussant: Damon Aitken, Research Fellow at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Chair: Giovanni Tagliani, PhD Candidate at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
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The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician. A Political Giant And A Comedian Walk Into A Kitchen...
Tuesday, December 9
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scott-kerman-with-michael-dukakis-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1964502684412
Cost: $32.00 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes Scott Kerman—humor columnist for The Eagle Tribune newspaper—and Michael Dukakis—American politician who served as Governor of Massachusetts for three terms—for a discussion of Kerman's book The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician. A Political Giant And A Comedian Walk Into A Kitchen...
About The Duke America needs The Duke more than ever right now.
The Duke, Weekly conversations with the last honest politician. See what happens when a political giant and a comedian walk into a kitchen…
"Scott Kerman humanizes Michael Dukakis -- presidential candidate, three-term Massachusetts governor, community role model, bane of litterers -- with humor and insight that reveal a multi-layered man of deep civic passions who's thoughtful, irreverent, and refreshingly comfortable in his own skin. A delight to read." -Brian MacQuarrie, Boston Globe.
'Humorist Scott Kerman shows us that decades after being out of office one of America's best known political leaders still has so much to say by opening his heart - and his mouth."-Stephen Kurkjian, Three-time Pulitzer-prize winner for Boston Globe
"The Duke is both hilarious and touching as Humorist Scott Kerman recounts his long relationship with former Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis, a simply loveable character. If you are looking for humor, nostalgia and a just-plain-fun read, you've got to pick this book up.-Executive Editor Tracey Rauh, The Eagle-Tribune
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The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Tuesday, December 9
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes John Fabian Witt—Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale Law School and author of Lincoln’s Code, a Pulitzer Prize finalist—for a discussion of his new book, The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America. He will be joined in conversation by Noah Feldman—the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard and a leading public intellectual who has authored ten critically acclaimed books.
About The Radical Fund
From Pulitzer Prize finalist John Fabian Witt comes the captivating secret history of an epic experiment to remake American democracy. Before the dark money of the Koch Brothers, before the billions of the Ford Foundation, there was the Garland Fund.
In 1922, a young idealist named Charles Garland rejected a million-dollar inheritance. In a world of shocking wealth disparities, shameless racism, and political repression, Garland opted instead to invest in a future where radical ideas—like working-class power, free speech, and equality—might flourish. Over the next two decades, the Garland Fund would nurture a new generation of wildly ambitious progressive projects.
The men and women around the Fund were rich and poor, white and Black. They cooperated and bickered; they formed rivalries, fell in and out of love, and made mistakes. Yet shared beliefs linked them throughout. They believed that American capitalism was broken. They believed that American democracy (if it had ever existed) stole from those who had the least. And they believed that American institutions needed to be radically remade for the modern age.
By the time they spent the last of the Fund’s resources, their outsider ideas had become mass movements battling to transform a nation.
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The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home
Tuesday, December 9
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://secure.everyaction.com/7cR7gtXz40m9mhQAleZXlA2
Cost: Free - donation
William D. Hartung is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, focusing on the arms industry and military spending. He is the author of Prophets of War and resides in New York City.
Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, holds a PhD from Texas A&M. He investigates money in politics, military spending, and foreign influence. He lives in central Florida.
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Voices for the future: Empowering adolescents and youths through climate education and action across eastern and southern Africa
Wednesday, December 10
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/voices-for-the-future-empowering-adolescents-and-youths-through-climate-education-and-action-across-eastern-and-southern-africa/
With climate-resilient programming taking root across the globe, it is vital to include young people at the center. In Africa, where youths’ experiences with climate change link to other challenges—from disrupted education to hunger, unemployment, and mental health issues—it is particularly important to listen to youths to build solutions that will work for them. By ramping up learning and engagement and incorporating youth-led action, climate-resilient education and programming in Africa can thrive.
On December 10, join us for a webinar exploring insights from over 200 adolescents, youths, educators, and stakeholders across Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda, and Kenya. This event will center adolescent and youths’ experiences, challenges, and solutions in climate education while emphasizing empowerment and future-oriented action.
This event is online only. Please submit questions via email at events@brookings.edu or by using #Vision4future on X and Bluesky. For additional information including media inquiries, please contact GlobalMedia@Brookings.edu.
Opening Remarks: Jennifer L. O’Donoghue, Deputy Director - Center for Universal Education,Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development
MODERATOR
Ellen Chigwanda, Senior Technical Advisor, Education and Climate Change - CARE Zimbabwe,Project Director - CARE Zimbabwe - Center for Universal Education Collaborative Research Partnership on Education and Climate Change, 2016 Echidna Global Scholar - The Brookings Institution@EllenChigwanda
Panel discussion
Bridget Ringdal, Sustainable Schools Programme Manager - One Planet South Africa
Loveness Chimuka, Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Lead - Education Development Trust Zimbabwe
Linice Sanga, Programme Manager - Creative Center For Community Mobilization (CRECCOM) Malawi
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Chains: Advancing deforestation-free supply chains
Wednesday, December 10
9am EST [3:00 pm - 4:30 pm CET]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iisd.org/events/sustainable-resilient-value-chains-deforestation
This webinar will launch an upcoming Sustainable and Resilient Value Chains report on deforestation and will see our experts and invited panellists translate its findings into actionable steps for standards bodies, companies, and policy-makers. The aim of this session is to showcase how a smart mix of tools can help prevent, respond to, recover from, and adapt to deforestation risk.
Speakers at this event will include:
Catarina Vieira, Member of the European Parliament
Debora Dias, Senior Sustainability Manager, The Consumer Goods Forum
Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, Secretary General, African Organization for Standardization (ARSO)
James Lael-Allotey, Senior Manager, Standards and Assurance Design, Rainforest Alliance
Julia Inés Ocampo Duque, Director of Sustainability, Luker Chocolate
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2025 AC215 AI Project Showcase
Wednesday, December 10
9:00am to 12:00pm EST
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), Suite 1.312 (OMPP), 150 Western Avenue, Allston, MA 02134
You’re invited to stop by and see AC215 students present fully developed applications powered by LLMs, Computer Vision, or Machine Learning demonstrating real-world, scalable AI solutions during the morning on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, from 9:00a-12:00p in the SEC OMPP Suite 1.312. There will be three 50-minute sessions in order to accommodate all of the project groups, and you are welcome to attend each session. Brunch items and beverages will be available to attendees.
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The Value of Human Empathy: Comparing Perceived Human and AI-Generated Empathy
Wednesday, December 10
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2025-anat-perry-fellow-presentation-virtual
Anat Perry is a social-cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist whose research explores the mechanisms and boundaries of empathy, integrating perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. At Radcliffe, she will investigate what uniquely defines human connection by examining how people respond to empathic interactions with AI.
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Monthly Dose of Climate Hope! With Daan Walter
Wednesday, December 10
12pm to 1pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monthly-dose-of-climate-hope-with-daan-walter-tickets-1901609197299
Part of the Action Parties collection
Get your Monthly Dose of Climate Hope with Daan Walter, a leading global energy strategist who forecasts the Electrotech Revolution.
Come learn from Daan Walter, a leading energy strategist who's forecasting the global Electrotech Revolution!
Around the world, the energy system is transforming faster than ever before. Solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and digital technologies are converging to create what experts are calling the Electrotech Revolution—a shift that could make clean, secure, and affordable energy possible for everyone.
For your December Dose of Climate Hope, we’re joined by Daan Walter, Principal at Ember, who leads strategy research on the future of energy. Daan’s work forecasts the extraordinary rise of electrotech—from solar and storage to electrified transport and digital grids—and explores how these breakthroughs are reshaping the global economy and the geopolitics of energy.
In conversation with Sam Matey-Coste, Editor-in-Chief at Climate Action Now and author of Your Dose of Climate Hope, Daan will unpack the trends driving this revolution, from exponential cost declines to the race for clean energy leadership. Together, we’ll explore how rapid technological innovation, smart policies, and global collaboration can accelerate the clean energy transition—and why the future may be arriving faster than we think.
Come learn from Daan, bring your questions, and leave with renewed optimism—because there is climate hope, and it’s electric!
About Our Featured Expert
Daan Walter is a leading energy strategist who forecasts the rapid growth of electrotech. As a Principal at Ember, Daan leads strategy research on the Electrotech Revolution and analyzes how these breakthroughs are transforming markets, security, and climate progress worldwide. Before joining Ember, Daan served as a Principal at RMI, where he directed global energy strategy research into batteries, efficiency, and mineral demand. Earlier in his career, at McKinsey & Company, he co-founded and led the Sustainability Analytics team, advising governments and Fortune 500 companies on navigating the energy transition. Daan holds graduate degrees in Nuclear Energy and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Amsterdam.
About Our Interviewer
Sam Matey-Coste is Editor-In-Chief at Climate Action Now and author of the Substack newsletter Your Dose of Climate Hope. Sam wears many hats as a climate journalist, environmental scientist, data scientist, and GIS analyst. Sam is also the author of The Weekly Anthropocene, a weekly Substack newsletter on progress towards a better relationship between humanity and our biosphere (for example, climate change solutions, wildlife conservation, and the clean energy revolution).
Take Action with the Climate Action Now App
In the final minutes of this event, you will be invited to take a single, digital climate advocacy action inspired by our speaker's work, using the free Climate Action Now app. If you want to participate in the action-taking, you can get the free Climate Action Now app by scanning the QR code below with your phone's camera, or by searching for "Climate Action Now" in your app store and downloading it to your phone. The app is currently available to users in the United States only.
Monthly Dose of Climate Hope events are free and open to all who seek a more just and sustainable world, but we welcome donations to help us continue our mission of creating a just and liveable planet for all.
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From Professional to Partisan: Civil-Military Norm Replacement in Eroding Democracies
Wednesday, December 10
12:00-1:30 PM
MIT, 600 Technology Square, NE49-3100, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
In this seminar, Risa Brooks will discuss how political leaders transform professional militaries into partisan aligned forces in eroding democracies. Building from theories of norm change, her research conceptualizes the process as one of "norm replacement," using examples from the United States and beyond to illustrate the argument.
Dr. Risa Brooks is Allis-Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, a non-resident fellow in the Future Security program at New America and non-resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is the author of Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment (Princeton University Press), coeditor (with Elizabeth Stanley) of Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness (Stanford University Press), and coeditor (with Lionel Beehner and Daniel Maurer) of Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: Politics, Society and Modern War (Oxford University Press). Her research has appeared in academic journals such as The Annual Review of Political Science, International Security and Security Studies and her commentaries have been featured in Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Brooks received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and formerly held positions as Senior Fellow at West Point’s Modern War Institute, research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, U.K. and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Her primary research interests lie in questions related to U.S. and comparative civil-military relations, military effectiveness, strategic assessment and military professionalism.
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Starr Forum: America’s Culture War and its Impact on Universities, Innovation, and National Security
Wednesday, December 10
5:30pm to 7:00pm EST
MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, Building 45, 51 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmvKp8Ga2xkv1L3JjrFS9IVXWIggoHxBS7cnmakItKT7YyPw/viewform
As political battles intensify over academic freedom, diversity initiatives, and immigration policy, US universities find themselves at the center of a national reckoning — one that could reshape the country’s scientific leadership and global competitiveness. From the growing risk of a “brain drain” to the challenges of maintaining open research environments in a polarized era, our speakers will explore what is at stake for higher education, the innovation ecosystem, and America’s strategic position in the world.
Speakers:
L Rafael Reif, President Emeritus, MIT; Ray and Maria Stata Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
Moderator:
Agustín Rayo, Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Professor of Philosophy
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Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World
Thursday, December 11
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/william-rankin
Harvard Book Store welcomes William Rankin—award-winning cartographer and historian of science at Yale University—for a discussion of his new book, Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World.
About Radical Cartography
A stunning, thought-provoking exploration of how maps shape our understanding of the world—featuring over 150 full-color maps in a gorgeous package.
Maps are ubiquitous in contemporary life—not just for navigation, but for making sense of our society, our environment, and even ourselves. In an instant, huge datasets can be plotted on command and we can explore faraway places in exacting detail. Yet the new ease and speed of data mapping can often lead to the same results as ever: over-simplified maps used as tools for top-down control.
Cartographer and historian William Rankin argues that it’s time to reimagine what a map can be and how it can be used. Maps are not neutral visualizations of facts. They are innately political, defining how the world is divided, what becomes visible and what stays hidden, and whose voices are heard. What matters isn’t just the topics or the data, but how maps make arguments about how the world works. And the consequences are enormous. A map’s visual argument can change how cities are designed and how rivers flow, how wars are fought and how land claims are settled, how children learn about race and how colonialism becomes a habit of mind. Maps don’t just show us information—they help construct our world.
Brimming with vibrant maps, including many “radical” maps created by Rankin himself and by other cutting-edge mapmakers, Radical Cartography exposes the consequences of how maps represent boundaries, layers, people, projections, color, scale, and time. Challenging the map as a tool of the status quo, Rankin empowers readers to embrace three unexpected values for the future of cartography: uncertainty, multiplicity, and subjectivity. Changing the tools—changing the maps—can change the questions we ask, the answers we accept, and the world we build.
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After Neoliberalism: From Left to Right
Thursday, December 11, 8:00 AM ET - Friday, December 12, - 2:00 PM ET
Harvard, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://airtable.com/appS8pG2vAl6Bl9hn/pagQUSmNJbnAOAl1j/form
Across the political spectrum, a contest is underway over the future of political economy. From “inclusive abundance” and “power-sharing liberalism” to the “patriot economy,” scholars and policymakers are advancing competing paradigms that seek to respond to deep structural challenges in our economy, politics, and society.
This two-day conference will bring together hundreds of leading thinkers — including scholars, policymakers from the Left and Right, journalists, and civic innovators — to explore and debate these emerging visions. Together, we will discuss their normative foundations, core economic assumptions, and practical implications for issues ranging from public goods to the governance of artificial intelligence.
Rather than endorsing a single framework, this gathering will surface the full range of new thinking in the field, test the strength of competing ideas, and explore where there is potential for convergence — or principled disagreement.
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Climate change, the energy transition and oil and gas strategies
Thursday, December 11
8am to 9am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-the-energy-transition-and-oil-and-gas-strategies-tickets-1702263027539
Dr Dominic Emery, Energy Advisor
Climate change is society’s biggest challenge – and mitigating climate change is impossible without a profound energy transition. This simple fact keeps getting lost in the extraordinary geopolitical times in which find ourselves, where nationalism, populism and short-termism continue to trump the ‘tragedy of the horizon’.
Climate change continues to impact life on land and in the oceans, with record land and sea temperatures being recorded year-on-year, and the rate of temperature increase at least 65 times faster than anything we have seen in the fossil record.
However, we are seeing some signs of progress on emissions and investment in the energy transition. The picture for global emissions, in absolute terms, is not pretty. CO2e emissions are at an all-time high of c. 55GT, with fossil fuels comprising 70% of all emissions and stubbornly representing 80% of energy generation. But – in the last two years the rate of growth of emissions started to slow to 1.1% and 0.8% respectively as renewable power generation grew, and in advanced economies, emissions are now back at 1973 levels.
Investment levels in the energy transition are also increasing, despite political rhetoric. 2024 investment was c. $2.1 Trillion, up from $1.7 Trillion the previous year and a significant increase over only hundreds of billions a few years ago. This is progress but just half the $3.5 Trillion needed annually. Some may see this as a ‘cost’, others see this as an incredible investment opportunity – arguably the world’s largest ever purchase order.
Much of this investment is directly through governments or indirectly through government incentives – although the need for these have fallen as renewable power in particular now is the cheapest form of electricity. Private sector investment is also growing, although we have seen variable and wavering commitment from oil and gas companies.
The energy transition will happen - but likely more slowly than the ambitious Paris agreement and adaption efforts will ramp up alongside mitigation.
Dominic’s prime areas of interest are climate change, energy and the energy transition, and sustainability.He is on the Board of four companies investing in offshore wind, electric vehicles, advanced biofuels and energy management. He is a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, Visiting Professor at Cranfield University and works with the World Economic Forum and Mission Possible Partnership.Dominic was Chief of Staff at bp until 2022, having started as a geologist working in Asia, the Middle East and the North Sea. He joined bp Alternative Energy in 2007 and then led the Emerging Business & Corporate Venture Capital teams.In 2013, he was appointed Head of Group Strategy at bp prior to his appointment as Chief of Staff at the start of the biggest transformation in the company’s history.Dominic was the founding CEO of OGCI Climate Investments, a $1bn fund set up by the world’s largest oil and gas companies to invest in technologies and projects to reduce carbon emissions.He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, MA from the University of Oxford and is married with one daughter.
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Introducing RMI’s Transition Pathway Repository: A Tool to Empower Transition Intelligence (1 of 2)
Thursday, December 11
10:00-11:00 a.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-introducing-rmis-transition-pathway-repository-a-tool-to-empower-transition-intelligence-1-of-2/
This is the event page for the webinar session scheduled at a time convenient for those in and around the US or Europe. For a Southeast Asian-friendly timezone, please register on this event page.
Join RMI for the launch of the Transition Pathway Repository, a new free and open-access tool designed to make climate transition pathways more accessible, comparable, and actionable for the finance community.
Climate scenarios are essential for understanding how economies can transition to a net-zero future, yet navigating and comparing them can be complex. The Transition Pathway Repository simplifies this process by bringing together scenarios from leading sources, allowing users to explore key assumptions, sectors, and regional pathways in a clear and consistent format.
During this live session, RMI experts will:
Demonstrate how to navigate and apply the Repository’s features.
Discuss how scenario analysis can strengthen financial decision-making and transition planning.
Highlight insights from the tool’s first release, focused on Southeast Asia, one of the most dynamic and climate-vulnerable regions globally.
This event will equip participants with practical knowledge to integrate credible climate scenarios into their strategies and contribute to a more informed, effective, and inclusive transition finance ecosystem.
SPEAKERS
ESTEFANÍA MARCHÁN, Principal, Climate-Aligned Finance
TOM WHITE, Manager, Climate-Aligned Finance
LLOYD MCKENZIE, Product Manager, Climate Intelligence
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Phenomenal Moments: Capturing inspiration through scientific imagery
Thursday, December 11
4:30pm to 6:00pm EST
MIT, Building 12, 12-0168, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://mitnano.mit.edu/events/studionano-phenomenal-moments/register
4:35 PM – 5:15 PM: Presentation and panel discussion in 12-0168
5:20 PM – 6:00 PM: Reception + book signing in East Lobby
Join STUDIO.nano for an evening exploring how beauty and imagery shape scientific discovery and communication, and celebrate the release of Felice Frankel’s new book, Phenomenal Moments.
Frankel, a renowned photographer, MIT research scientist, and author, will be in conversation with Vladimir Bulović, Director of MIT.nano; Michael John Gorman, Director of the MIT Museum; and Anna Osherov, Associate Director of Characterization.nano. Together, they will explore the importance of visual storytelling and its transformative power to shape how we see, understand, and share science with the public.
Biography
Felice C. Frankel is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemical Engineering with additional support from Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. She joined MIT in 1994. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was previously a senior research fellow in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the Initiative for Innovative Computing and a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Systems Biology. She’s the author of six books of science photography, including Picturing Science and Engineering. She has been covered in Nature, Science, Physics Today, National Geographic, and other science media. This is her first book for young readers. She lives in Massachusetts.
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Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America
Friday, December 12
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/trent-preszler
Harvard Book Store welcomes Trent Preszler—professor of practice in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and director of the Henry David Thoreau Foundation’s Planetary Solutions Initiative—for a discussion of his new book, Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America. He will be joined in conversation by Kevin O’Connor—host of the Emmy Award-winning home improvement television series This Old House and Ask This Old House.
About Evergreen
A sweeping natural history of the most valuable trees on earth that have quietly transformed our economies, cultural traditions, and collective imagination for millennia.
Every December, homes, offices, and town squares around the world are adorned with lavishly decorated evergreens to ring in the holiday season. But how did this beloved tradition begin? And as the planet continues to warm and more people swap real trees for artificial ones, will Christmas trees still be here for future generations?
In Evergreen, Cornell University professor Trent Preszler takes us on a riveting journey through history, culture, and science, exploring America’s story through the lives of its most resilient and cherished trees. From the annual hunt for the perfect Rockefeller Center spruce, back to the earliest days when Ancestral Puebloan builders crafted remarkable dwellings from pine beams, Evergreen reveals surprising connections between past and present that fueled America’s rise to global prominence.
With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Preszler captures the enduring struggle between nature’s grandeur and humanity’s desire to control and consume it. At once expansive and intimate, Evergreen delivers a stirring reflection on what it means to live in a world where Christmas trees stand as silent witnesses to our restless ambition, challenging us to reconsider the delicate balance between commercial excess and our profound yearning for hope and immortality.
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We Need to Talk: What if Staying is No Longer an Option?
Friday, December 12
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/we-need-to-talk-what-if-staying-is-no-longer-an-option/
Cost: $15-$45
As climate resilience practitioners, we are focused on preventing harm to vulnerable people and places. But we know that, for many communities, the decision may one day arrive at having to move out of harm’s way. What then? What needs to be in place to manage the huge financial, social, and cultural costs associated with climate disasters and involuntary, unsupported climate migration? What do we need to do to prevent an “everyone for themselves” reaction that worsens existing structural inequality?
This Forum will involve a combination of presentations, discussions, and interactive exercises. Participants will leave with a better understanding of what triggers people’s decisions to leave or stay, how we can better facilitate the difficult discussions and decision-making, and what policies, funding, and other support are needed in these difficult transitions.
Forum Speakers
Linda Shi, Associate Professor, Director, Master of Regional Planning Program, Cornell University, Exercise Facilitator
Kathryn Davies, Assistant Teaching Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, Tufts University
Forum Co-Chairs
Van Du, Director, Environmental Planning, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Kari Hewitt, Adjunct Instructor, Tufts University
Julie Wormser, Chief Climate Officer, City of Cambridge
Virtual attendees will be able to see and hear the speakers, slideshow presentations, and questions from the audience. Virtual attendees will be able to ask questions through the chat function. For this particular program, all virtual attendees have the option to take part in the interactive exercise. Those participating in the exercise will be placed into breakout rooms for the duration of the exercise.
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Public Literacies: Civic Systems, Media & Emotional Intelligence
Friday, December 12
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Online
RSVP at https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/2NIAyi1zTSGPykFaol1Q_Q#/registration
Join us for the 2025 GHI 5th Forum! This session introduces the GHI Pillar Public Literacies: Civic Systems, Media & Emotional Intelligence, in particular two projects AI Tools for Democracy & Self Awareness and Changing the Game of Diplomatic Hegemonies: Games Against Oppression. This session aims to set the stage for ongoing and upcoming project activities tied to this pillar by offering insights regarding the unique possibilities afforded by procedural and systemic media to engage participants in intellectual discourse around complex and volatile issues through conflict simulations, negotiation games, and powerful artistic statements of peaceful resolution through cultural exchange.
Speakers: Mikael Jakobsson (host), Lana Cook, Richard Eberhardt, Gabor Hollbeck, Rilla Khaled
Special Guests: Sherria Ayuandini, Greg Loring-Albright
Any grand scale attempt at shaping the future of public literacies has to take the role of procedural and generative systems seriously. Technological innovation and advances without ethical and sustainable grounding threatens a dystopian future that only the grounded wisdom of the arts, humanities, and social sciences can overcome. Gabor Hollbeck will introduce the AI Tools for Democracy & Self Awareness project which explores a new form of playful interactive learning game aiming to teach emotional intelligence by simulating interpersonal conflicts with AI. The project brings together game design, political cause areas and AI engagement together to strengthen societal cohesion. We will also hear from Lana Cook, co-director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab before we finish with a panel discussion about the role of games in challenging diplomatic hegemonies. Just as the “Changing the Game” project centers community building for engagement and education, the objective of this panel is to share insights from studying and making this new kind of games, as well as to establish and strengthen ties between academics and practitioners interested in these issues.
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Rethinking Democratic Structures in the Face of Climate & Other Threats
Friday, December 12
12:00pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/XXS7mramQBe54tpjqlIpUg#/registration
For our closing session of the Collateral Consequences Series, join us for a discussion of how we might rethink our democratic structures in the US to protect against climate impacts and other threats while also strengthening democratic norms, participation, and representation.
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Introducing RMI’s Transition Pathway Repository: A Tool to Empower Transition Intelligence (2 of 2)
Friday, December 12
9pm ET [10:00-11:00 a.m. SGT]
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-introducing-rmis-transition-pathway-repository-a-tool-to-empower-transition-intelligence-2-of-2/
This is the event page for the webinar session scheduled at a time convenient for those in and around Southeast Asia. For a US and European-friendly timezone, please register on this event page.
Join RMI for the launch of the Transition Pathway Repository, a new free and open-access tool designed to make climate transition pathways more accessible, comparable, and actionable for the finance community.
Climate pathways are essential for understanding how economies can transition to a net-zero future, yet navigating and comparing them can be complex. The Transition Pathway Repository simplifies this process by bringing together pathways from leading sources, allowing users to explore key assumptions and features in a clear and consistent format.
During this live session, RMI experts will:
Demonstrate how to navigate and apply the Repository’s features.
Discuss how multi-pathway analysis can strengthen financial decision-making and transition planning.
Highlight insights from the tool’s first release, focused on Southeast Asia, one of the most dynamic and climate-vulnerable regions globally.
This event will equip participants with practical knowledge to integrate credible climate scenarios into their strategies and contribute to a more informed, and effective transition finance ecosystem.
SPEAKERS
ESTEFANÍA MARCHÁN, Principal, Climate-Aligned Finance
TOM WHITE, Manager, Climate-Aligned Finance
LLOYD MCKENZIE, Product Manager, Climate Intelligence
JACOB KASTI, Software Developer, Climate-Aligned Finance
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Carbon Countdown 2025: State Support for Local Climate Initiatives
Saturday, December 13
9:30am to 11am EST
Follen Church, Lexington, MA
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/carbon-countdown-2025-state-support-for-local-climate-initiatives-tickets-1969496055720
Join us for Carbon Countdown 2025 to hear from Senator Mike Barrett and to learn how State programs are backing local climate projects!
Senator Mike Barrett will update us on State Legislature efforts regarding Climate Change
Carbon Countdown 2025: State Support for Local Climate Initiatives
Join us to learn how State programs can provide crucial support for local climate initiatives. Learn from experts in the field, and network with like-minded individuals who are passionate about combating climate change. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be part of the solution!
Time: 9:30-11;00
Five Lightning Rounds Presenting Innovative State Climate Programs
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Mass Climate Bank
Green Communities
Municipal Vulnerability Program
Environment and Climate One Stop
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Tomorrow’s News Today: Reporting on Futures That Haven’t Happened Yet
Monday, December 15
9pm ET [ 6:00 PM PST]
The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-12-15/tomorrows-news-today-reporting-futures-havent-happened-yet
Cost: $10 - $25
When the news moves faster than we can process it, how do we grasp what any of it actually means for our lives? Strategic futurist Jason Tester has pioneered an answer: "speculative journalism"—rigorous, researched reporting on high-probability high-stakes futures before they materialize. The goal? Making the inconceivable feel inevitable before it's too late to change course.
His project, One Big Beautiful Aftermath: Dispatches from Near-Future America, translates the sprawling "One Big Beautiful Bill" into visceral, human stories, revealing its plausible impacts on everyday Americans in the coming years. His other groundbreaking scenario, Insurrection: An American Future, has proved disturbingly prescient—published in January 2025, months before federal forces were deployed to Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Memphis, it depicts a military occupation of San Francisco's streets.
This work isn't just about sounding the alarm. We need more voices creating these futures—both the ones we fear and the ones we hope for. Join Jason in conversation with Michelle Meow to explore how speculative journalism can strengthen democracy, the role generative AI plays in democratizing who gets to tell these stories, and why bringing tomorrow's realities into today's conversation might be our most powerful tool for shaping what comes next..
About the Speaker
Jason Tester is a strategic futurist and speculative designer whose work explores the human consequences of political, technological and social transformation. For more than two decades, he has used visual and immersive storytelling to make future possibilities more understandable and resonant for numerous companies, nonprofit organizations, and governments around the world. A former research director at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Tester is a leading figure in the field of speculative design and a fierce advocate for democratizing futurism. Based in San Francisco for more than two decades and deeply rooted in the city's LGBTQ+ community, his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and on MSNBC and CNN.
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Zero Carbon Deadline
Wednesday, December 31
6:59pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/net-zero-tickets-146172268189
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2018 report predicts change at a 2º temperature increase globally.
1.7 billion more people experience severe heatwaves at least once every five years. Seas rise—on average—another 10 centimetres.
Up to several hundred million more people become exposed to climate-related risks and poverty. The coral reefs that support marine environments around the world could decline as much as 99 percent. Global fishery catches could decline by another 1.5 million tonnes.
Human activities have already caused 1º of global warming which will keep rising no matter what we do. For limiting global warming to below 2°C CO2 emissions are projected to decline by about 25% by 2030 in most pathways (10–30% interquartile range) and reach net zero around 2070 (2065–2080 interquartile range).
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Allocating Electricity
Monday, January 5
7:30PM EST [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Building 370, 370, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 370, Stanford, CA 94305
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-allocating-electricity-klass
About the talk
The U.S. electricity system is premised on the ideas that utilities have a duty to serve all customers in their service territories and that electricity supply should always meet demand. Until recently, there has been little reason to question these foundational premises. Now, however, electricity experts predict massive load growth—most notably from data centers to power artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency—and building new power plants has financial and environmental risks. In this presentation, based on a forthcoming paper, Professor Klass will discuss law and policy frameworks developed for other resources—natural gas and water—for which short- or long-term scarcity is or was the norm rather than the exception, to reevaluate electricity law’s foundational principles, like the duty to serve, and to propose new approaches to meeting electricity demand. She will lay out a new regulatory framework for regulating data centers called “demand-side connect-and-manage” that can reduce the likelihood of overbuilding energy generation plants, allocate risks to and encourage innovation from major data center companies, and accelerate data center grid interconnection.
Alexandra B. Klass is the James G. Degnan Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. She teaches and writes primarily in the areas of energy law, environmental law, and natural resources law. In 2022 and 2023, she served in the Biden-Harris administration as Deputy General Counsel for Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Demonstrations at the U.S. Department of Energy. Professor Klass’s recent scholarly work, published in many of the nation’s leading law journals, addresses regulatory and permitting challenges to integrating more renewable energy into the nation’s electric transmission grid, siting and eminent domain issues surrounding interstate electric transmission lines and oil and gas pipelines, and applications of the public trust doctrine to modern environmental law challenges. Before joining the Michigan Law faculty in 2022, Professor Klass was a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she was a member of the faculty from 2006 to 2022. She has been a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, Uppsala University (Sweden), and the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. Prior to her academic career, Professor Klass was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis, where she specialized in environmental law and land use litigation.
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