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 until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s.
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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Turning Insurance into a Force for Climate Action / Sustainability Lunch Series
Thursday, February 26
11:45am to 12:45pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://cglink.me/2eJ/r1934986
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Can the Ocean Clean Up Our Carbon Mess?
Thursday, February 26
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall, Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA
And online
RSVP at https://as.tufts.edu/environmentalstudies/news-events/hoch-cunningham-lecture-series#feb26
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Industrial Policy in Action: Lessons from Over a Decade at the DOE
Thursday, February 26
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/industrial-policy-action-lessons-over-decade-doe
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AI Will Shop, Pay, and Decide for You. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Building Governance for the Agentic Economy
Thursday, February 26
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/building-governance-agentic-economy
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Insights to Action: Coastal and Marine Climate Impacts and Adaptation Priorities
Thursday, February 26
1:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://necasc.umass.edu/webinars/insights-action-coastal-and-marine-climate-impacts-and-adaptation-priorities
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Holding Care with the Land: Forest Therapy and Collective Healing
Thursday, February 26
5:30 PM to 6:45 PM
Online
RSVP at https://trusted.bu.edu/s/1759/2-bu/19/1col.aspx?sid=1759&gid=2&pgid=19114&cid=33957
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How AI is Impacting Journalism, Free Speech, and Public Discourse
Friday, February 27
4:00pm to 5:30pm EST
MIT Welcome Center, Building E38 Auditorium (195), 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
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Coded Bias: 5th Anniversary Virtual Finale Event
Friday, February 27
6:30pm to 8:00pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coded-bias-5th-anniversary-virtual-finale-event-tickets-1975810499391
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MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Conference
Saturday, February 28
MIT, Building E51, Wong Auditorium, 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142
https://mit-africa.com/africa-innovate-conference/
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TEDxTufts: Blueprints For the Future
Saturday, February 28
10:30AM – 5:30PM
Tufts, Cohen Auditorium, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at http”//www.tedxtufts.org
Cost: $6.50
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Groundwater: Hidden Reserves, Public Decisions
Monday, March 2
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001TMFtIAO&_gl=1*1sdy75b*_gcl_au*OTIxMzMwMjk4LjE3NjkzNzkzOTI.*_ga*MTI5ODM2NTM4OC4xNzY5MTQ3OTAx*_ga_72NC9RC7VN*czE3NzE4ODk2NTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3NzE4OTAwMjEkajIwJGwwJGg4NzkzODM4ODU
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Environmental Justice in the Time of Climate Denial: How frontline communities are organizing and building power as environmental protections are rolled back
Monday, March 2
12:15 pm – 1:15 pmA
Princeton, #300 Wallace Hall
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/environmental-justice-time-climate-denial
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Why are electricity prices rising in the US and what can be done about it?
Monday, March 2
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EST
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20036
And online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/why-are-electricity-prices-rising-in-the-us-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/
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A Slightly Better Future
Monday, March 2
3pm 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/2026-03-02/george-hammond-slightly-better-future
Cost: $5
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The Stratton Lecture: The Epidemic of Loneliness
Tuesday, March 3
11:30pm - 1:00pm
MIT Wong Auditorium (E51-115), 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stratton-lecture-the-living-brain-tickets-1980660496864
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Climate Change: A Solutions Approach (webinar)
Tuesday, March 3
12pm to 1pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-a-solutions-approach-webinar-registration-1936833905349
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AI’s Unquenchable Demand for Water
Tuesday, March 3
12 ET
Online
RSVP at https://coveringclimatenow.org/event/ais-unquenchable-thirst-for-water/
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Catalyzing Climate Tech Capital
Tuesday, March 3
9pm EST [6:00 PM PDT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.climateone.org/events/matt-rogers-co-founder-nest-and-mill-catalyzing-climate-tech-capital
Cost: $9 - $5
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Amazon Rainforest and Its Soils: The Tipping Point as an Imminent Risk of the Savannization of the System
Wednesday, March 4
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-mauricio-fontes-fellow-presentation-virtual
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Yale Cooling Conference 2026
Thursday, March 5 - Friday, March 6
Yale, Evans Hall, 165 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
RSVP at https://koala-orchid-lnbp.squarespace.com/registration
Cost: $0 - $100
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Restoring Indigenous Socio-Environmental Systems
Thursday, March 5
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall, Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA
And online
RSVP at https://as.tufts.edu/environmentalstudies/news-events/hoch-cunningham-lecture-series#mar5
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The Navy We Need: Maritime Dominance in a World of Interlocking Supply Chains
Wednesday, March 4
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge 02139
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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Renewable Energy Systems Showcase and Networking
Wednesday, March 4
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143
RSVP at https://greentownlabs.com/event/renewable-energy-systems-networking/
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Cady Coleman — Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change
Wednesday, March 4
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16023436
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Coastal Habitats: Life on the Edge
Wednesday, March 4
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/CoastalHabitatsLifeontheEdge#/
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AI and the Planet: Can AI solve the climate crisis?
Thursday, March 5
4 am to 5 am ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-and-the-planet-can-ai-solve-the-climate-crisis-tickets-1983251354188
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Cutting costs, cutting emissions: climate action and finance opportunities in Nigeria webinar
Thursday, March 5
4:45am - 6:15am ET [10:45 WAT 12:15 WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/nigeria-transport-emissions-webinar/
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Corporate Climate Action: A New Framework for Transparency
Thursday, March 5
2:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://ceres-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/6817703267866/WN_Sfn8mSqZQXiP-_GdYQVt8A#/registration
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A Political Economy of Inequality and Pandemics
Thursday, March 5
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
BU, Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 67 Bay State Road, Boston, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/pardee/ghpwspring2026/
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Climatetech Intern Fair
Thursday, March 5
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville MA 02143
RSVP at https://greentownlabs.com/event/climatetech-intern-fair-2026/
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10 Year Anniversary of Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts
Thursday, March 5
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm EST
Nonprofit Center, 89 South Street, Boston, 02111, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-26-sustainable-business-of-the-year-awards-tickets-1981005466678
Cost: The tickets are self-selected sliding scale between $50–$120. It will help us cover the cost of dinner and drinks for our guests. Your contribution directly supports SBN’s mission to build a green and fair economy in Massachusetts.
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Climate Adaptation Communication – Decoding Data and Risk for All
Friday, March 6
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA 02210
Online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/climate-adaptation-communication-decoding-data-and-risk-for-all/
Cost: $0 - $45
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Net-zero and just transition in Asia
Friday, 6 March
11:30am - 3:30pm EST [13.30-17.30 JST (GMT+9)]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20260306
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Shaping the Global Data Economy: Trade rules, policy space, and development
Friday, March 6
3pm - 4:15pm ET [2:00 pm - 3:15 pm CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iisd-elp.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GPMoh25tS-y8_KOht9fs_g#/registration
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Deeply Responsible Business and Japan
Monday, March 9
12 – 1 p.m.
Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Conference Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://us-japan.wcfia.harvard.edu/event/deeply-responsible-business-and-japan?occ_id=0
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Financing the Energy Transition
Monday, March 9
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001SjXtIAK&_gl=1*td8vlj*_gcl_au*OTIxMzMwMjk4LjE3NjkzNzkzOTI.*_ga*MTI5ODM2NTM4OC4xNzY5MTQ3OTAx*_ga_72NC9RC7VN*czE3NzE4ODk2NTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3NzE4OTAxOTgkajYwJGwwJGg4NzkzODM4ODU
—————-
Irreconcilable Differences: Christian Nationalism and the First Amendment
Monday. March 9
12 – 1:30PM
Tufts, Sophia Gordon Hall, 15 Talbot Avenue, Somerville, MA 02144
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Reversing Climate Change -the logistics of removing CO2 from the atmosphere
Monday, March 9
2 pm to 3 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reversing-climate-change-the-logistics-of-removing-co2-from-the-atmosphere-tickets-1981944073075
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Reinventing Batteries for a Sustainable Future
Monday, March 9
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), Room LL2.224, '150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://events.seas.harvard.edu/event/reinventing-batteries-for-a-sustainable-future
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From Bonnie Raitt to Billie Eilish: Making Live Music Greener
Monday, March 9
5:30 – 6:30PM
Tufts, Building Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center, Distler Performance Hall, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-bonnie-raitt-to-billie-eilish-making-live-music-greener-tickets-1983040721179
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The Datacenter Does Not Exist
Monday, March 9
6:00pm EDT
MIT E15-070, Building E15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4Jh4UAS4ZehWgZWHhlEWyMZNBvzcML-vWdBHOkcxHaA9Bhw/viewform
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Is There Ethical AI Use in Climate Journalism?
Tuesday, March 10
12pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://coveringclimatenow.org/event/is-there-ethical-ai-use-in-climate-journalism/
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Civic Life Lunch - The Democracy Dilemma: Civic Simulation with VF-GLAD
Tuesday, March 10
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Barnum Hall, 163 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/civic-life-lunch-the-democracy-dilemma-civic-simulation-tickets-1981428546120
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Accelerate Net Zero Progress: Learn Amazon’s Approach to Carbon Credits
March 10
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/accelerate-net-zero-learn-amazon-approach-carbon-credits-sustainability-exchange-climate-solutions/
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Anticipating Freshwater Invasive Species Risk in the Northeast United States
Tuesday, March 10
1:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://necasc.umass.edu/webinars/anticipating-freshwater-invasive-species-risk-northeast-united-states
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Broken Beakers and Brilliant Minds: Fixing the Macbinery of Science
Tuesday, March 10
4:30pm - 6:00pm
MIT Welcome Center, 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://calendar.mit.edu/event/broken-beakers-and-brilliant-minds-fixing-the-machinery-of-science
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Decarbonising the UK 20 Years Later
Wednesday, March 11
9 am to 10 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decarbonising-the-uk-20-years-later-tickets-1981942870478#location
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Data for Breakfast: Digital Tools for Climate-Resilient Rural Communities
Wednesday, March 11
12 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-for-breakfast-digital-tools-for-climate-resilient-rural-communities-tickets-1983413066875
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Age of Extraction
Wednesday, March 11
12pm to 1:20pm
Northeastern, West Village G, 108, 450 Parker Street, Boston, MA 02115
RSVP at https://forms.gle/vJ1epsECBEY15UvQ6
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The Big Joy Project: Using Daily Microacts to Promote Global Well-Being
Wednesday, March 11
1 – 2 p.m.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB G13, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
And online
RSVP at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_07n35X9lTg5yuTY
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If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Wednesday, March 11
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nate-soares-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1981615164300
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Great Decisions: International Cooperation on Climate Change with Kelly Sims Gallagher
Wednesday, March 11
6 – 7:30PM
Tufts, Cabot Intercultural Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BF49rdNZQxCHEsp1cxuMOw#/registration
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John Vaillant: Fire Weather
Wednesday, March 11
7pm
BC, Gasson Hall, 100, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at http://lhs-johnvaillant.eventbrite.com
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Mock Climate Negotiation
Thursday, March 12
If you are interested in joining, please fill out this interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1ac0KxDTNw_jczckdIXExAKWSkWBYNIVli4nM2sM9GoW8tg/viewform'
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Scaling Green Infrastructure for a Resilient Rwanda
Thursday, March 12
9:00 - 10:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/scaling-green-infrastructure-resilient-rwanda?_gl=1*nna9ey*_gcl_au*MTUxMzgxNjExNi4xNzY5NDYwOTc0#register
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Climate Change and the Clean Air Act
Thursday, March 12
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4pAZXWKPTL-LQ-MK1l96AA#/registration
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Webinar—Decarbonization Pathway Spotlight: Clean and Improved Cookstoves
Thursday, March 12
12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-decarbonization-pathway-spotlight-clean-and-improved-cookstoves/
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International Carbon Markets: Learning From the Past to Chart a Better Future (…from Fletcher to Cape Town and Oslo and Back Again)
Thursday, March 12
12 – 1:30PM
Tufts, Cabot 703, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://forms.monday.com/forms/9b753756b171ff230d1fd1ca18d41b48?r=use1
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I Told You So! Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Thursday, March 12
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard, Jefferson Lab 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/matt-kaplan-at-harvard-university-tickets-1981618087042
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Terry Tempest Williams, Author of The Glorians
Thursday, March 12
7:00pm (doors at 6:30 pm)
St. James Episcopal Church, 1991 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 (Use the entrance located on Beech Street - near 7 Beech Street)
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/products/tags/event-ticket
Cost: $10 - $37
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Central MA Regional Clean Energy & Climatetech Workforce Summit
Friday, March 13
9am - 3pm
Worcester, MA
RSVP at https://masscec.zohobackstage.com/CentralMACleanEnergyClimatetechWorkforceSummit#/
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Career Paths of Women in Energy Technologies
Saturday, March 14
1 pm to 2 pm
Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02467
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-saturdays-career-paths-of-women-in-energy-technologies-tickets-1980664071556
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Extreme Heritage: Climate Change Risk and Resilience
Monday, March 16
12 pm to 1 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/extreme-heritage-climate-change-risk-and-resilience-tickets-1982963440029
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Putin’s War Against the West: A Conversation with the Former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation
Monday, March 16
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E25, 111, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge, MA 02142A
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFfEfT2xxXgJru7r65cJOldqI586FA0AXZwZQCpLJayUhx2w/viewform
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Research for Practice: Climate Risks & Housing Markets
Tuesday, March 17
1:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YpZeBLvSSCWJaJjvS0102g#/registration
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The Third Nuclear Age: Will our luck finally run out?
Wednesday, March 18
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
Livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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Rogers Brubaker: Politics and Governance in the Digital Era: Between Populism and Technocracy
Wednesday, March 18
7pm
BC, Devlin Hall, 110V, 255 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at http://lhs-rogersbrubaker.eventbrite.com
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Killers of Roe
Wednesday, March 18
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amy-littlefield-killers-of-roe-tickets-1980896907976
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Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How it Could Save Democracy
Wednesday, March 18
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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The Clough Symposium on Democratic Resilience
Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20
140 Commonwealth Ave, 2101 Commonwealth Ave, adjacent to McMullen Art Museum & Gasson 100, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJjMFZbvCqPKphZTrM1YMoRWQS4fy2qD-d41RWkSY7rwUBbg/viewform
More information at https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/clough/events/spring-symposium-2026
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Global Nature Watch: AI-Powered Insights for Nature in Africa—and Beyond
Thursday, March 19
8am - 9am ET [2:00 - 3:00pm WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/3/global-nature-watch-ai-powered-insights-nature-africa-and-beyond
—————
Convergent Conversations: Nature-Based Solutions for Economic Development
Boston University Institute for Global SustainabilityBoston, MA
Thursday, March 19
12 pm to 1 pm
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/convergent-conversations-nature-based-solutions-for-economic-development-tickets-1983124530856
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Takeaways from Davos on AI Trends: world models, physical AI and autonomous warfare
Thursday, March 19
7:00pm to 9:00pm EDT
MIY, Building 32, 32-G449 Kiva, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
And online
RSVP at https://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/9517697066024/WN_asJFGtuGSUG_x7fw8jL30Q
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New England Energy Roundtable
Friday, March 20
9 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Blvd, 17th Floor Boston, MA 02210
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-20-26-new-england-energy-roundtable-tickets-1981878845979
Cozt: $0 - $110
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Climate & Agroecology
Friday, March 20
12 pm to 3 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-agroecology-tickets-1397747122269
Donate: $5
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On Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention
Saturday, March 21
3:00pm - 5:00pm
United Parish in Brookline, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-harm-reduction-and-overdose-prevention-tickets-1981585464467
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Tipping points webinar series: Glacier loss in Alaska
Monday, March 23
12pm - 1:30pm ET [18:00-19:30 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iiasa.ac.at/events/mar-2026/tipping-points-webinar-series-glacier-loss-in-alaska
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The Taken-for-Granted Transition: How Talk of Decarbonization Shifts Attention Away From It”
Monday, March 23
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
Online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/the-taken-for-granted-transition-how-talk-of-decarbonization-shifts-attention-away-from-it/
—————
Harness Social Media for Climate Action
Tuesday, March 24
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/harness-social-media-for-climate-action-tickets-1982360645053
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How to Love a Forest
Tuesday, March 24
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://sustainability.psu.edu/event/sustainability-showcase-keynote-ethan-tapper-forester-and-author-of-how-to-love-a-forest/
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An Air Conditioner or a Sink?: The Bioclimatic Value of Rainforests, 1980-2000
Tuesday, March 24
5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EDT
Mass Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
And online
RSVP at https://www.masshist.org/events/lucier-environmental-seminar
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Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance
Tuesday, March 24
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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The American Revolution: Lessons for the 250th
Wednesday, March 25
11:30 AM–1 PM ET
Harvard, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://harvardradcliffeinstitute.formstack.com/forms/2026_ken_burns_panel
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Lecture: David Rohde, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Wednesday, March 25
6:30pm to 8:00pm EDT
BU, Questrom School of Business,595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
—————
Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Wednesday, March 25
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
—————
Mediterranean summer marine heatwaves
Thursday, March 26
5 am to 5:45 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.dk/e/mediterranean-summer-marine-heatwaves-tickets-1864392992629
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Farmers are Businesspeople Too: Supporting the Local Food System through Investment and Value-Added Production
Thursday, March 26
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BT_XdBpVTS2fbceT0MWXEw#/registration
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A Fresh Start for Our Cities
Thursday, March 26
6:30 pm to 8 pm
Harvard University Graduate School Of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Piper Auditorium Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-mckibben-a-fresh-start-for-our-cities-tickets-1981196707685
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The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America
Thursday, March 26
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Stuck—How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress
Thursday, March 26
8:30pm ET [5:30 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-03-26/dr-maya-kornberg-stuck-how-money-media-and-violence-prevent-change-congress
Cost: $10 -$22
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Peatlands: Nature’s Biggest Carbon Vault
Friday, March 27
9 am to 10 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peatlands-natures-biggest-carbon-vault-tickets-1982961321693
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Data + Donuts: AI Policy and Civil Rights
Friday, March 27
10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Harvard Kennedy School, Wexner 434 AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/data-donuts-ai-policy-and-civil-rights'
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The Massachusetts Urban Farming Symposium
Satrurday, March 28
UMASS Boston Campus Center
RSVP at https://www.urbanfarminginstitute.org/mass-urban-farming-symposium
Cost: $25 - $75
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When Bioeconomy Meets Carbon Removal: Insights from Integrated Systems Modeling
Monday, March 30
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton. NJ
Online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/when-bioeconomy-meets-carbon-removal-insights-from-integrated-systems-modeling/
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Tracy Palandjian on Investing in Opportunity
Monday, March 30
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-event-tracy-palandjian-on-investing-in-opportunity-tickets-1981350168691
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The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism
Monday, March 30
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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From Learning to Action: Practical Steps Towards Climate Ready Facilities
Tuesday, March 31
5 am to 6 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-learning-to-action-practical-steps-towards-climate-ready-facilities-tickets-1982494827396
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Earth and Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation
Tuesday, March 31
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Geological Museum, 100 Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/andrew-h-knoll-at-the-harvard-geological-lecture-hall-tickets-1982828880558
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Ibram X. Kendi, author of Chain of Ideas
Tuesday, March 31
7:00pm (doors at 6:00 pm.)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/product/event-ticket-includes-book-ibram-x-kendi-first-parish
Cost: $45 (book included)
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Politics and Culture from All Sides: The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion
Wednesday, April 1
12 – 1:15PM
Tufts, 5 The Green, Medford, MA 02155
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Polarization and International Politics
Wednesday, April 1
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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Then and Now: How Conservation Careers are Evolving
Thursday, April 2
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pkis8_FaSnCqW3M1NB6CKw#/registration
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Data Centers in the AI Age: How To Up Reliability, Sustainability, and Scalable Innovation
Thursday, April 2
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/data-centers-in-the-ai-age-how-to-up-reliability-sustainability-and-scalable-innovation/
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The Political Economy of Energy Transitions in the Middle East
Thursday, April 2
4:30 – 6 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/political-economy-energy-transitions-middle-east
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Climate Change Negotiation Challenge
Friday, April 3
3 – 6PM
Tufts, Mugar Hall, 160R Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXBBn9HfOi7Kx0KwmTThbTaOel0PJL-EEZGw6hn8cr3QEWzw/viewform
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Swiftynomics
Friday, April 3
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/misty-l-heggeness-swiftynomics-tickets-1982906261005
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No!: The Art and Activism of Complaining
Monday, April 6
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Events
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Turning Insurance into a Force for Climate Action / Sustainability Lunch Series
Thursday, February 26
11:45am to 12:45pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://cglink.me/2eJ/r1934986
Insurance is one of the most powerful levers we have to address the climate crisis and almost nobody is pulling it.
Every business pays premiums. Those dollars flow to carriers who decide what gets insured, what gets dropped, and where capital goes. Right now, that system rewards extraction and punishes communities trying to build resilience. But it doesn't have to work that way.
Nick Gardner, Co-Founder of Premiums for the Planet, will show you how mission-driven companies are turning insurance from a passive cost into an active tool for climate action. By aggregating businesses around shared values, they are unlocking better coverage, lower costs, and redirecting capital toward the communities and ecosystems that need it most.
Nick will also share his unconventional path into this work from the finance world at Bentley, to the Climate team at Salesforce and what he's learned about how to take your unique skills and apply them to the cause you care most about.
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Can the Ocean Clean Up Our Carbon Mess?
Thursday, February 26
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall, Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA
And online
RSVP at https://as.tufts.edu/environmentalstudies/news-events/hoch-cunningham-lecture-series#feb26
The ocean is the Earth’s largest reservoir of carbon on time scales of decades to centuries and currently absorbs ~25% of annual anthropogenic carbon emissions. This reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere, slowing global climate change and helping clean up our “carbon mess.” In recent years, proposals to artificially enhance the ocean’s capacity to store carbon – termed marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) – have also gained traction. Predicting the extent to which the ocean will continue absorbing carbon under ongoing climate change, as well as assessing the viability of mCDR proposals, requires a strong baseline knowledge of the mechanisms that enable the ocean to absorb carbon. In this talk, Dr. Hilary Palevsky will discuss our current understanding of the ocean’s capacity to clean up our carbon mess, and how it can inform climate change projections and the burgeoning mCDR industry.
Speaker: Dr. Hilary Palevsky, Assistant Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College
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Industrial Policy in Action: Lessons from Over a Decade at the DOE
Thursday, February 26
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/industrial-policy-action-lessons-over-decade-doe
The energy sector stands at an inflection point. After 15 years of remarkable change, the convergence of surging electricity demand, climate pressures, and emerging industries promises even more rapid transformation. This presentation and discussion draws on Garrett's experience at the Department of Energy and Waypoint Strategy Group to explore the path from research to commercialization, the impacts of policy on technology development and deployment, and the broader ecosystem that makes modern energy systems work. We'll close with a look at what the coming years may hold.
Speaker: Garrett Nilsen, Co-Founder and Partner Waypoint Strategy Group
Whether attending in person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. Lunch will be served. The Zoom session is open to the public.
Speaker Bio: Garrett spent over 13 years working in the US Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), rising the roles of Deputy (and Acting) Director, aiding the industry's rise from a minor contributor to the US electricity sector to the nation's fastest growing energy source. He managed a $300+ million-per-year portfolio spanning photovoltaics, solar-thermal, grid integration, supply-chain resilience, and non-hardware solar costs (e.g. workforce development, siting, community acceptance, equitable access to solar). Under his leadership the office launched first of their kind programs to address technology commercialization, solar energy and load forecasting, renewable energy siting, renewable energy grid interconnection, new uses of solar, and more. Prior to leadership roles at SETO, he led teams working on accelerating technologies to market and got to see first hand how industrial policy can shape a technologies future. Garrett is now at Waypoint Strategy Group, which he founded with 3 other senior DOE leaders in 2025 to bring lessons on technology research, development, and commercialization and effective funding program design to the world.
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AI Will Shop, Pay, and Decide for You. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Building Governance for the Agentic Economy
Thursday, February 26
12 – 1 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/building-governance-agentic-economy
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Shlomit Wagman, Former Chair, Financial Intelligence Agency, Israel; Former Chair, FATF Risk Working Group; Research Fellow, M-RCBG
Moderated by John Haigh, Co-Director, M-RCBG and Lecturer, HKS
The rise of autonomous AI agents is reshaping how economic decisions are made. Soon, digital agents will search, negotiate, purchase, invest, and execute payments on behalf of individuals and businesses, transforming financial rails through real-time settlement, stablecoins, and new protocols for agent identity and machine-to-machine transactions. But the agentic economy also introduces systemic risks, including AI-generated fraud, privacy erosion, commercial and algorithmic bias, market manipulation, and the concentration of economic power among data-driven platforms. This lecture examines how agentic commerce will redefine markets and financial systems, and what governance and security frameworks are needed to preserve trust in an economy increasingly run by machines.
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Insights to Action: Coastal and Marine Climate Impacts and Adaptation Priorities
Thursday, February 26
1:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://necasc.umass.edu/webinars/insights-action-coastal-and-marine-climate-impacts-and-adaptation-priorities
Building on a regional listening session hosted by NE CASC, this virtual event will share key insights from a follow-up survey on coastal and marine climate impacts and adaptation priorities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. We will reflect back what we heard about climate change impacts and challenges, as well as adaptation priorities identified by managers, researchers, and the broader coastal and marine community. We invite you to join the discussion on how these findings can inform future research, collaboration, and management efforts.
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Holding Care with the Land: Forest Therapy and Collective Healing
Thursday, February 26
5:30 PM to 6:45 PM
Online
RSVP at https://trusted.bu.edu/s/1759/2-bu/19/1col.aspx?sid=1759&gid=2&pgid=19114&cid=33957
Join us for this interactive virtual session in the next BUSSW Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series event exploring Forest Therapy as a practice of collective, justice-oriented care. Participants are invited to reflect on how land, listening, and relationship shape healing and belonging. Rather than treating nature as a resource, Forest Therapy offers a way of being with the land rooted in reciprocity, presence, and care.
Grounded in ancestral ways of knowing and trauma-informed, equity-focused practice, the session considers how access to land, rest, and healing has been shaped by history and systemic inequities. Through guided reflection and dialogue, participants will explore their own relationships to care—how it is given, received, and held within communities and systems—while learning how Forest Therapy can support collective healing in times of grief, burnout, and change. This event is part of the BUSSW Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series presented by BU School of Social Work’s Equity & Inclusion Committee. Please visit bu.edu/ssw/eiss for additional details, past event recordings and more.
One CE credit will be available to social workers licensed in Massachusetts. If you wish to receive CE credit, please provide your license number in the registration form.
Andrea Jaramillo (she/they)
Andrea Jaramillo (she/they) is a certified Forest Therapy Guide and founder of Forest Nurse. Her work approaches nature-based practice as collective, justice-oriented care, centering Forest Therapy through a relational and equity-focused lens while honoring ancestral ways of knowing and caring. Informed by her background as a registered nurse in labor and delivery, hospice, and maternal–infant public health, she invites reflection on access to land, rest, healing, grief-tending, belonging, and how we care and are cared for within our communities and systems.
website: http://forestnurse.com
IG: @forestnurse
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How AI is Impacting Journalism, Free Speech, and Public Discourse
Friday, February 27
4:00pm to 5:30pm EST
MIT Welcome Center, Building E38 Auditorium (195), 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
Join us for a discussion on how AI is impacting the way news is reported and disseminated, the way we learn and communicate, and how this is impacting free speech and democracy. The discussion will feature journalists who are examining more ethical ways to report on and use AI, an MIT Media Lab researcher who is researching the neural and behavioral consequences of using large language models to assist with writing, and the leader of a newly launched lab studying how AI is impacting democratic societies by transforming both traditional and social media and mediating our access to information.
SPEAKERS
Khari Johnson, a guest speaker with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network, has covered AI since 2016. He reports on how artificial intelligence impacts people, their communities, and society. Initially he focused on reporting on consumer technology and startup funding rounds but today explores AI policy solutions to protect human rights and how AI is used in policing, schools, and government. He currently works as a tech reporter at CalMatters and previously worked at WIRED and VentureBeat
Nataliya Kosmyna is a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group and a visiting faculty researcher at Google who has spent 16 years designing brain-computer interfaces and is working on ways to better partner AI with human intelligence. She has created art projects that have been deployed in classrooms, hospitals, and in space, and was one of 25 experts who helped UNESCO prepare a Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology, which was adopted last year. Her research has been covered by media outlets around the world.
Lam Thuy Vo is an investigative reporter working with Documented, an independent, non-profit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities, and an associate professor of data journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She has been an AI Accountability Fellow for the Pulitzer Center and has led newsroom-wide trainings for institutions across the US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. She also created a curriculum on how to cover artificial intelligence that centers the needs of journalists in the Global South.
John Wihbey is the director of the AI-Media Strategies Lab at Northeastern University and an associate professor of media innovation in the College of Arts, Media and Design. He is a faculty researcher at the Ethics Institute and a co-founder of Northeastern’s Internet Democracy Initiative, which is launching the Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy. He is the author of Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech — and What Comes Next.
Moderated by Usha Lee McFarling, Director, Knight Science Journalism Program
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Coded Bias: 5th Anniversary Virtual Finale Event
Friday, February 27
6:30pm to 8:00pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coded-bias-5th-anniversary-virtual-finale-event-tickets-1975810499391
2025 marked the 5-year anniversary of Coded Bias, which premiered at Sundance in January 2020. The documentary sheds light on critical flaws in AI systems that threaten democracy and our basic rights, telling the story of Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who uncovered biases in these systems while at MIT and subsequently founded the Algorithmic Justice League to combat AI-related harm. The film follows her research into gender and skin tone bias, her efforts to bring these issues before governments and major tech companies, and also features many AI trailblazers who are working to raise awareness about the dangers of unchecked AI systems.
To celebrate this milestone and mark the end of the #CodedBiasWorldTour, the Algorithmic Justice League invites YOU to join the virtual finale!
Overview of Agenda:
Behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Coded Bias
Highlights from our favorite tour stops around the world
The 2025 AJL Global Justice Award presentation
Meet your hosts: AJL Founder Dr. Joy Buolamwini, Senior Education Advisor Dr. Jaleesa Trapp, and AJL Advisor Dr. Alexis Hope.
This year's Global Justice Award honors someone extraordinary — an individual who, after being harmed by an AI system, turned their experience into action to protect others.
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MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Conference
Saturday, February 28
MIT, Building E51, Wong Auditorium, 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142
https://mit-africa.com/africa-innovate-conference/
The Africa Innovate Conference (AIC) is the flagship event of the MIT Sloan Africa Business Club, bringing together over 250 entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, policymakers, and industry leaders from around the world. Hosted by MIT Sloan students, AIC fosters networking, learning, and collaboration around advancements in technology, business, and social impact within Africa. Through multidisciplinary panels and showcases of groundbreaking initiatives, AIC addresses interconnected challenges and celebrates projects driving positive change on the continent.
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TEDxTufts: Blueprints For the Future
Saturday, February 28
10:30AM – 5:30PM
Tufts, Cohen Auditorium, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at http”//www.tedxtufts.org
Cost: $6.50
TEDxTufts is proud to announce our 2026 Spring Conference, TEDxTufts: Blueprints for the Future!
Inspired by the change-making nature of our speakers' talks, Blueprints for the Future highlights an array of topics from humanitarian affairs, athletics, healing through art, and more.
We hope to see you Saturday, February 28, at Cohen Auditorium, at 40 Talbot Ave! Your ticket includes hearing from an amazing lineup of speakers, delicious food from restaurants in the Medford/Somerville area, and performances from talented student groups.
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Groundwater: Hidden Reserves, Public Decisions
Monday, March 2
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001TMFtIAO&_gl=1*1sdy75b*_gcl_au*OTIxMzMwMjk4LjE3NjkzNzkzOTI.*_ga*MTI5ODM2NTM4OC4xNzY5MTQ3OTAx*_ga_72NC9RC7VN*czE3NzE4ODk2NTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3NzE4OTAwMjEkajIwJGwwJGg4NzkzODM4ODU
In this Energy Policy Seminar, Maria Zuber, the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy at MIT, will give a talk entitled, "Groundwater: Hidden Reserves, Public Decisions." Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.
Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome to attend via Zoom.
Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the Belfer Center's YouTube channel.
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Environmental Justice in the Time of Climate Denial: How frontline communities are organizing and building power as environmental protections are rolled back
Monday, March 2
12:15 pm – 1:15 pmA
Princeton, #300 Wallace Hall
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/environmental-justice-time-climate-denial
Arif Ullah, Executive Director of A2 (Anthropocene Alliance)
Arif Ullah is Executive Director of A2 (Anthropocene Alliance), a national coalition of frontline groups advocating for environmental health and protection. He is a social and environmental justice advocate, grassroots urban planner, and community activist. He serves on the NYS Climate Justice Working Group.
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Why are electricity prices rising in the US and what can be done about it?
Monday, March 2
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EST
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20036
And online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/why-are-electricity-prices-rising-in-the-us-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/
Electricity prices are on the rise for millions of Americans. In more than half of U.S. states, electricity prices have outpaced inflation since 2019, straining household budgets while undermining economic growth and activity. Based on the latest estimates, these price increases are likely to continue. Without credible policy solutions to rein in rising prices, electricity will increasingly contribute to the cost-of-living crisis in the U.S. and potentially harm economic competitiveness. It is therefore essential to take an objective look at the potential explanations for rising rates and account for the complex variation in electricity prices across regions, states, and customer types.
On Monday, March 2, the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution will host an event to understand why electricity prices are rising across the U.S. and what can be done about it. Part of the center’s ongoing series, Reimagining Modern-day Markets and Regulations, the event will kick off with a keynote fireside chat with Joseph Bowring, president of Monitoring Analytics.
Following the keynote, a panel of distinguished experts including Brendan Pierpont (Energy Innovation), Abe Silverman (Johns Hopkins), Ryan Wiser (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) will offer their analyses and a path forward for policymakers and industry alike. Malihe Alikhani, visiting fellow with the Center on Regulation and Markets and assistant professor at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Science, will moderate the panel.
Online viewers can pose questions in advance by emailing events@brookings.edu.
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A Slightly Better Future
Monday, March 2
3pm 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/2026-03-02/george-hammond-slightly-better-future
Cost: $5
Monday Night Philosophy focuses tonight on the political philosophical principles generated by George Hammond’s “Life is an Eternal Democracy” theory. His latest book, A Slightly Better Future: Short Term Fixes for America, Long Term Fixes for Democracy, details many incremental institutional improvements that could make democracies far more effective in the future. His ideas, based upon what we should have learned over the last 250 years, include a thoroughly revised democratic constitution, significantly redesigned political institutions, and several new forms of institutional checks and balances.
Fortunately, even amidst the current dismaying destruction of valued political norms, there remains a strong, sustaining undercurrent—the hope that all this institutional chaos will ultimately just remind us why compromise in the pursuit of consensus has been, and could continue to be, so productive in America’s political culture.
Join us to discuss political principles that are designed to promote a civilized future, using realistic 21st century political thought—and political hope.
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The Stratton Lecture: The Epidemic of Loneliness
Tuesday, March 3
11:30pm - 1:00pm
MIT Wong Auditorium (E51-115), 2 Amherst St, Cambridge, MA 02142
And livestreamed
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stratton-lecture-the-living-brain-tickets-1980660496864
Join us for The Living Brain: Health and Memory Across the Lifespan, a lecture that invites curiosity about how the human brain supports learning, thinking, and emotional life over time. Speakers will share insights into how scientists study the brain and what this research reveals about maintaining brain health and memory. Together, these perspectives offer a thoughtful look at how everyday experiences, biology, and care for the brain shape cognitive well-being across the course of life.
Keynote Speaker: Professor John D. Gabrieli
Remarks by: Dr. Mikki Tal
Remarks by: Professor Laura Lewis
Discussion Moderated by: Amy Brand, Director and Publisher of MIT Press
John Gabrieli is the director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute. He is an Investigator at the Institute, with faculty appointments in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, where he holds the Grover Hermann Professorship. He also has appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is the director of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative. Prior to joining MIT in 2005, he spent 14 years at Stanford University in the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Program. He received a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a B.A. in English from Yale University. In 2016 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Michal Caspi Tal, PhD, is an immunoengineer, and a Principal Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Tal leads the Tal Research Group within the department of Biological Engineering and also serves as the associate scientific director of the Center for Gynepathology Research. Michal is working to identify the connections between infections and chronic diseases. Her research is focused on creating predictive diagnostics, and generating actionable information providers can use to connect with and care for patients to improve diagnosis and treatments for invisible chronic diseases. From tick-borne disease to COVID, there are many similarities across chronic inflammatory diseases and important sex differences in these responses, which are the focus of the Tal group. Michal received her PhD at Yale University in Immunobiology under the mentorship of Dr. Akiko Iwasaki researching how immune responses to viruses are impacted by processes such as aging. Dr Tal then did her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Irving Weissman at Stanford where she later became an instructor at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University leading the infectious disease team and studying immumodulatory mechanisms which impact immune clearance of infectious disease, with a focus on Lyme disease. Michal has been awarded NIH NIAID F31 and F32 pre and postdoctoral fellowships, as well as the Emerging Leader Award from Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
Laura Lewis is the Athinoula A. Martinos Associate Professor in IMES and EECS at MIT, and an Associate Faculty Member at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at MGH. She completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and conducted postdoctoral work in neuroimaging, in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Her research develops multimodal approaches for imaging the human brain, and applies them to study the neural circuitry that controls sleep, and the consequences of sleep for brain function. Her work has shown that fast fMRI can measure subsecond neural dynamics, and discovered waves of cerebrospinal fluid flow that appear in the sleeping human brain. Her research has been recognized by awards such as the Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award, the Sloan Fellowship, the McKnight Scholar Award, and the Pew Scholar Award.
Moderated by:
Amy Brand, director and publisher of the MIT Press, one of the largest university presses in the world, and an important figure in open access publishing. The MIT Press is well known for its publications in emerging fields of scholarship and its pioneering use of technology. Brand’s career spans a wide array of experiences in academia and scholarly communications. She received her doctorate in cognitive science from MIT and has held a number of positions in scholarly communications, publishing, and open information access at MIT, Digital Science, and Harvard before returning to the press in 2015 to serve as director. She was executive producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary Picture a Scientist, a 2020 selection of the Tribeca Film Festival that highlights gender inequality in science. Some of Dr. Brand’s awards include the Laya Wiesner Community Award, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award, and the Award for Meritorious Achievement issued by the Council of Science Editors.
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Climate Change: A Solutions Approach (webinar)
Tuesday, March 3
12pm to 1pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-a-solutions-approach-webinar-registration-1936833905349
Part of the Program: Sustainability collection
This class introduces climate change science and solutions, and what you can do locally to make a difference.
This class introduces climate change science and solutions, and what you can do locally to make a difference. It is inspired by the work of Project Drawdown, a solutions-focused approach to climate change, sharing both global and local perspective on the issue and its many solutions. In joining us for this 1-hour presentation, you’ll become more informed on small and large, successfully implemented solutions to slow and eventually stop the increase of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Participants will walk away with specific strategies they can implement in their own lives. Please register for this event ONLY at ufsarasotaext.eventbrite.com rather than any third party websites, as they are not affiliated with our classes and events.
Once registered through Eventbrite, the system will send you a confirmation email.
For questions or further information, please call 941-861-5000 or email sarasota@ifas.ufl.edu.
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AI’s Unquenchable Demand for Water
Tuesday, March 3
12 ET
Online
RSVP at https://coveringclimatenow.org/event/ais-unquenchable-thirst-for-water/
Beyond its staggering electricity demands, AI requires water — and a lot of it.
A single data center can consume over 300,000 gallons a day — equivalent to the water used in a thousand homes — to cool the computers powering your chat prompts. As climate change worsens water scarcity through rising temperatures and disruptions to precipitation patterns, AI threatens to further drain water from the areas that need it most; over two-thirds of data centers built since 2022 are in water-stressed regions.
As big tech continues its plan to build as many data centers as possible, join Covering Climate Now for a one-hour discussion where we’ll highlight the reasons for AI’s ever-growing thirst, explore how to cover the local concerns of communities facing water shortages, and investigate potential solutions to safeguard this increasingly scarce resource.
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Catalyzing Climate Tech Capital
Tuesday, March 3
9pm EST [6:00 PM PDT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.climateone.org/events/matt-rogers-co-founder-nest-and-mill-catalyzing-climate-tech-capital
Cost: $9 - $5
Matt Rogers, Co-founder of Nest and Mill
You probably know about Nest, the first smart home thermostat. And you may have heard of Mill, the countertop food recycler. You might even have one or both of these devices in your own home. Now meet the co-founder of both companies, Matt Rogers. On top of Nest and Mill, Matt also co-founded Incite, which invests in clean tech start-ups, climate positive non-profits, and advocacy.
Mill has begun expanding beyond the home with AI-enhanced, commercial scale food recyclers that will turn Whole Foods waste into chicken feed – which will then get fed back to Whole Foods’ chickens.
How can tech innovation drive meaningful change?
Where should capital be directed?
How does individual action scale to systemic change?
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Amazon Rainforest and Its Soils: The Tipping Point as an Imminent Risk of the Savannization of the System
Wednesday, March 4
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-mauricio-fontes-fellow-presentation-virtual
A presentation from 2025–2026 Hrdy Fellow Mauricio P. F. Fontes
The Amazon biome is the world’s largest remaining tropical forest, hosting around 10 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, and the soil, part of this brittle ecosystem, plays a vital role in its conservation. The critical threshold at which the conversion of tropical rainforest to dry savanna could be irreversible is approaching dangerously. Fontes is generating a methodology for the establishment of sustainable and regenerative agriculture in this region.
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Yale Cooling Conference 2026
Thursday, March 5 - Friday, March 6
Yale, Evans Hall, 165 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
RSVP at https://koala-orchid-lnbp.squarespace.com/registration
Cost: $0 - $100
Yale Cooling Conference is returning to Yale School of Management on March 5-6, 2026.
This year, we are focusing on the role of innovation and finance in scaling Lifecycle Refrigerant Management and Alternative Cooling Technologies.
Join renowned experts and organizations at the forefront of alternative cooling technologies and lifecycle refrigerant management as they explore the latest advancements, discuss financing, and identify opportunities at our upcoming cooling conference. This gathering provides an unparalleled opportunity for knowledge exchange, networking, and growth in an environment dedicated to the cooling field.
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Restoring Indigenous Socio-Environmental Systems
Thursday, March 5
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall, Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA
And online
RSVP at https://as.tufts.edu/environmentalstudies/news-events/hoch-cunningham-lecture-series#mar5
Environments across North America are in crisis. Restoring longstanding Indigenous relationships with the land and sea provides one pathway to help heal local ecosystems and communities. This talk reviews an ongoing trans-disciplinary collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation to help restore land recently re-acquired by the Tribe in the Bear River Basin. Analysis reconstructs long-term baselines of species occurrence, climatic change, and land use practices to model the factors that will maximize cultural keystone species occurrence, biodiversity, and ecosystem function across the region today, and into the future under varying climate scenarios. By centering collaboration to advance scientific knowledge for community benefit, this project contributes to broader movements seeking to help restore Indigenous socio-environmental systems across the continent.
Speaker: Dr. Brian Codding, Professor in Environmental Studies Program and Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara
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The Navy We Need: Maritime Dominance in a World of Interlocking Supply Chains
Wednesday, March 4
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge 02139
And livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
Paul DeLuca, RAND
Summary:
Global supply chains depend heavily on movement of goods and material by sea, but force structure requirements for the U.S. Navy have been largely focused on priorities besides sea control. Many factors impact supply chain vulnerability, but the physical facts of ocean transportation might not be understood or appreciated. This presentation will describe the relationship between maritime forces and supply chain security and insecurity.
Bio:
Bradley Martin is a senior policy researcher at RAND. He retired from the Navy as a surface warfare Captain after 30 years of service, including four command tours.
In addition to his operational tours, Martin served on the staff of U.S. Forces Japan, the OPNAV staff as an operations analyst, and most recently as the Navy coordinator for participation in Joint Staff and OSD requirements and resources forums. His subspecialties included operations research, operational logistics, and strategic planning. Prior to joining the Navy, he received his doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan, while working as a research assistant for the Correlates of War Project.
His work at RAND focuses on Navy force structure and capabilities, supply chain security and resilience, and national security strategy.
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Renewable Energy Systems Showcase and Networking
Wednesday, March 4
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143
RSVP at https://greentownlabs.com/event/renewable-energy-systems-networking/
Join us for a showcase and networking event celebrating the innovators driving the clean-energy transition!REGISTER NOWRenewable energy is central to achieving net zero—and the need to scale solutions has never been more urgent. According to the International Energy Agency, while global renewable capacity hit a record high in 2025, only solar PV is currently on track to meet net-zero targets. Technologies like wind, geothermal, and hydropower must scale much faster to close the gap.
That’s where Greentown’s Renewable Energy Systems Showcase and Networking event comes in. This event highlights startups across our ecosystem that are building the next generation of renewable-energy solutions—and working to deploy them at the speed and scale the moment demands.
Join us to network with innovators and connect with the broader community shaping the future of renewable energy.
SHOWCASING STARTUPS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!
If you have questions or need to request accommodation, please reach out to Greentown Labs’ Ecosystem and Events Manager, Kelly Wilson (kwilson@greentownlabs.com).
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Cady Coleman — Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change
Wednesday, March 4
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16023436
Please join us for this talk in celebration of Women's History Month with author and former astronaut Cady Coleman. Cady discusses her 2024 nonfiction book Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder and Making Change. At 7pm, after the main program, our bookstore partners Trident Booksellers will facilitate a book signing with the author.
Cady Coleman is a retired NASA Astronaut and US Air Force Colonel with more than 180 days in space, accumulated during two space shuttle missions and an almost six-month expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) as the Lead Robotics and Lead Science officer. She is also a mother, a scientist, a pilot, and a leader.
Cady served in a variety of roles within the Astronaut Office, including Chief of Robotics, and lead astronaut for integration and operation of supply ships from NASA’s commercial partners. Before retiring from NASA, she led open-innovation and public-private partnership efforts for NASA’s Chief Technologist.
A popular public speaker and media consultant, she also serves as a research affiliate to MIT’s Media Lab. She is a regular contributor for space exploration news and co-hosted Arizona State University’s Mission: Interplanetary podcast. Cady serves on several boards, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Greenfield Community College and the ISS National Lab Education Advisory Group.
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Coastal Habitats: Life on the Edge
Wednesday, March 4
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/CoastalHabitatsLifeontheEdge#/
The saltmarsh sparrow is among the most imperiled species on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Rising seas, habitat loss, and centuries of human interventions have left these birds on the brink of extinction, their chicks unable to survive the high tides that now inundate their nesting grounds. Yet in their fragility lies a lens for understanding the intertwined fate of human and more-than-human worlds, and the ecological, cultural, and ethical stakes of coastal conservation.
This event brings together artistic and scientific perspectives from Switzerland and the United States to reflect on birds as vital sensors of planetary change. The evening begins with a screening of BirdStory: Saltmarsh Sparrow, following a female sparrow raising her chicks in a threatened East Coast saltmarsh. Emmy-nominated Swiss-British wildlife cinematographer Matt Aeberhard and award-winning novelist and producer Melanie Finn will share insights into the filmmaking process, exploring how storytelling, observation, and scientific collaboration can illuminate urgent environmental crises. Russ Hopping, Director of Coastal Ecology for The Trustees, will provide a conservation perspective on restoring saltmarshes, managing rare species habitats, and addressing sea level rise along Massachusetts’ coastlines.
Situated within Swissnex’s Planetary Embassy in Boston, this conversation invites audiences to consider birds not only as indicators of environmental change, but as relational entities whose lives intersect with human histories, landscapes, and responsibilities. Together, the speakers ask how storytelling, science, and stewardship can foster new practices of care and planetary responsibility, and what it means to witness life on the edge of extinction.
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AI and the Planet: Can AI solve the climate crisis?
Thursday, March 5
4 am to 5 am EST
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-and-the-planet-can-ai-solve-the-climate-crisis-tickets-1983251354188
Join us for the fourth event in our AI and the Planet series as we explore "green AI" and its potential to support climate action.
For many, AI is seen as a magic bullet that can help us address our numerous global crises – from climate change and disaster response to public health and resource management. In recent months a number of leading climate organisations have entered the debate, arguing that responsibly harnessed, AI can help strengthen science and support decision-makers in navigating the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality. But how sustainable is “green AI” and what role can it play in supporting the climate transition?
In this fourth event in our AI and the Planet series, we explore the potential of “Green AI” and its ability to support action and thinking around the climate transition with Professor Verónica Bolón-Canedo, Sustainable AI researcher and Director of the UDC-INDITEX Chair in AI for Green Algorithms, and AI ethicist and action philosopher, Nathan (Nate) Kinch FRSA.
About the series:
AI and the Planet is a webinar series hosted by the RSA's Oceania network and AI ethicist, Nathan (Nate) Kinch FRSA, and supported by the RSA Sustainability Network. Each event features a discussion with a leading scholar whose work deepens and expands our understanding of the current AI moment – the risks, challenges and potential. Together, we will explore the rapidly evolving relationship between Artificial Intelligence and the world it is reshaping.
For questions about this series, please contact RSA Global Manager (Oceania and Asia), Philipa Duthie on philipa.duthie@thersa.org.
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Cutting costs, cutting emissions: climate action and finance opportunities in Nigeria webinar
Thursday, March 5
4:45am - 6:15am ET [10:45 WAT 12:15 WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/nigeria-transport-emissions-webinar/
This introductory webinar outlines climate action and finance opportunities in Nigeria’s transport sector, highlighting pathways to emissions reduction, increased competitiveness and access to funding.
Reducing emissions is widely recognized as beneficial, yet many private transport businesses face significant barriers – including rising operating costs, limited resources, knowledge gaps and evolving regulations. Our program provides practical support to help you take climate action that benefits both your business and the environment.
The year-long program is free to access and includes webinars, workshops and one-to-one expert support. You will build an understanding of your emissions, improve access to funding opportunities and develop tailored plans to make your business greener, more inclusive and more sustainable.
The program is open to transport-related private businesses based in Abuja or Enugu and includes 12 months of ongoing support.
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Corporate Climate Action: A New Framework for Transparency
Thursday, March 5
2:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://ceres-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/6817703267866/WN_Sfn8mSqZQXiP-_GdYQVt8A#/registration
Companies invest in a wide range of market-based instruments such as carbon offsets and energy attribute certificates to mitigate their climate impact. However, widely used guidance for accounting and reporting greenhouse gases have not kept current with the use of these voluntary mitigation investments, creating risk for investors and hindering voluntary climate action. In September 2025, the Task Force for Corporate Action Transparency (TCAT) released new, assurance-ready guidance that addresses gaps in current corporate accounting practices and aligns with regulatory disclosure requirements. In December 2025, more than 13 companies completed a first pilot to pressure-test the usability and applicability of the guidance. Join Ceres and emissions reporting experts to explore how the TCAT guidance can help improve the transparency and comprehensiveness of corporate climate reporting, by enabling companies to report on the full suite of actions and instruments they are using to address their climate impact and mitigate climate risks. Participants will: - Analyze how the TCAT guidance is evolving to help companies invest in market-based instruments to mitigate their climate impact and risks. - Explore how the TCAT guidance fits into the broader landscape of greenhouse gas accounting and standard setting, including how it complements the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. - Examine the usability, clarity, and effectiveness of the guidance directly with practitioners who participated in the TCAT's inaugural corporate guidance pilot program and get a preview of the second pilot phase to follow in 2026.
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A Political Economy of Inequality and Pandemics
Thursday, March 5
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
BU, Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 67 Bay State Road, Boston, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/pardee/ghpwspring2026/
Join in person or via Zoom us for a Global Health Politics Workshop with Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD, Director & Associate Professor, Center for Global Health Policy & Politics. Prof. Kavanagh is a political scientist working at the intersection of law, political economy, and global health to explore how international and national governance institutions function and how they produce inequality, particularly in pandemics.
The world is in a new age of pandemics, in which they are more frequent and severe. This is often attributed to factors like travel and urbanization. Less explored are the political drivers. This talk explores the idea of a pandemic-inequality cycle and, in particular, the comparative politics of policy coordination in a pandemic that might help explain why more unequal countries have seen greater morality and transmission when viruses break out.
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Climatetech Intern Fair
Thursday, March 5
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville MA 02143
RSVP at https://greentownlabs.com/event/climatetech-intern-fair-2026/
The climate and energy workforce is hiring! REGISTER HEREPlease join us for our annual Intern Fair, which focuses on connecting students and soon-to-be graduates with Greentown Labs’ network of cutting-edge climatetech startups looking for bright and eager talent.
At this internship fair, students from Boston and beyond can explore open opportunities with our startup community. Attendees will network directly with the climatetech startups building a workforce that is ready to harness the massive economic opportunities of the energy transition.
Our community is made up of firm believers that there’s a place for everyone in climatetech. Our member startups are hiring for positions across skill sets and industries. The jobs are here. We just need you!
You can view all job openings on our careers page at https://greentownlabs.com/careers/
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10 Year Anniversary of Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts
Thursday, March 5
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm EST
Nonprofit Center, 89 South Street, Boston, 02111, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-26-sustainable-business-of-the-year-awards-tickets-1981005466678
Cost: The tickets are self-selected sliding scale between $50–$120. It will help us cover the cost of dinner and drinks for our guests. Your contribution directly supports SBN’s mission to build a green and fair economy in Massachusetts.
Get ready to celebrate the top sustainable businesses of the year with us at the 2025-26 Sustainable Business of the Year Awards!
A Decade of Local Impact: Join SBN’s 10th Annual Awards!
As a way of celebrating the hundreds of success stories of socially responsible local businesses in 2015! SBN created the first Sustainable Business of the Year Award program that honors the exceptional local businesses that are changing our communities for the better every day. Including this year's Awardees, SBN has honored 57 businesses for their extraordinary commitment to creating strong local economies that are Local, Green, and Fair.
We are hosting our 10th Annual Awards Celebration, and we'd love to have you join us. This isn't just an awards ceremony—it’s a homecoming. We are inviting our partners, awardees, and friends from the last decade to join us for an evening of reflection and celebration.
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Climate Adaptation Communication – Decoding Data and Risk for All
Friday, March 6
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA 02210
Online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/climate-adaptation-communication-decoding-data-and-risk-for-all/
Cost: $0 - $45
Decisions about climate resilience are increasingly data-informed and increasingly complex.
For policymakers and practitioners, this means working beyond black-and-white solutions to design interventions that acknowledge uncertainty, mitigate risk, and strengthen community resilience.
This Forum brings together practitioners who will share how they have found success in breaking down complex data and communicating it in clear, contextualized ways. Through real-world examples, speakers will demonstrate how communities of all sizes can proactively address climate risk. Attendees will be presented with a range of approaches for communicating climate data, risk, and the importance of adaptation in ways that are accessible, credible, and most importantly, actionable.
Forum Schedule
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. – Registration & Networking
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Forum
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Lunch (optional)
Forum Speakers
Keynote Speaker – Presenting Virtually
Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist
Anne Coglianese, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Jacksonville, Florida
Emma Gildesgame, Climate Adaptation Director, The Nature Conservancy
Additional speakers to be announced!
This forum will be organized in a hybrid format. Attendees have the option to attend in-person OR virtually.
In-Person Registration
Online registration for in-person attendance will close at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, 2026. If you plan to take part in the lunch immediately following the Forum, please be sure to indicate this during registration.
In-Person Registration Rates
EBC Member: $35
EBC Membership is corporate – all staff from our member companies can register as an EBC Member. Not sure if you’re a member? Visit our online Member Directory.
Non-members: $45
Government/Nonprofit: $15
This rate is available for those employed by Government, Municipal, or Nonprofit organizations. Not available to those in a volunteer position (e.g. Board Member of a Nonprofit).
Job Seeker Rate: $15
For recent graduates or attendees who are currently unemployed.
Student Rate: Complimentary
Students are welcome to attend free of charge. Registration must be completed with an active .edu email address.
Media: Please contact EBC at ebc@ebcne.org
Deadline to Change Registration Format Deadline to Change Registration Format
No changes in registration format will be permitted after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27, 2026. Any requests to change from in-person to virtual attendance MUST be received before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27. Please contact EBC at ebc@ebcne.org or 617-505-1818 to change your registration format or with any questions.
View the In-Person Attendee List
In-Person Registration
Virtual Registration
Virtual attendees will be able to see and hear the speakers, slideshow presentations, and questions from the audience.
Online registration for virtual attendance will close at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 6, 2026.
Virtual Registration Rates
EBC Member: $35
EBC Membership is corporate – all staff from our member companies can register as an EBC Member. Not sure if you’re a member? Visit our online Member Directory.
Non-members: $45
Government/Nonprofit: $15
This rate is available for those employed by Government, Municipal, or Nonprofit organizations. Not available to those in a volunteer position (e.g. Board Member of a Nonprofit).
Job Seeker Rate: $15
For recent graduates or attendees who are currently unemployed.
Media: Please contact EBC at ebc@ebcne.org
Student Rate: Complimentary
Students are welcome to attend free of charge. Registration must be completed with an active .edu email address.
Deadline to Change Registration Format Deadline to Change Registration Format
No changes in registration format will be permitted after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27, 2026. Any requests to change from virtual to in-person attendance MUST be received before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27. Please contact EBC at ebc@ebcne.org or 617-505-1818 to change your registration format or with any questions.
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Net-zero and just transition in Asia
Friday, 6 March
11:30am - 3:30pm EST [13.30-17.30 JST (GMT+9)]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20260306
This symposium discusses international unjust transitions in the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Deepening the transitions has gone beyond domestic impacts to affect international justice through international supply chains, GHG emissions in other countries, and national energy security. Against this drop, this symposium focuses on international justice in net-zero transitions.
This symposium consists of two sessions. The first session addresses the just implications of net-zero transmission in China, which has rapidly deployed renewable energy and battery electric vehicles [in Japanese]. The second session discusses how to address international unjust transitions, from the perspectives of international supply chain, climate security, and transformative finance.
This symposium is held as part of the 30th anniversary of the Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies (SEEPS).
It is open to anyone with an interest in sustainability transitions research — including researchers, business professionals, and government officials with some background knowledge, as well as young scholars and students. Participation is free of charge.
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Shaping the Global Data Economy: Trade rules, policy space, and development
Friday, March 6
3pm - 4:15pm ET [2:00 pm - 3:15 pm CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iisd-elp.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GPMoh25tS-y8_KOht9fs_g#/registration
As data becomes central to digital trade and economic growth, governments must balance openness with regulatory control. This webinar examines emerging trade rules on cross-border data flows, their impact on development and economic opportunities, and the unique challenges faced by developing countries.
Data has become a key driver of the global economy, powering digital trade, artificial intelligence, and innovation. At the same time, complex policy debates have emerged around privacy, security, and economic development in the digital age. Governments now face a central challenge of how to enable trusted cross-border data flows to harness the benefits of the digital economy while preserving the regulatory space needed to pursue domestic priorities.
These debates are also shaped by geopolitics. Digital services are highly concentrated in a few large companies based in the United States and China, and governments are seeking greater control over the technologies and platforms driving global digital transformation. Trade agreements are increasingly at the forefront of this debate, as they shape the evolving rules and norms of the global data landscape.
This webinar will explore the interplay between data governance and trade policy, focusing on emerging trade rules for cross-border data flows. It will highlight the perspectives of developing countries, exploring structural challenges such as value-capture imbalances, capacity constraints, and how to navigate an increasingly complex geopolitical environment. Participants will gain insights into policy approaches that can help ensure that data governance frameworks support inclusive and sustainable development.
Panel
Moderator: Alice Tipping, Director, Trade and Sustainable Development, IISD
Speaker: MarÃlia Maciel, Director, Digital Trade and Economic Security, Diplo
Discussants: Henry Gao, Professor of Law, Singapore Management University
Neha Mishra, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute Geneva
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Deeply Responsible Business and Japan
Monday, March 9
12 – 1 p.m.
Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Conference Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://us-japan.wcfia.harvard.edu/event/deeply-responsible-business-and-japan?occ_id=0
SPEAKER(S) Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School
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Financing the Energy Transition
Monday, March 9
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001SjXtIAK&_gl=1*td8vlj*_gcl_au*OTIxMzMwMjk4LjE3NjkzNzkzOTI.*_ga*MTI5ODM2NTM4OC4xNzY5MTQ3OTAx*_ga_72NC9RC7VN*czE3NzE4ODk2NTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3NzE4OTAxOTgkajYwJGwwJGg4NzkzODM4ODU
Anne Finucane, the former Vice Chair of Bank of America and Chair of Bank of America Europe, will share her reflections on financing the energy transition in a fireside chat with Professor Joe Aldy. Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.
Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome to attend via Zoom.
Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the Belfer Center's YouTube channel.
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Irreconcilable Differences: Christian Nationalism and the First Amendment
Monday. March 9
12 – 1:30PM
Tufts, Sophia Gordon Hall, 15 Talbot Avenue, Somerville, MA 02144
Join us for a talk by Randall Balmer (John Phillips Professor in Religion, Dartmouth College) discussing his book America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State.
The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution codified the principle that government should play no role in favoring or supporting any religion, while allowing free exercise of all religions (including unbelief). More than 200 years later, the results from this experiment are overwhelming: The separation of church and state has shielded the government from religious factionalism, and the United States boasts a diverse religious culture unmatched in the world. But changes have been taking place at an accelerating pace in recent years. The current Supreme Court has shifted away from excluding the influence and practice of religion at public institutions and in our laws and policies, and moved dramatically toward protecting the inclusion and promotion of religion in publicly funded undertakings. Moreover, adherents to a Christian Nationalism ideology have grown more vocal and emboldened, and are increasingly moving into positions of power. Balmer, one of the premier historians of religion in America, reviews both the history of the separation of church and state and various attempts to undermine that wall. Despite the fact that the 1st Amendment and the separation of church and state has served the nation remarkably well, he argues, its future is by no means assured.
Randall Balmer, a prize-winning historian, CNN contributor, and Emmy Award nominee, earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. He was professor of American religious history at Columbia University for twenty-seven years before moving to Dartmouth College in 2012, where he is the John Phillips Professor in Religion, the oldest endowed chair at Dartmouth. He has been a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico, Yale, Princeton, Drew, Northwestern, and Emory universities and an adjunct professor at Union Theological Seminary. He taught in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and from 2004 to 2008, he was visiting professor at Yale Divinity School.
A New York Times bestselling author, he has published eighteen books, including Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter; Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right; and America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State. His second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fifth edition, was made into an award-winning, three-part series for PBS. His work has appeared in The Nation, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New Republic, Washington Post Book World, and the New York Times Book Review. His commentaries on religion in America appear in newspapers across the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the Concord Monitor, Stars and Stripes, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Chicago Tribune, and the Des Moines Register.
In 2024, the American Academy of Religion gave him the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.
Building Sophia Gordon Hall
City Somerville, MA 02144
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Reversing Climate Change -the logistics of removing CO2 from the atmosphere
Monday, March 9
2 pm to 3 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reversing-climate-change-the-logistics-of-removing-co2-from-the-atmosphere-tickets-1981944073075
'Reversing Climate Change - the logistics of removing CO2 from the atmosphere'
Alan McKinnon needs no introduction as an Emeritus Professor at Heriot-Watt and Professor of Logistics at Kuehne Logistics University who is a frequent contributor to CILT thinking particularly on the challenges of climate change. His book on the decarbonisation of logistics was published in 2018. Here he turns his attention to perhaps its most existential aspect, carbon dioxide removal, which is however a key element in the net zero strategies of Scotland and the UK, though research on its logistical aspects is at an early stage.
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Reinventing Batteries for a Sustainable Future
Monday, March 9
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), Room LL2.224, '150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://events.seas.harvard.edu/event/reinventing-batteries-for-a-sustainable-future
SPEAKER(S) Yi Cui, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford
Sustainable transportation, integration of renewable electricity into grids, and powering AI computing centers call for innovation of the next generation of batteries, which are energy-dense, durable, safe, and scalable. To address these opportunities, my lab has been conducting research over the past 20 years on reinventing batteries through nano and materials science innovation. Our progress on developing silicon anodes, lithium metal anodes, and sulfur cathodes could enable 2-4 times higher energy density than the existing lithium-ion batteries. Our development of aqueous electrolyte-based batteries offers potential game-changing solutions for stationary energy storage. To understand the fundamentals of batteries, we need new tools, and I will highlight our pioneering development of cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-XPS. I will also discuss the translation of lab innovations to markets.
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From Bonnie Raitt to Billie Eilish: Making Live Music Greener
Monday, March 9
5:30 – 6:30PM
Tufts, Building Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center, Distler Performance Hall, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-bonnie-raitt-to-billie-eilish-making-live-music-greener-tickets-1983040721179
Join a special conversation with the 2026 recipients of the Lyon & Bendheim Citizenship Award, Lauren Sullivan, J96 and Adam Gardner, A95, on the green music movement and the powerful role music can play in driving positive change. After seeing firsthand how musicians’ can have a unique impact on environmental campaigns and recognizing the environmental footprint of concerts and festivals, Lauren Sullivan and her musician husband, Adam Gardner (frontman for popular indie band Guster, which formed at Tufts and played its first show in Lewis Hall), founded REVERB in 2004 to create a more sustainable, action-oriented music industry.
Over 20 years later, REVERB’s impact has been extraordinary. The organization has raised over $21 million for environmental causes, eliminated 4.5 million plastic bottles, neutralized 420,000 metric tons of CO2E, “greened” over 350 tours, and inspired millions of fans to take action—all while pioneering the green music movement. Lauren and Adam are Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors of REVERB, which was named Official Music and Public Engagement Partner to the United Nations Environment Programme in 2018.
The conversation with Lauren and Adam will be moderated by special guest and fellow Tufts alumnus, Madeline Weir, A20, REVERB’s Director of Impact. Join us for this inspiring opportunity to hear from Tufts alumni who have transformed the music industry and mobilized a global community to protect our planet.
This event is cosponsored by the Environmental Studies Program, the Music Department, and the Office of Alumni Engagement. All are welcome. Please register for in-person and livestream attendance.
Lauren Sullivan and Adam Gardner are the 2026 recipients of the Lyon & Bendheim Citizenship Award for their innovative approach to tackling today’s most pressing environmental and social issues, for their remarkable impact on the green music movement, and for empowering millions to act toward a more sustainable and just future. Learn more about the Lyon & Bendheim Citizenship Award.
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The Datacenter Does Not Exist
Monday, March 9
6:00pm EDT
MIT E15-070, Building E15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4Jh4UAS4ZehWgZWHhlEWyMZNBvzcML-vWdBHOkcxHaA9Bhw/viewform
This lecture examines AI infrastructure through exocapitalism, a framework for understanding how capital can move independently of physical constraints like energy, labor, and raw materials. We’ll explore the strange economics of the AI boom (trillion-dollar announcements, debts backed by computer chips, and endless layers of intermediary management services) to argue that the “datacenter” now exists primarily as a financial object: a bundle of contracts, debts, and speculative claims. We conclude by identifying the race that will define 2026: between the financialization of massively-centralized infrastructure and the death of software as we currently know it.
Marek Poliks and Roberto Alonso Trillo’s Exocapitalism: Economics with Absolutely No Limits (2025, Becoming Press) has been lauded as among both the most controversial and the most accurate assessments of this economic moment — from “unbelievably inspiring” (Hito Steyerl) to “the Das Kapital of the 21st Century” (New Models) to “an info-hazard” (Metalabel) by “Hegel’s grandchildren” (Nick Land, derogatory). Marek and Roberto won Google’s 2024 Art and Machine Intelligence Award for their work in AI interface design.
More information at https://act.mit.edu/event/marek-poliks-and-roberto-alonso-trillo-the-datacenter-does-not-exist/
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Is There Ethical AI Use in Climate Journalism?
Tuesday, March 10
12pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://coveringclimatenow.org/event/is-there-ethical-ai-use-in-climate-journalism/
As AI becomes more ubiquitous, journalists and newsrooms are increasingly using AI tools in their newsgathering and production.
In this one-hour discussion, we’ll discuss some of the ethical questions about using AI in journalism, specifically on the climate story. Panelists will address a range of questions, including what factors to take into consideration before using AI, which tools could deepen our reporting, how to be transparent with audiences about our use of these tools, and how journalists should consider the climate toll of AI tools and report them to audiences. Come with questions that you’re wondering about or facing in your journalism work.
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Civic Life Lunch - The Democracy Dilemma: Civic Simulation with VF-GLAD
Tuesday, March 10
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Barnum Hall, 163 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/civic-life-lunch-the-democracy-dilemma-civic-simulation-tickets-1981428546120
How can you listen strategically to navigate disagreement, power, and complex institutions?
Join us for an interactive Civic Life Lunch led by Jonathan Tirrell, Director of the Vuslat Foundations Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative (VF-GLADi). In this guided civic scenario, you’ll step into different perspectives on real-world civic challenges and practice listening as a tool for understanding stakes and acting thoughtfully within complex systems.
This lunch will sharpen your listening and dialogue skills and empower you with practical strategies to navigate spaces of discussion, debate, and decision-making.
All are welcome. Registration required. Lunch provided. This event is cosponsored by JumboVote.
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Accelerate Net Zero Progress: Learn Amazon’s Approach to Carbon Credits
March 10
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/accelerate-net-zero-learn-amazon-approach-carbon-credits-sustainability-exchange-climate-solutions/
Carbon credits are a critical tool to address climate change, but most companies struggle to navigate the challenges related to transparency, credibility, and the availability of high-quality carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market.
Amazon has developed an industry-leading approach to sourcing and vetting high-quality carbon credits—and now they’re making it easier for other companies to benefit from that expertise.
Through the carbon credit service on the Sustainability Exchange, companies can access carbon credits sourced with the same rigorous standards and quality criteria that Amazon uses for their own investments in climate solutions.
In this webinar, Amazon’s carbon experts will take you deep into their approach:
How they evaluate neutralization credits across multiple segments
How they identify and scale inset opportunities
Lessons learned that can help you accelerate your own net-zero emissions progress
Practical examples from Amazon as well as companies already using its carbon credit service
Why starting now is critical to achieving mid-century goals
Jamey Mulligan, Head of Carbon Neutralization Science & Strategy, Amazon
Michelle Jolly, Director, Sustainability Solutions and Services, Amazon
Theresa Lieb, Vice President, Nature & Europe, Trellis Group
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Anticipating Freshwater Invasive Species Risk in the Northeast United States
Tuesday, March 10
1:00 pm
Online
RSVP at https://necasc.umass.edu/webinars/anticipating-freshwater-invasive-species-risk-northeast-united-states
Peder Engelstad, CO State University
Join us for an upcoming webinar about freshwater invasive species and climate change! Understanding the potential movement and establishment of invasive freshwater species is essential to early detection and rapid response (EDRR) strategies. This webinar will present a novel approach that combines current and future habitat suitability (from species distribution models) with pathways information to generate invasion risk scores for more than 100 freshwater invaders (fishes, plants, and invertebrates) to help inform EDRR approaches. This approach produces comprehensive, regionally mapped coverage of invasion risk for freshwater systems in the northeast United States.
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Broken Beakers and Brilliant Minds: Fixing the Macbinery of Science
Tuesday, March 10
4:30pm - 6:00pm
MIT Welcome Center, 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://calendar.mit.edu/event/broken-beakers-and-brilliant-minds-fixing-the-machinery-of-science
From the energy crisis and feeding eight billion people to defeating cancer and coping with climate change, humanity faces some rather large challenges today. To tackle them, we need science running like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, it has more often resembled a clunky old engine: loud, temperamental and prone to breaking down at the worst possible moment.
It is tempting to blame recent funding cuts for science’s current woes, but focusing only on money rather misses the point. Many of science’s biggest problems have been around for years, sometimes centuries. Scientists have long been criticised, sidelined or attacked for having ideas that were too new, too inconvenient or simply too correct for the people in power at the time. Even truly unscientific behaviours, like character assassination and fraud, are not modern inventions… though they do seem to have enjoyed a recent renaissance.
The good news is that longstanding problems are not the same as unsolvable ones. Join Matt Kaplan, science correspondent at The Economist and author of I Told You So! Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled and Imprisoned… For Being Right, for a spirited and insightful talk on the history of these endemic issues and what we can do to finally consign them to the scientific scrap heap.
Matt Kaplan has been working for The Economist as a science correspondent for nearly two decades and contributed over half a million words to the newspaper during that time. Fascinated by the weird and often less well respected members of the animal kingdom, he has made a habit of writing about how these species make life better for humanity.
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Decarbonising the UK 20 Years Later
Wednesday, March 11
9 am to 10 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decarbonising-the-uk-20-years-later-tickets-1981942870478#location
The UK now uses less energy than almost anyone anticipated 20 years ago, but opportunities to act on this potential were largely missed.
Join us for an online public seminar with lead researcher and author of the 'Decarbonising the UK Revisited' report, which was launched at the Tyndall Centre’s Critical Decade for Climate Action Conference in September 2025.
The report looks back at the Tyndall Centre’s own energy scenarios that were published in 2005, and the two decades since of Tyndall Centre energy research.
By comparing the 2005 scenarios of future energy with the energy changes that have happened, Dr Gaurav Gharde and co-authors reveal where foresight was limited, where assumptions proved over-ambitious, and where genuine transformation was underestimated.
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Data for Breakfast: Digital Tools for Climate-Resilient Rural Communities
Wednesday, March 11
12 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-for-breakfast-digital-tools-for-climate-resilient-rural-communities-tickets-1983413066875
Explore how digital tools and community data are building climate resilience in rural landscapes -with lessons for water managers worldwide.
As climate change intensifies, rural communities that depend on agriculture, forests, and water for their livelihoods face compounding ecological, economic, and social pressures. How can data and digital technology help communities not just survive these pressures, but actively shape their own resilience?
Join us for another Data for Lunch (or rather, Data for Breakfast) as Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth explores this question in the context of rural central India, where intersecting environmental and livelihood crises demand solutions that are both technically sophisticated and deeply rooted in community knowledge and equity.
In this session, you'll learn how a collaborative team of civil society organizations, environmental researchers, and computer scientists developed the CoRE Stack (Commoning for Resilience and Equality), a digital public infrastructure that puts data directly in the hands of communities. You'll see how it enables local partners to:
Build a shared understanding of how their landscapes are changing
Plan and advocate for natural resource management projects
Shift day-to-day practices toward greater sustainability and regeneration
The CoRE Stack leverages geospatial algorithms, machine learning on satellite imagery, and innovative data visualization approaches to track social-ecological sustainability at the landscape level — with open building blocks for further innovation.
Dr. Seth will also reflect honestly on the limits of this approach: where data falls short in capturing the full complexity of social-ecological systems, and what that means for how we design and deploy these tools.
Why This Matters
This session offers valuable lessons for anyone working at the intersection of water data, community engagement, and climate resilience — with particular relevance to groundwater modeling, biodiversity monitoring, and forest ecosystem work here in California and beyond.
Register now to join this global conversation about the power, and limits, of data for community-driven climate adaptation.
About the Speaker
Dr. Aaditeshwar Seth is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and co-founder of both Gram Vaani, a social technology enterprise, and the CoRE Stack infrastructure and network. His work centers on building participatory digital tools that empower marginalized communities to organize, advocate for themselves, and strengthen their climate resilience.
Technology platforms developed by Seth and his teams at Gram Vaani, the CoRE Stack, and his ACT4D (Appropriate Computing Technologies for Development) research group at IIT Delhi have reached several million people and more than 200 organizations worldwide. Elements of this work have been adopted by government agencies and have shaped how technology is applied for community development in the social sector.
Dr. Seth is a recipient of the ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award (2022). His book, Technology and (Dis)Empowerment: A Call to Technologists (2022), argues that technologists have a responsibility to design for equality and to challenge unjust social and economic structures through their work.
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Age of Extraction
Wednesday, March 11
12pm to 1:20pm
Northeastern, West Village G, 108, 450 Parker Street, Boston, MA 02115
RSVP at https://forms.gle/vJ1epsECBEY15UvQ6
Join us for our next Economic Policy Forum featuring Professor Tim Wu (Columbia Law School) and former White House official who coined the phrase “net neutrality.”
Hosted by Professor John Kwoka
Tim Wu will discuss his latest book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (November 2025)—named a New Yorker Best Book of 2025.
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The Big Joy Project: Using Daily Microacts to Promote Global Well-Being
Wednesday, March 11
1 – 2 p.m.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB G13, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
And online
RSVP at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_07n35X9lTg5yuTY
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, Science Director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
Greater well-being predicts better health, more satisfying relationships, and overall success in life. Many of us wonder: how can I improve my well-being? In this talk, Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas will introduce the Big JOY Project, a free global online program where participants complete seven days of simple, science-based “micro-acts” to increase joy, along with personalized feedback on their results. Drawing on data from thousands of volunteers worldwide, Dr. Simon-Thomas will explore who sticks with the program and who tends to drop off, why younger adults often report bigger gains, and how small, consistent, prosocial actions can meaningfully improve well-being in everyday life. She will also discuss how these insights can help communities, workplaces, and organizations promote well-being in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable.
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If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Wednesday, March 11
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nate-soares-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1981615164300
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Nate Soares—President of MIRI and author of a large body of technical and semi-technical writing on AI alignment—for a discussion of his new book, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All, co-written by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Soares will be joined in conversation by Greg Kestin—Lecturer on Physics and Associate Director of Science Education at Harvard University. This event will take place at the Harvard Science Center, Hall D, located at 1 Oxford St, Cambridge. Following the presentation will be a book signing.
About If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction—but it’s not too late to change course, as two of the field’s earliest researchers explain in this clarion call for humanity.
In 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared for what would come next.
For decades, two signatories of that letter—Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares—have studied how smarter-than-human intelligences will think, behave, and pursue their objectives. Their research says that sufficiently smart AIs will develop goals of their own that put them in conflict with us—and that if it comes to conflict, an artificial superintelligence would crush us. The contest wouldn’t even be close.
How could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Why would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares walk through the theory and the evidence, present one possible extinction scenario, and explain what it would take for humanity to survive.
The world is racing to build something truly new under the sun. And if anyone builds it, everyone dies.
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Great Decisions: International Cooperation on Climate Change with Kelly Sims Gallagher
Wednesday, March 11
6 – 7:30PM
Tufts, Cabot Intercultural Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BF49rdNZQxCHEsp1cxuMOw#/registration
Join WorldBoston and The Fletcher School for a timely Great Decisions program on "International Cooperation on Climate Change."
Over the past 30 years, climate change has become one of the central global challenges of the modern era, one that has hugely important consequences for the livability of the planet.
Join us for a timely discussion of this topic with Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean of The Fletcher School. This program will feature a fireside chat, live audience Q&A, and time for networking and discussion with other globally-oriented participants.
The program will be live-streamed to Zoom from 6–7 p.m.
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John Vaillant: Fire Weather
Wednesday, March 11
7pm
BC, Gasson Hall, 100, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at http://lhs-johnvaillant.eventbrite.com
John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Guardian. His journalism, fiction, and non-fiction explores collisions between human ambition and the natural world. His latest book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction and a stunning account of a colossal wildfire and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind. Through the lens of an apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—Vaillant warns that the 2016 fires at Fort McMurray were not a unique event but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world. In addition to winning the British Baillie Gifford Prize (“the non-fiction Booker”), the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize, and the John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize, Fire Weather was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, and Canada’s Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize. It has been named one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, Slate, and Smithsonian. The book earned Vaillant a nod as number four on MacLean’s Power List for Climate in 2024.
Cosponsored by the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, the University Core Curriculum, and Environmental Studies.
All Lowell Humanities Series lectures are free and open to the public. Registration via Eventbrite is required for in-person attendance.
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Mock Climate Negotiation
Thursday, March 12
If you are interested in joining, please fill out this interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1ac0KxDTNw_jczckdIXExAKWSkWBYNIVli4nM2sM9GoW8tg/viewform
Add to calendar Former US climate negotiator Catherine Goldberg '16 and the Schiller Institute is inviting all students to this incredible opportunity to learn more about climate negotiations and UN processes! The event will be hands-on and mimics the negotiation process that occurs at COP (Conference of Parties), which is run by the United Nations and is the leading venue for intergovernmental climate negotiations globally.
The mock negotiations will take place on Thursday March 12. We will select the time based on responses we get to this form. We will send out additional information sometime the last week of February.
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Scaling Green Infrastructure for a Resilient Rwanda
Thursday, March 12
9:00 - 10:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/scaling-green-infrastructure-resilient-rwanda?_gl=1*nna9ey*_gcl_au*MTUxMzgxNjExNi4xNzY5NDYwOTc0#register
Across African cities and globally, nature-based solutions (NBS) and green-gray infrastructure (GGI) interventions are changing the landscape of climate resilience. When done right, these projects can protect people from climate shocks, enhance biodiversity, and improve socio-economic and health outcomes. According to a WRI 2025 report, new NBS projects in sub-Saharan Africa have increased by an average of 15% annually from 2012-2021. Now, the question is how to sustain this momentum and ensure that NBS is integrated into long-term climate resilience planning.
Under its Green-Gray Infrastructure Accelerator, WRI is bringing a cross-sectoral approach to NBS integration and fostering peer learning exchanges across African cities. In Rwanda, WRI has convened cross-sectoral stakeholders to implement ambitious NBS projects for urban resilience at the city scale – restoring or planting 2,407 hectares and over 100,000 trees over two years. At the same time, building on a national push for climate resilience and green growth, these partnerships have worked to integrate NBS into emerging climate and urbanization plans at city and national scales.
In this webinar, join speakers from the Rwandan government, development agencies, and community groups as they discuss what is needed to move beyond one-off projects to the long-term integration of nature and infrastructure into policy.
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Climate Change and the Clean Air Act
Thursday, March 12
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4pAZXWKPTL-LQ-MK1l96AA#/registration
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has attempted to regulate carbon dioxide under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which serves as the foundation of U.S. air pollution policy. Conservative and liberal Supreme Court justices alike have claimed that legislators in 1970 would have been unfamiliar with the climate-altering effects of carbon dioxide, and these assertions have supported arguments that the law should not be used to regulate against climate change.
In collaborative research with colleagues at Harvard and Duke, Colleen Lanier-Christensen demonstrates this is false: Clean Air Act architects intended for carbon dioxide and its potential climatic impacts to be covered by the law. Their findings demonstrate that legislators conceptualized carbon dioxide as pollution akin to radioactive fallout, pesticides, and smog, and that this knowledge informed the landmark air pollution law. This research provides the definitive historical analysis of what Congress meant when they included “climate” in the law and aims to strengthen legal claims pertaining to the EPA’s ability to tackle climate change.
Colleen Lanier-Christensen is a Burke Climate and Health Fellow with the Harvard Global Health Institute and Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, and a postdoctoral fellow with Harvard University’s Department of the History of Science, where she earned her Ph.D. She works at the intersection of the history of science and public health, focusing on the governance of environmental and health risks, including air pollution, chemical products, and medical technologies. Colleen also holds an MPH from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, with a certificate in environmental health policy.
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Webinar—Decarbonization Pathway Spotlight: Clean and Improved Cookstoves
Thursday, March 12
12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.org/event/webinar-decarbonization-pathway-spotlight-clean-and-improved-cookstoves/
Clean and improved cookstove crediting projects are among the oldest, highest-volume, and most scrutinized crediting types in the voluntary carbon market. Key questions remain: How accurately can impacts be measured? Will recent methodological updates address market concerns about quality? And how much of today’s critique reflects current evidence versus outdated assumptions?
To clarify these questions, RMI recently published a technical explainer examining risks to quality and emerging best practices for identifying high-integrity cookstove projects.
This webinar builds on that analysis and convenes experts for a candid conversation about what people often get wrong about cookstove credits–and what robust program design looks like in practice today.
Panelists will explore:
How local context and user behavior shape crediting outcomes
What monitoring tools can – and cannot – reasonably deliver
Where buyers tend to over- or under-index on quality and risk
What has meaningfully changed in cookstove program design, and what fundamentals still matter
The panel will explore how the cookstove carbon credit market is evolving and share practical insights for buyers, developers, and auditors navigating this changing landscape.
SPEAKERS
APOORVA SAHAY, Senior Associate, Climate Intelligence
BEN JEFFREYS, Co-Founder & CEO, ATEC Global
ANNELISE GILL-WIEHL, Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University
ROB BAILIS, Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environmental Institute
ELISA DERBY, Senior Director, Climate Impacts and Standards, Clean Cooking Alliance
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International Carbon Markets: Learning From the Past to Chart a Better Future (…from Fletcher to Cape Town and Oslo and Back Again)
Thursday, March 12
12 – 1:30PM
Tufts, Cabot 703, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://forms.monday.com/forms/9b753756b171ff230d1fd1ca18d41b48?r=use1
Join the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) for a talk with Randall Spalding-Fecher, Director at Carbon Limits. His talk is titled "International Carbon Markets: Learning From the Past to Chart a Better Future (…from Fletcher to Cape Town and Oslo and Back Again)."
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I Told You So! Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Thursday, March 12
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard, Jefferson Lab 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/matt-kaplan-at-harvard-university-tickets-1981618087042
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Matt Kaplan—science correspondent at The Economist, where he has written about everything from paleontology and parasites to virology and viticulture over the course of two decades—for a discussion of his new book, I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right. This event will take place at Jefferson Lab 250, located at 17 Oxford St, Cambridge. Following the presentation will be a book signing.
About I Told You So!
An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted—from Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners.
For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He’s seen breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the behavior of the research community, and how support can be withheld for those who don’t conform or have the right connections. In this passionately argued and entertaining book, Kaplan narrates the history of the 19th century Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who realized that Childbed fever—a devastating infection that only struck women who had recently given birth—was spread by doctors not washing their hands. Semmelweis was met with overwhelming hostility by those offended at the notion that doctors were at fault, and is a prime example of how the scientific community often fights new ideas, even when the facts are staring them in the face.
In entertaining prose, Kaplan reveals scientific cases past and present to make his case. Some are familiar, like Galileo being threatened with torture and Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó being fired when on the brink of discovering how to wield mRNA–a finding that proved pivotal for the creation of the Covid-19 vaccine. Others less so, like researchers silenced for raising safety concerns about new drugs, and biologists ridiculed for revealing major flaws in the way rodent research is conducted. Kaplan shows how the scientific community can work faster and better by making reasonably small changes to the forces that shape it.
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Terry Tempest Williams, Author of The Glorians
Thursday, March 12
7:00pm (doors at 6:30 pm)
St. James Episcopal Church, 1991 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 (Use the entrance located on Beech Street - near 7 Beech Street)
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/products/tags/event-ticket
Cost: $10 - $37
From the visionary New York Times bestselling author, a revelatory work of narrative nonfiction exploring beauty in the desert, climate change, and, transformative moments of power in a world beset by uncertainty
Whether we believe it or not, rapid change is upon us. I am searching for grace.
In this time of political fragility, climate chaos, and seeking beauty wherever we can find its glimmer, Terry Tempest Williams introduces us to the Glorians. They are not distant deities, but the ordinary, often overlooked presences--animal, plant, memory, moment--that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world. The Glorians can be as small as an ant ferrying a coyote willow blossom to its queen or as commonplace as the night sky. But what they can collectively show us--about the radical act of attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds--is immense.
Journeying through encounters with the Glorians in the red rock desert of Utah during the pandemic to Harvard University where she teaches in the Divinity School, Williams weaves a story of astonishing personal and societal insight. As she grapples with the unsettled state of the world, she turns not to despair but to deep reflection. She sees how the Glorians are calling us to attention, not as an army, but as fellow inhabitants of our sacred, threatened home. They remind us of the power of contact between species and the profound courage--and awareness--it will take to dream a more cohesive future into being.
Wise and lyrical, The Glorians is a testament to the power of witness, a field guide to finding grace in the unexpected, and a moving invitation to engage with one another and our surroundings with renewed intention. In a modern world filled with increasing noise and anxiety, Terry Tempest Williams offers honest sustenance for the mind and spirit and distinguishes herself again as a trusted voice to whom we can turn to more fully understand our times.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of over twenty books of creative nonfiction, including the environmental classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Among her other books are Leap; Red; The Open Space of Democracy; Finding Beauty in a Broken World; When Women Were Birds; The Hour of Land; and Erosion: Essays of Undoing. Her work has been translated and anthologized worldwide. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Lannan Literary Award, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and is currently writer-in-residence at the Harvard Divinity School. She divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Southeastern Utah.
Joshua Kurtz is a weaver, writer, and educator based in Somerville, Massachusetts. He recently completed a Masters of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School, where he studied Judaism, grief, and ethics. He has previously worked as a community organizer and educator in Washington, DC, and Brasov, Romania. His writing has been published in the Smithsonian Folklife Magazine, the Colorado Review, and Peripheries, amongst several others. You can learn more about his work, including his weaving studio – Wild Goose Weaving – at his website.
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Central MA Regional Clean Energy & Climatetech Workforce Summit
Friday, March 13
9am - 3pm
Worcester, MA
RSVP at https://masscec.zohobackstage.com/CentralMACleanEnergyClimatetechWorkforceSummit#/
Building Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Workforce Together
WHY ATTEND?
Join hundreds of clean energy workforce professionals, industry leaders, community organizations, and MassCEC workforce grantees for a day of connection, collaboration, and innovation.
Build Strategic Connections: Strengthen relationships with workforce development networks, clean energy and climatetech employers, community organizations, and MassCEC grantees across Central Massachusetts and statewide.
Share Best Practices: Discuss regional workforce trends, best practices, and opportunities to develop and optimize clean energy workforce development programs.
Explore Resources & Funding: Discover collaboration opportunities and learn about MassCEC funding for clean energy workforce development programs.AGENDA
The agenda is now available! View the full agenda by clicking the button below.
9:30 AM to 3:00 PM: Registration Check-in
Pick up your badge when you arrive.
9:30 AM to 10:00 AM: Networking
After checking in and getting your badge, enjoy light refreshments and networking with attendees before programming begins.
10:00 AM to 3:00 PM: Programming
Join us for expert-led sessions, dynamic conversations, and collaborative opportunities to advance the clean energy workforce.
3:00 PM to 3:30 PM: Closing Networking
Enjoy light refreshments and networking with attendees to wrap up the day.
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Career Paths of Women in Energy Technologies
Saturday, March 14
1 pm to 2 pm
Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02467
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-saturdays-career-paths-of-women-in-energy-technologies-tickets-1980664071556
On March 14, hear from three members of the Council on Women in Energy & Environmental Leadership (CWEEL) about their career paths and experiences in the energy industry. Panelists include Julianna Morales Pizarro Hill, Sarah Basham, and Maryette Haggerty Perrault.
All Second Saturday events take place upstairs in the Overlook Gallery. The presentations are free and open to everyone, including walk-in visitors, space permitting. Please help us monitor capacity by reserving your FREE tickets in advance.
About the Panelists:
Julianna Morales Pizarro Hill is a mechanical engineer focused on energy efficiency in commercial buildings. As a Mechanical Designer at B2Q Associates, Julianna performs energy audits in a variety of buildings including municipal buildings, dormitories, university lab buildings, and manufacturing facilities. She also conducts heat pump evaluations and identifies decarbonization measures for facilities targeting emission reduction goals.
Sarah Basham, M.S., CEM, DGCP, is an accomplished energy industry professional focused on sustainability, decarbonization, and resilience. In her current role as the Lead Engineer for Climate Strategy at National Grid, she develops strategies to enhance the resilience of electric infrastructure against climate change.
Previously, Sarah served as the Deputy Manager of Climate Analysis for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where she authored the Massachusetts 2050 Clean Energy and Climate Plan and led greenhouse gas reduction initiatives. She’s held prior roles at National Grid in Regulatory Policy, Sustainability, and Energy Efficiency. In her early career she worked on fuel cell and biofuel technologies.
Sarah holds a Master of Science in Energy and Mineral Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Northeastern University.
Maryette Haggerty Perrault serves as Senior Policy Manager for Bloom Energy where she advances policies that support the energy transition and adoption of distributed energy resources. Before joining Bloom Energy in 2022, she spent four years at Eversource leading several strategic initiatives and assisting customers in achieving their energy efficiency goals. In her early career, Maryette spent seven years at a startup managing a team of energy analysts and engineers delivering portfolio and building level efficiency insights utilizing the Retroficiency Analytics Platform. She is currently the Vice President of the Association of Energy Engineers’ New England Chapter and serves on the Advisory Group for their Council on Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership. Maryette holds a self-designed Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College integrating architecture, engineering and environmental studies.
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Extreme Heritage: Climate Change Risk and Resilience
Monday, March 16
12 pm to 1 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/extreme-heritage-climate-change-risk-and-resilience-tickets-1982963440029
Join us for specialist panel discussion exploring the threats posed to heritage sites by the changing climate
As the impacts of climate change accelerate around the world, the heritage sector faces increasing challenges in protecting its most vulnerable sites.
UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) invites you to a specialist panel discussion exploring the threats posed to heritage sites by the changing climate. Using insights from UKAHT’s latest climate change risk assessment for Antarctic heritage sites, the session brings together three sector experts to discuss how the heritage sector is understanding and prioritising risk, making decisions, and adapting heritage spaces.
Moving beyond general discussion, this webinar is designed for heritage professionals, policy‑makers, and those working in Overseas Territories. The aim is to share technical learnings and strategic responses to environmental change.
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Putin’s War Against the West: A Conversation with the Former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation
Monday, March 16
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E25, 111, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge, MA 02142A
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFfEfT2xxXgJru7r65cJOldqI586FA0AXZwZQCpLJayUhx2w/viewform
Speaker: Ambassador John J. Sullivan is the former US deputy secretary of state and former US ambassador to the Russian Federation. His career spans four decades in public service in prominent diplomatic and legal positions under five US presidents. He is a non-resident distinguished senior fellow with the National Security Law Program as well as a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC and New York offices. He co-leads the firm’s National Security practice.
Co-chairs:
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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Research for Practice: Climate Risks & Housing Markets
Tuesday, March 17
1:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YpZeBLvSSCWJaJjvS0102g#/registration
Join Insurance for Good for our 2026 bimonthly Research for Practice Webinar Series! Leading scholars will discuss their insurance and risk management research and the implications for policy and practice. Short presentations will be followed by Q&A on how attendees can best harness their insights. In our series launch on March 17, Professor Benjamin Keys will discuss how climate risks are increasing home insurance premiums at a pace that’s reshaping local housing markets. Learn what has been happening in insurance markets around the country and how these changes are directly impacting property values, lending decisions, and the overall stability of local real estate markets. Benjamin Keys is the Rowan Family Foundation Professor of Real Estate and Finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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The Third Nuclear Age: Will our luck finally run out?
Wednesday, March 18
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
Livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
Alexandra Bell from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will give a presentation at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.
Summary: For this seminar, Alexandra Bell will discuss recent developments in nuclear proliferation, arms control, and strategy. Many in the nuclear policy community now say we are at the start of a third nuclear age. What this age will look like is a matter of debate. What is clear is that academics, experts, and policy makers thinking about the future of nonproliferation, arms control, deterrence, and disarmament policy will face new and unprecedented challenges. They will need to understand how other existential risks—climate change and emerging disruptive technologies that include synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, among others—will affect their work, for good and for bad. Further, given that a common long-term consensus about the future of nuclear weapons will take time and effort to forge, the short-term common goal should be the prevention of nuclear war. The question that then follows is whether the system of controls we have created to prevent nuclear war is fit for purpose or whether our luck will finally run out.
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Rogers Brubaker: Politics and Governance in the Digital Era: Between Populism and Technocracy
Wednesday, March 18
7pm
BC, Devlin Hall, 110V, 255 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at http://lhs-rogersbrubaker.eventbrite.com
Rogers Brubaker is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UCLA, where he holds the UCLA Foundation Chair. He has written widely on social theory, citizenship, nationalism, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, populism, and digital hyperconnectivity. His recent books include Grounds for Difference, Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities, and, most recently, Hyperconnectivity and Its Discontents, which treats digital hyperconnectivity as a “total social fact” and addresses transformations of the self, social interaction, culture, economics, and politics.
Brubaker has taught at UCLA since 1991 and was previously a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University. He has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Wissenschaftskolleg of Berlin. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
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Killers of Roe
Wednesday, March 18
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amy-littlefield-killers-of-roe-tickets-1980896907976
Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of Killers of Roe with author Amy Littlefield.
A reporter and abortion access correspondent investigates the secret killers and hidden motives behind the death of abortion rights.
They are going to kill people, investigative reporter for The Nation Amy Littlefield knew, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. After a decade covering abortion, she wanted to more deeply understand the motives, means, and opportunities behind the antiabortion movement’s victory. So she set out to investigate the murderers of Roe.
Killers of Roe chronicles Littlefield’s journey into the unexplored corners of the most successful social movement of our time. As in every good murder mystery, the killers turn out to be the people you least suspect. Plot twists lurk around every corner as Littlefield meets believers, opportunists, and complicated heroes. Along the way, she encounters surprising characters who shed light on how we got to this moment of authoritarian rule: from the former fetus keeper standing trial in Michigan to the antiabortion militant turned long shot presidential candidate to the pro-choice superfans at the Reagan Library. Throughout the book, Littlefield draws upon women’s stories and her own experience as a mother to reveal the life-and-death stakes of America’s abortion wars.
At once clever and poignant reportage, this abortion whodunit uncovers the deeper story of how we lost Roe—and how we will win back so much more.
Amy Littlefield has reported on abortion rights for more than a decade. She is the abortion access correspondent for The Nation. She has contributed to The New York Times Opinion section and wrote the Times’ Sunday Review cover story “Where the Pro-Choice Movement Went Wrong.” She is a frequent commentator on abortion for TV and radio news outlets and podcasts, including MSNBC and Democracy Now! Littlefield was a lead reporter and narrator on episodes for Reveal, the national investigative journalism show. She lives in Boston with her family.
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Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How it Could Save Democracy
Wednesday, March 18
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Pepper Culpepper—Blavatnik Professor of Government and Public Policy, Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford, and Vice-Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government—and Taeku Lee—Bae Family Professor of Government at Harvard University and President-Elect of the American Political Science Association—for a discussion of their new book Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How it Could Save Democracy.
About Billionaire Backlash
The surprising story of how corporate scandals like the Lehman Shock and the Facebook data scandal change the way the world works—for the better.
Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee draw on a decade of research on policymaking and public opinion to show us how scandals can ignite a public with few political outlets for their discontent. Scandal no longer just dominates news cycles, they can inspire us to change policy, spur governments to action the rules that exist to protect us.
Today it is giant companies, not governments, who run the world. They put rockets into space, control satellite communication and develop era-defining AI technologies. But around the globe, these corporate titans are facing increasing public hostility.
Tech giants are accused of promoting misinformation, debasing democracy and violating our privacy. Big banks, reeling since the financial crisis of 2008, are racked with major scandals - from fraud to money laundering. But these terrible scandals are not just symptoms of a careless corporate elite, they are opportunities for real political change. Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee reveal how the anger of citizens can be channeled into a backlash that has the potential to reinvigorate our failing democracies. One corporate scandal at a time.
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The Clough Symposium on Democratic Resilience
Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20
140 Commonwealth Ave, 2101 Commonwealth Ave, adjacent to McMullen Art Museum & Gasson 100, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJjMFZbvCqPKphZTrM1YMoRWQS4fy2qD-d41RWkSY7rwUBbg/viewform
More information at https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/clough/events/spring-symposium-2026
On March 19-20, the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College will host our annual Spring Symposium, the major event of our program year. Focused on this year’s theme, Democratic Resilience, the Symposium will feature Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu of MIT, Ross Douthat of The New York Times, Harvard's Steven Levitsky, and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen – among many others. The Symposium’s panels will grapple with an array of diverse topics, including:
Education and free speech as forces for democratic resilience;
The impact of international development on democratization; and
Democracy and its prospects in the Americas, Ireland, and beyond.
Keynote Speaker: Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics
Guest Speakers:
Steven Levitsky, Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Harvard University
Ross Douthat, Opinion columnist, The New York Times
Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School
Guy Beiner, Professor of Irish Studies, Boston College
Mary C. Murphy, Director of the Irish Institute, Boston College
Robert Savage, Professor of Modern Irish, British and Atlantic World History, Boston College
This exciting and timely event is open to the public.
Democracy–the rule of the many–is a fragile thing, tending, as the greatest political minds have always known, toward rule by the few. At its best, constitutional democracy protects popular government while safeguarding individual freedoms, yet even durable constitutions may erode under pressures from above or below. In the 2025-2026 academic year, the Clough Center will investigate the theme of democratic resilience: the capacity of democratic institutions and peoples to endure economic strain, demographic shifts, stark cultural and political polarization, and numerous other challenges.
As we enter the second quarter of the century, we are bringing together scholars and students, commentators and thought leaders, to consider the forces that bolster–and those that undermine–democratic resilience. Which institutions promote long-term democracy? How do ideas and values shape and support democratic rule? When are democratic governance and individual rights mutually reinforcing, and when must the one give way to the other? The Clough Center invites the Boston College community and the interested public to join us in March as we examine the past and present of democratic resilience.
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Global Nature Watch: AI-Powered Insights for Nature in Africa—and Beyond
Thursday, March 19
8am - 9am ET [2:00 - 3:00pm WAT]
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/3/global-nature-watch-ai-powered-insights-nature-africa-and-beyond
The next era of environmental intelligence is here — faster, sharper, more accessible and built for impact. This webinar explores Global Nature Watch, an experimental new AI-powered land monitoring system that brings powerful new ways to understand our planet’s changing landscapes, including in Africa.
Launched in September 2025, Global Nature Watch is an experimental, open, AI-powered system that combines peer-reviewed research from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch in a simple chat-style interface, with the aim of making landscape monitoring more comprehensive, faster and easier, helping people protect and restore ecosystems, support livelihoods and address climate challenges.
This session features a guided walkthrough and live demo of the platform, highlights from early users, and dedicated time for Q&A. We’ll demonstrate how Global Nature Watch can be used to explore ecosystem change—from forests to grasslands, croplands and other landscapes—using maps, statistics and context drawn from peer-reviewed data from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch, with examples tailored to the African context.
Whether you’re working to restore landscapes, protect ecosystems or strengthen data-driven decision-making, this webinar offers a practical look at how AI and open data can support monitoring and decision-making on today’s urgent land and climate challenges. Global Nature Watch is currently in preview, and your feedback will help shape what comes next.
About Global Nature Watch
Global Nature Watch is an experimental, open, AI-powered system that combines peer-reviewed research from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch in a simple, chat-style interface. Users can ask questions in plain language in over 100 languages and receive responses backed by data from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch, supported by maps, statistics and context. Integrating near-real-time and annual satellite data, it reveals change across ecosystems, from forests to grasslands, croplands and other landscapes. As the platform continues to improve, it aims to make monitoring more comprehensive, faster and easier, helping people protect and restore ecosystems, support livelihoods and address climate challenges.
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Convergent Conversations: Nature-Based Solutions for Economic Development
Boston University Institute for Global SustainabilityBoston, MA
Thursday, March 19
12 pm to 1 pm
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/convergent-conversations-nature-based-solutions-for-economic-development-tickets-1983124530856
Join us for a new event series to build interdisciplinary research connections across BU that address real-world challenges.
The Convergent Conversations event series, hosted by Boston University's Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), aims to forge new connections through meaningful dialogue. Each event will feature BU faculty members from different disciplines as well as voices from organizations to address the potential impact of the research.
The series begins with “Scaling Nature-Based Solutions for Economic Development” on March 19.
Speakers include:
Kevin Gallagher (Professor, Global Development Policy, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies; Director, Global Development Policy Center; IGS Affiliated Faculty);
Lucy Hutyra (Distinguished Professor and Chair, Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences; IGS Core Faculty); and
Frances Seymour (Senior Policy Advisor, Woodwell Climate Research Center).
This conversation will be moderated by Pamela Templer (Distinguished Professor and Chair, Biology, College of Arts & Sciences; IGS Core Faculty).
Lunch will be served. This event was co-organized with BU's Global Development Policy Center,
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Takeaways from Davos on AI Trends: world models, physical AI and autonomous warfare
Thursday, March 19
7:00pm to 9:00pm EDT
MIY, Building 32, 32-G449 Kiva, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
And online
RSVP at https://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/9517697066024/WN_asJFGtuGSUG_x7fw8jL30Q
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
We may make some auxiliary material such as slides and access to the recording available after the seminar to people who have registered.
Abstract: Paul Baier publishes an online (daily/weekly) newsletter about what's going on in the AI universe.
https://www.gaiinsights.com He was also a moderator for several panels in the Dome at Davos during the Imagination in Action event in January.
I had asked him to give a talk about his impressions from Davos, but I think he'll also include some more general comments about other things happening in the AI world.
He will also tell us about some of his recent work on the OpenClaw project and personal agents.
Bio: Paul Baier is the CEO and principal analyst at GAI Insights. He is a seasoned software entrepreneur with two decades of experience and multiple exits. Related to AI, he was VP of Product at First Fuel Software, an enterprise AI company for 5 years. Mr Baier co-authored 3 articles about enterprise GenAI that were featured in Harvard Business Review. He was appointed an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and is a Forbes contributor. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA from Kenyon College.
He was part of the Imagination in Action group that organized presentations in the Dome at Davos on AI and the future of Technology and also led some panels there. We are anxious to hear his impressions from the conference and what it all means.
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New England Energy Roundtable
Friday, March 20
9 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Blvd, 17th Floor Boston, MA 02210
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-20-26-new-england-energy-roundtable-tickets-1981878845979
Cozt: $0 - $110
Keynote from ISO New England’s Vamsi Chadalavada: Panels on Energy Affordability in New England
Co-Moderators: Matt Nelson and Lauren Gage
Convener: Apex Analytics, LLC / Host: Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, 17th Floor
AGENDA:
8:00 Breakfast Refreshments and Networking
9:00 Introduction by Co-Moderator, Matt Nelson
9:05 Keynote: Vamsi Chadalavada, President/CEO, ISO-NE
9:25 Laying the Groundwork: Energy Affordability & Cost Drivers
Elin Swanson Katz, Founder, Blue Swan Energy Strategies
Dr. Ryan Wiser, Senior Scientist and Advisor, LBNL
James Bride, President, Energy Tariff Experts, LLC
Moderator: Lauren Gage
10:30 Break
11:00 Policy Paths on Affordability
Jeremy McDiarmid, Chair, MA DPU
Mary Wambui, Director, Planning Office for Urban Affairs
Caitlin Peale Sloan, VP for Climate & Energy, CLF
Penni Conner, EVP, Cust. Exp. & Energy Strategy, Eversource
Moderator: Matt Nelson
12:30 Adjourn
The on-demand video will be available to stream about a week after the Roundtable. Registration information will be posted on our website along with slides, speaker bios and other materials from the event. This will be free for Sponsors and for those who paid to attend in person or to livestream. On-demand viewing costs $55 for non-Sponsors.
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Climate & Agroecology
Friday, March 20
12 pm to 3 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-agroecology-tickets-1397747122269
Donate: $5
Climate, Readiness, Solidarity & Rights for All: UNITED ACTIONS for a Just & Regenerative Future
The Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force presents:
Climate & Agroecology
Progam in progress, stay tuned!
Plea$e DONATE!
Website: https://cemtf.org
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On Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention
Saturday, March 21
3:00pm - 5:00pm
United Parish in Brookline, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-harm-reduction-and-overdose-prevention-tickets-1981585464467
Join Brookline Booksmith at United Parish in Brookline for a conversation and workshop on harm reduction and overdose prevention. Learn more about preventing overdose in our communities through harm reduction. This event will feature a conversation with Warm Up Boston and Safe Spot on advocating for safer city policies regarding drug use, and how practicing harm reduction fosters community. The event will also include an overdose response demonstration with the Brookline Public Health Department.
Featured tabling guests include Comfort Zone Camps, the Black Seed Writers Group, the Brookline Public Health Department, Warm Up Boston, and more.
This event is made possible through the Carla Gray Memorial Scholarship for Emerging Bookseller-Activists.
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Tipping points webinar series: Glacier loss in Alaska
Monday, March 23
12pm - 1:30pm ET [18:00-19:30 CET]
Online
RSVP at https://iiasa.ac.at/events/mar-2026/tipping-points-webinar-series-glacier-loss-in-alaska
In this installment of the Tipping points webinar series, researchers and community-engaged scholars will explore what rapid glacier loss means for Alaska in terms of the reshaping of landscapes, livelihoods, and ways of life.
Glaciers in the US state of Alaska are changing faster than at any point in human history. From accelerating ice loss to cascading impacts on ecosystems, hazards, and Indigenous ways of life, glacier retreat in Alaska is pushing the region toward critical tipping points.
In this webinar, researchers and community-engaged scholars explore what rapid glacier loss means for Alaska today and tomorrow. Drawing on satellite observations, field research, Western science, and Tlingit oral traditions, the talks will examine both the physical processes driving glacier change and the profound cultural, ecological, and social consequences that follow.
Agenda
Bethan Davis (Newcastle University): Accelerating Loss of Alaskan Glaciers
Judith Daxootsu Ramos (University of Alaska Southeast) and Annika Ord (Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center): Community and Cultural Impacts of Glacier Loss in Southeast and Coastal Alaska
Followed by a moderated discussion with Donovan Dennis (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
A recorded version of the webinar will be available afterwards.
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The Taken-for-Granted Transition: How Talk of Decarbonization Shifts Attention Away From It”
Monday, March 23
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
Online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/the-taken-for-granted-transition-how-talk-of-decarbonization-shifts-attention-away-from-it/
Ankit Bhardwaj, college fellow of Sociology for Northwestern University, will present “The Taken-for-Granted Transition: How Talk of Decarbonization Shifts Attention Away From It.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Democratic responses to climate change will be determined by how institutions such as deliberative bodies make sense of decarbonization. In a novel ethnography of the deliberations to achieve New York’s climate target, one of the world’s most ambitious, Bhardwaj show how norms of talk shape how people temporally coordinate action to reduce emissions.
In a micro-interactional analysis of more than 300 hours of deliberation from 2020 to 2024, I point to a yet-considered challenge of decarbonization: agreement on near-term action such as the urgent buildout of renewables can be taken-for-granted, shifting attention to disagreements over later steps of action. For example, energy firms pointed to the lack of reliability of a renewable-heavy grid with less dispatchable energy. State officials expressed confidence in the achievement of short-term goal and the need to prudently plan for the long-term one. Climate advocates were split in their focus but were drawn to disagree over the “false solutions” for zero-emissions proposed by energy firms. Even when groups agreed to build renewable energy, they focused over disagreements of the challenges once they were built. By understanding decarbonization as a challenge of temporal coordination, I argue that democratic politics of climate change are not just characterized by obstruction and delay but cultural norms of talk. I make the case that democratic institutions should be bound to short-term goals.
Bhardwaj is an environmental sociologist who uses qualitative methods to research how democracies respond to climate change. Ankit’s book project details the case of New York, as it pursued one of the world’s most ambitious emission-reduction mandates, building on his research on India’s climate governance at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. His award-winning work has been published in Sociological Theory, Environmental Politics, and Environmental Research Letters, amongst other venues. He received his PhD from New York University’s Department of Sociology.
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Harness Social Media for Climate Action
Tuesday, March 24
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/harness-social-media-for-climate-action-tickets-1982360645053
Learn about using social media for environmental campaigns!
During this webinar we will hear from 3 inspiring climate activists who use the powers of communication and social media to work towards a liveable planet for all.
The speakers are the following:
Tamara, an award winning young climate activist, Climate Clock Ambassador and peer mentor
Tamara will talk about when and how she started her activism and how she gained recognition. She will also tell about the impact and challenges of using social media to promote her climate activism. Finally, this young and inspiring person will also share her hopes for the future.
Laura Anderson, Scottish Environmental Scientist, Campaigner and Influencer
Laura will introduce us to her work and her journey into social media and how she turned her online work into action on the ground. She will share how examples of social media being effective in her work and what challenges she faces when using this communication tool. We will also learn about the importance of privacy and boundaries when working online.
Anne, Broadcaster, Human Rights and Climate Change activist
Anne will tell us about her work, and being Tamara's mother, she will also share her insight into supporting a young climate activist with social media presence.
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How to Love a Forest
Tuesday, March 24
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://sustainability.psu.edu/event/sustainability-showcase-keynote-ethan-tapper-forester-and-author-of-how-to-love-a-forest/
Join Sustain Penn State for its next speaker coming to Penn State as part of its Sustainability Showcase Series.
Ethan Tapper is an experienced forester and author of the bestselling book How to Love a Forest. He is successfully remediating problems such as invasive species in a 175-acre forest he named Bear Island in Vermont.
Tapper will visit Penn State on March 23 and 24 for a keynote talk, conversations with Penn State classes and groups, and a book reading.
His keynote is on Tuesday, March 24, at 4 pm in Kern 112 (and online) and is free and open to all. Pre-registration is required for online attendance at our Ethan Tapper keynote registration page.
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An Air Conditioner or a Sink?: The Bioclimatic Value of Rainforests, 1980-2000
Tuesday, March 24
5:00 PM - 6:15 PM EDT
Mass Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
And online
RSVP at https://www.masshist.org/events/lucier-environmental-seminar
Oliver Lucier, Yale University
Comment: Andrew S. Mathews, University of California Santa CruzThis seminar will workshop a work in progress.
The event is hybrid and free of charge. An in-person reception will begin at 4:30 PM.
Register to attend in person
Register to attend online
In the 1980s climate scientists and ecologists began to study the relationship between forests, particularly the Brazilian rainforest, and anthropogenic climate change. This paper identifies how these scientists developed two contrasting models to highlight the bioclimatic value of rainforests: the air-conditioner and the sink. Whereas climate scientists largely highlighted the role of the Amazon in ensuring cool temperatures and frequent precipitation (an air conditioner), ecologists focused on the role of the Amazon in sequestering carbon (a carbon sink). Although frequently aligning with the rainforest biodiversity movement, these bioclimatic valuations of the rainforest sometimes contrasted in both means and ultimate goals. Indeed, the ability of models of carbon sinks to simplify and quantify the diverse rainforest environment allowed for the development of a global carbon offset market by the mid-1990s. This paper seeks to understand this shift, analyzing why carbon sequestration quickly became one of the largest drivers of land conservation in the tropics.
Join the conversation at the Environmental History Seminar.
Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. Learn more.
Purchasing the $25 seminar subscription gives you advance access to the seminar papers of all seven seminar series for the current academic year. Subscribe at www.masshist.org/research/seminars. Subscribers for the current year may login to view currently available essays.
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Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance
Tuesday, March 24
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Cindy Cohn—Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation—for a discussion of her new book, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance. She will be joined in conversation by Jonathan Zittrain—George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, director of the Harvard Law School Library, and co-founder and director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
About Privacy's Defender
A personal chronicle of three key legal privacy battles that have defined the digital age and shaped the internet as we know it.
From a seasoned leader in the field of digital privacy rights.
Throughout her career, Cindy Cohn has been driven by a fundamental question: Can we still have private conversations if we live our lives online? Privacy’s Defender chronicles her thirty-year battle to protect our right to digital privacy and shows just how central this right is to all our other rights, including our ability to organize and make change in the world.
Shattering the hypermasculine myth that our digital reality was solely the work of a handful of charismatic tech founders, the author weaves her own personal story with the history of Crypto Wars, FBI gag orders, and the post-9/11 surveillance state. She describes how she became a seasoned leader in the early digital rights movement, as well as how this work serendipitously helped her discover her birth parents and find her life partner. Along the way, she also details the development of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which she grew from a ragtag group of lawyers and hackers into one of the most powerful digital rights organizations in the world.
Part memoir and part legal history for the general reader, the book is a compelling testament to just how hard-won the privacy rights we now enjoy as tech users are, but also how crucial these rights are in our efforts to combat authoritarianism, grow democracy, and strengthen other human rights.
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The American Revolution: Lessons for the 250th
Wednesday, March 25
11:30 AM–1 PM ET
Harvard, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://harvardradcliffeinstitute.formstack.com/forms/2026_ken_burns_panel
The American Revolution, directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe. Join the filmmakers and Harvard historians featured in the film, Annette Gordon-Reed, Philip Deloria, and Vincent Brown, for a conversation about America at 250, including how the American Revolution changed how we think about government—creating new ideas about liberty, freedom, and democracy.
To learn more about Harvard in 1776 and their series of events and conversations about America’s founding and Harvard’s role in it, please visit their website: https://1776.history.fas.harvard.edu/
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Lecture: David Rohde, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Wednesday, March 25
6:30pm to 8:00pm EDT
BU, Questrom School of Business,595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
Remarks by David Rohde: 2026 Writer in Residence, College of Communication, and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
About David Rohde:
David’s multi-decade career in journalism includes senior positions with The New York Times, The New Yorker, Reuters, and The Christian Science Monitor, and his current role as a senior executive editor with NBC News (with weekly appearances on MS-NOW). He’s also held teaching positions with Brown University and CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. In addition to his two Pulitzers for international reporting and another for his co-editing work of Ronan Farrow’s investigative series of Harvey Weinstein’s abuses, David has also written five acclaimed books on political and international affairs.
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Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Wednesday, March 25
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes David Blumenthal—Professor of the Practice of Public Health and Health Policy at Harvard University—and James A. Morone—John Hazen White Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Public Policy, and Urban Studies at Brown University—for a discussion of their book, Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science. They will be joined in conversation by Rick Berke—co-founder and executive editor of STAT.
About Whiplash
Based on extensive inside sources, a revealing account of how the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations transformed both health care and politics in America.
For nearly a century, every Democratic president—and many Republicans—entered office promising to restructure America’s health care system. Barack Obama finally broke through but, in the process, opened a tumultuous decade in which battles over health care dominated American politics. David Blumenthal and James A. Morone go behind the scenes to describe how three very different presidents—pursuing very different goals—maneuvered through the fraught politics of health care.
President Obama ended the century-long quest for reform but ignited a screaming culture war that blazed into the Trump administration and blew up during the COVID epidemic. President Trump, facing the greatest health crisis in a century, denied and dithered. Then he directed a medical triumph in Operation Warp Speed. He and President Biden, facing the pandemic’s devastation, mounted the most successful anti-poverty program in eighty years. But in the tumult, Trump launched a shattering new political war, not over coverage but over science itself.
Authoritative and gripping, this book describes the remarkable achievements of these years while also showing how respect for science clashed with scorn toward the deep state and left the nation unprepared for the next health crisis.
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Mediterranean summer marine heatwaves
Thursday, March 26
5 am to 5:45 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.dk/e/mediterranean-summer-marine-heatwaves-tickets-1864392992629
Part of the Climate Coffees Series: Talks on and about climate collection
Mediterranean summer marine heatwaves triggered by weaker winds under subtropical ridges
Marine heatwaves, extended periods of elevated sea surface temperature, impact society and ecosystems, and a deeper understanding of their drivers is needed to predict and mitigate adverse effects. These events can be particularly severe in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer, although the factors controlling their occurrence and duration are not fully understood. Here, we use a comprehensive multi-decadal macroevent dataset and a cluster analysis to investigate the atmospheric dynamics preceding the largest summer marine heatwaves in the Mediterranean Sea. Our study identifies the favourable conditions leading up to marine heatwave peaks and reveals that their main synoptic cause in the Mediterranean Sea is the combined effect of persistent subtropical anticyclonic ridges and associated weakening of prevailing wind systems. When persistent subtropical ridges are established over the region, the resulting decrease in wind speeds reduces latent heat loss to the atmosphere, which accounts for over 70% of the total heat flux in affected regions. This reduction, combined with a moderate increase in short-wave radiation, generates and intensifies marine heatwaves. This synergistic relationship is a key mechanism for skilfully predicting such atmospheric circulation patterns and realistically simulating their impacts on the marine environment.
Giulia will be presenting the results consolidated in her recent publication:
Bonino, G., McAdam, R., Athanasiadis, P. et al. Mediterranean summer marine heatwaves triggered by weaker winds under subtropical ridges. Nat. Geosci. 18, 848–853 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01762-9
Our speaker
Giulia Bonino is a research scientist at CMCC. She graduated from the PhD program in Science and Management of Climate Change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice/CMCC, focusing on the variability of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) within an ocean modelling framework (NEMO). She has a strong background in physical oceanography and marine extremes (e.g., marine heatwaves), developed through projects such as FEVERSEA and ObsSea4Clim, and is gaining expertise in coupled physical-biogeochemical coastal modelling through international projects like NECCTON and ACTNOW.
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Farmers are Businesspeople Too: Supporting the Local Food System through Investment and Value-Added Production
Thursday, March 26
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BT_XdBpVTS2fbceT0MWXEw#/registration
No one ever got into farming because it was a guaranteed money maker. Most farmers do what they do because they’re stewards of the land and enjoy feeding their community. However, farms are still businesses and have unique needs for how they operate. For the last 46 years, Franklin County Community Development Corporation (FCCDC) has supported the business of farming through providing business planning technical assistance (TA) and small business loans to farms throughout western Massachusetts. FCCDC has innovated programming to meet the unique needs of farmers, namely a facility and specialized support for value-added production, and a dedicated loan fund to increase the availability of capital. The Western MA Food Processing Center (WMFPC) helps farmers turn their crops into value-added products via co-packing services, rental manufacturing space, and guidance to help them succeed. Furthermore, the PVGrows Investment Fund pools together financial investments from community members to provide the capital needed for farmers to sustain and grow their businesses. This lecture will cover FCCDC’s history as a local lender, specifically in food systems, FCCDC’s role in managing the PVGrows Investment Fund and how it works, and the role of the WMFPC in the local food system.
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A Fresh Start for Our Cities
Thursday, March 26
6:30 pm to 8 pm
Harvard University Graduate School Of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Piper Auditorium Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-mckibben-a-fresh-start-for-our-cities-tickets-1981196707685
McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a founder of Third Act.
Livestream Link: This event will be in person and livestreamed. The livestream is available at the top of this page: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/a-fresh-start-for-our-cities/
Please note: RSVP does not guarantee entry, which is filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Doors open 15 minutes before the event begins, so be sure to arrive early.
About This Event
For over 40 years, Bill McKibben has been raising the alarm about the climate crisis, starting with his groundbreaking book, The End of Nature. Now McKibben says, for once in his life, he is spreading good news. In his latest book, Here Comes the Sun, he explains why the recent boom in solar and wind power has given him hope for the planet's future, and he implores everyone to buy in. We hope you can join us for this inspiring and important conversation.
Speaker
Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He's also won the Gandhi Peace Award and received honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written more than 20 books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened, and his latest, Here Comes the Sun.
Read more at: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/a-fresh-start-for-our-cities/
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The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America
Thursday, March 26
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store and the Harvard Defenders welcome Emily Galvin Alamanza—co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model designed to empower public defenders nationwide—for a discussion of her new book, The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America. She will be joined in conversation by Laurence Tribe—Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University.
About The Price of Mercy
A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite—and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it.
As Americans, we are told a rose-tinted story about our criminal courts—that these are the hallowed halls of justice, that the purpose of our legal process is to find the truth, and that those who enforce the law are both equitable and heroic. But what if the reality is purposely obscured to hide something rotten at the system’s core?
In The Price of Mercy, attorney and former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza weaves hard data and unforgettable stories, dark humor and compelling evidence to tell us the truth about what’s really going on behind the closed doors of America’s criminal courts. She shows us how jails actually increase future crime, the dirty tricks police use to make millions in overtime pay, how a man could spend decades in prison because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, the perverse incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions even when they don’t want to, and how judges may decide cases differently before and after lunch.
We’ll learn what’s working, too: how public defenders can improve public health and even economic mobility, and how planting more trees can reduce a neighborhood’s murder rates. But a lone defender winning a case won’t change the system. Galvin Almanza argues that we need an engaged public to confront the stark reality of our crime-generating, poverty-entrenching, health-destroying legal apparatus and rebuild it into something that can save our collective present and prevent our future from being torn apart.
Provocative and eye-opening, The Price of Mercy lifts the curtain on the way our laws really operate and presents a path forward for true transformation of the American criminal court system. Justice, and the law itself, is not some static thing. It is something enacted together, decision by decision, in acts of inhumanity or mercy.
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Stuck—How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress
Thursday, March 26
8:30pm ET [5:30 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-03-26/dr-maya-kornberg-stuck-how-money-media-and-violence-prevent-change-congress
Cost: $10 -$22
Congress has long been a punching bag for American dissatisfaction with their government or with the direction of the country. But its unpopularity keeps plumbing new depths, even as the major party polarization has strengthened. In short, Congress—the central democratic institution in the country—is hanging on by a thread. But its biggest liability might be its inability to reform itself.
Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, has explored the ways that Congress has become increasingly inhospitable to change. The “Watergate babies” of 1974, the Contract with America conservatives of 1994, and the historic 2018 class fueled by backlash to Donald Trump all represent younger, more diverse, and less entrenched members who arrived in the capital energized and idealistic. Today, Dr. Kornberg says political violence, astronomical campaign costs, relentless fundraising demands, shrinking staff, and centralized party leadership all constrain the ability of new members to legislate and represent their constituents. Social media, while offering new platforms for political expression, has also heightened harassment and fed a performative culture that rewards spectacle over substance.
Kornberg talked with dozens of individuals, examined congressional records, and heard from lawmakers past and present—including Henry Waxman, Toby Moffett, Phil English, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lauren Underwood. She presents her findings in her new book Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress. In it, she chronicles the efforts of congressional reformers over the last 50 years and documents the mounting forces that have kept their reforms from creating meaningful change. Come hear her talk about the sobering portrait that emerged of a legislative body paralyzed by its own internal dynamics.
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Peatlands: Nature’s Biggest Carbon Vault
Friday, March 27
9 am to 10 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peatlands-natures-biggest-carbon-vault-tickets-1982961321693
Discover why peatlands are one of Earth’s most powerful natural climate solutions.
Peatlands cover just a small fraction of the planet’s surface, yet they store more carbon than all the world’s forests combined. These waterlogged landscapes – from blanket bogs in the UK to tropical peat swamp forests – are nature’s biggest carbon vault, quietly locking away carbon for thousands of years.
In this accessible, visually rich webinar, environmental scientist Dr Sarah Cook (University of Warwick) will take you inside these remarkable ecosystems. Drawing on her fieldwork across Southeast Asia, Dr Cook will explore what happens when peatlands are drained, burned or converted to agriculture and why these changes can turn peatlands from carbon sinks into major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
What you’ll learn
By the end of the webinar, you will:
Understand what peatlands are, where they are found, and why they are among the world’s most important carbon stores.
See how carbon moves through peatland systems – from plants and peat to rivers and the atmosphere – and why microbes are central to this story.
Learn how drainage, deforestation, fire and plantation agriculture can turn peatlands from carbon sinks into major greenhouse gas sources.
Explore case studies from tropical peatlands, including carbon losses from drained peat and oil palm plantations.
Explore how restoration, protection and better accounting of peatland emissions can support climate goals and more resilient ecosystems.
Leave with ideas for how individuals, communities and organisations in the UK can support peatland-friendly policies and projects.
There will also be time for audience questions and discussion.
Who is this for?
This webinar is open to anyone across the UK (and beyond) with an interest in:
Nature, climate change and environmental issues
Conservation, land use and nature-based solutions
Geography, biology, environmental science or sustainability education
Policy, planning, farming, forestry, water management or environmental NGOs
You don’t need a science background to take part.
About the speaker
Dr Sarah Cook is an environmental scientist and field researcher in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. Her work focuses on human–ecosystem interactions, with particular expertise in tropical peatland ecology and the role of freshwater ecosystems in the global carbon cycle.
Her research includes leading and contributing to projects on fluvial organic carbon fluxes from tropical peatland plantations and the impacts of land-use change on greenhouse gas emissions and water quality. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Southeast Asia and collaborates across disciplines to inform conservation, climate mitigation and sustainable management of peatland landscapes.
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Data + Donuts: AI Policy and Civil Rights
Friday, March 27
10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Harvard Kennedy School, Wexner 434 AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/data-donuts-ai-policy-and-civil-rights'
SPEAKER(S) Marissa Kumar Gerchick, Data Science Manager & Algorithmic Justice Specialist, American Civil Liberties Union; Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Marissa Kumar Gerchick is a public interest technologist, data scientist, and researcher focused on accountability in artificial intelligence (AI) systems. She'll speak about the civil rights implications of AI and how she and her team build technology to empower civil rights litigators.
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The Massachusetts Urban Farming Symposium
Satrurday, March 28
UMASS Boston Campus Center
RSVP at https://www.urbanfarminginstitute.org/mass-urban-farming-symposium
Cost: $25 - $75
The Massachusetts Urban Farming Symposium is a one-day, in-person convening bringing together urban farmers, growers, youth, policymakers, and local government leaders from across the Commonwealth. Hosted by the Urban Farming Institute (UFI) in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), the symposium focuses on strengthening resilient, locally rooted food systems through farmer leadership, collaboration, and practical action.
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When Bioeconomy Meets Carbon Removal: Insights from Integrated Systems Modeling
Monday, March 30
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton. NJ
Online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/when-bioeconomy-meets-carbon-removal-insights-from-integrated-systems-modeling/
Yuan Yao, associate professor of Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Systems for Yale University, will present “When Bioeconomy Meets Carbon Removal: Insights from Integrated Systems Modeling.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
The bioeconomy aims to replace fossil-based, non-renewable products with those derived from biological resources and processes. The bioeconomy intersects with carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through nature-based and engineered pathways such as afforestation/reforestation, biochar, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. Leveraging the bioeconomy for effective CDR requires a comprehensive understanding of the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of diverse biomass pathways, as well as their CDR effectiveness across different technologies, regions, and timeframes. However, acquiring these insights is challenging due to limited knowledge of system-wide effects and the lack of robust assessment methodologies across spatial and temporal dimensions. This talk will present transdisciplinary, multi-scale systems modeling frameworks developed by Dr. Yao’s research group to address these critical knowledge and methodological gaps. These frameworks systematically integrate industrial ecology approaches, such as life cycle assessment and material flow analysis, with methods from other disciplines, including machine learning, engineering process modeling, and economic-ecological modeling. Through several case studies, the presentation will demonstrate how these integrated frameworks enhance our fundamental understanding of the interconnected ecological, industrial, and economic systems across various scales. Furthermore, the talk will discuss policy implications and illustrate how these frameworks can inform system-level design for a resource-efficient, climate-beneficial bioeconomy that aligns with global sustainability goals.
Yao is an Associate Professor of Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Systems at Yale University. Her research focuses on understanding the potential environmental impacts of emerging technologies and biomass utilization. Dr. Yao received many awards, including the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 35 Under 35 Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Laudise Medal from the International Society of Industrial Ecology. Dr. Yao is the associate editor for the journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling. She served on the provisional committee of the U.S. National Academies to assess current life-cycle analysis methods for low-carbon transportation fuels in the United States. Her research has been published in high-impact journals, such as Science, Nature Sustainability, Nature Chemical Engineering, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University.
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Tracy Palandjian on Investing in Opportunity
Monday, March 30
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-event-tracy-palandjian-on-investing-in-opportunity-tickets-1981350168691
A Conversation with David Rubenstein
RESCHEDULED - New Date: Monday, March 30th
If you previously RSVP'd for the original event date of February 23rd, your registration remains valid and no further action is required.
Join the Stone Social Impact Forum for a timely conversation with Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance, on the role of finance in expanding economic opportunity and building pathways to upward mobility.
Over the past fifteen years, Palandjian has been at the forefront of impact investing and cross-sector collaboration, helping to design and scale new models to deliver better outcomes in workforce development, health, housing, and education.
In a fireside conversation moderated by David M. Rubenstein—investor, philanthropist, author and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group—the discussion will explore how we can revitalize the American Dream through new paradigms for education and wealth building.
VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE
This event will be streamed live on the Kennedy Institute YouTube page. To register to receive a reminder with the link, click "Get Tickets" above and select "Virtual Attendee" as your ticket type.
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The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism
Monday, March 30
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Durba Mitra—Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University and award-winning author of Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought—for a discussion of her new book, The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism. She will be joined in conversation by Brandon M. Terry—John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and Codirector of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
About The Future That Was
How Third World women seized the means of knowledge production to fight against rising authoritarianism and imagine a future freer than our present.
Beginning in the 1970s, women of the decolonizing world offered new visions of liberation that centered the ideas and lives of women. Galvanized by International Women’s Year in 1975 and the UN’s Decade of Women, Third World women developed novel ideas of equality and self-determination, building a new internationalism in opposition to neocolonialism and postcolonial authoritarianism. In The Future That Was, feminist historian Durba Mitra offers a pathbreaking account of how these women wrote Third World feminism into being, catalyzing a momentous expansion of knowledge about women, gender, and sexuality that transformed emancipatory politics across the globe.
Mitra shows how women from former colonies in South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond envisioned a radically just world—and did so by insisting that research on the world’s women lay at the heart of debates about global inequality, development, and human rights. Women gathered at international conferences, wrote reports on the dangers facing women, and took to the streets in protest, building a world of knowledge that contested the devastating effects of patriarchy and colonialism. Yet, despite hundreds of laws, institutions, and publications created through the efforts of these women, the future they imagined was never fully realized. The Future That Was transforms the story of decolonization and its aftermath through the history and ideas of women. By excavating these vital pasts, Mitra shows how we might envision a future of our own that is freer than the present.
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From Learning to Action: Practical Steps Towards Climate Ready Facilities
Tuesday, March 31
5 am to 6 am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-learning-to-action-practical-steps-towards-climate-ready-facilities-tickets-1982494827396
A short, practical webinar for voluntary organisations managing buildings and spaces to consider climate readiness.
A short, practical webinar for voluntary organisations looking to build confidence around climate‑ready facilities. The session shares realistic tips and learning to help you understand your options and take your next steps. Led by Chiara Fingland from the Growing Climate Confidence project.
Many voluntary organisations are thinking about how their buildings and spaces can cope with a changing climate, from rising energy costs to overheating, flooding and extreme weather. This short, practical session focuses on realistic steps towards more climate‑ready, resilient facilities, rooted in the everyday realities of managing voluntary sector buildings.
The webinar brings together recent learning and conversations from across the sector, including the SCVO Gathering, and turns this into clear, tangible top tips that organisations can use to build confidence and take their next steps.
The session also links to the Growing Climate Confidence project, a partnership project supporting voluntary organisations across Scotland to build knowledge, confidence and practical skills to respond to climate change in ways that work for them.
What you’ll gain from this session
By the end of the webinar, you will:
Have a clearer understanding of what climate‑ready facilities mean in practice for voluntary organisations
Take away practical, achievable ideas to improve the resilience of your buildings and spaces
Feel more confident about where to start or what to do next, whatever your size or resources
Be better connected to support, learning and resources available through DTAS and partner projects
Who is it for?
This session is for voluntary and community organisations, including facilities managers, operational staff, managers, trustees and anyone with responsibility for buildings or spaces. You don’t need to have attended any previous events. This is a short, supportive session designed to help you build confidence and take your next steps.
About the speaker
Led by Chiara Fingland, Climate Development Officer, Growing Climate Confidence
Chiara Fingland works with voluntary organisations across Scotland to build confidence and practical skills around climate action as part of the Growing Climate Confidence project.
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Earth and Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation
Tuesday, March 31
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Geological Museum, 100 Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/andrew-h-knoll-at-the-harvard-geological-lecture-hall-tickets-1982828880558
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Andrew H. Knoll—Fisher Research Professor of Natural History and Earth and Planetary Sciences, Emeritus, at Harvard University, and author of A Brief History of Earth and Life on a Young Planet—for a discussion of his new book Earth and Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation. This event will take place at the Harvard Geological Museum, 100 Geological Lecture Hall located at 24 Oxford St, Cambridge.
About Earth and Life
From the world-renowned geobiologist and bestselling author of A Brief History of Earth, the epic story of a planetary conversation four billion years in the making.
How did the world as we know it—from the soil beneath our feet to the air we breathe and the life that surrounds us—come to be? Geologists have proposed one set of answers while biologists have proposed another. Earth and Life is the first book to reveal why we need to listen to both voices—the physical and the biological—to understand how we and our planet became possible.
In this captivating book, Andrew Knoll traces how all life is sustained by Earth’s geological and atmospheric dynamics, and how life itself shapes the physical environment. Taking readers on a thrilling journey across four billion years of Earth history, he shows how Earth and life interact to cycle the very elements of life from rocks, water, and air, and how these and related processes control our climate, regulate our atmosphere, and support the diversification of life-forms great and small. Along the way, Knoll explains how we can draw on this history as we navigate the challenges of the Anthropocene, and how it can aid our search for life elsewhere in the universe.
Blending cutting-edge science with illuminating insights from a leading expert, Earth and Life explains how this ongoing interplay holds vital lessons for us today as humanity becomes an increasingly major voice in the conversation.
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Ibram X. Kendi, author of Chain of Ideas
Tuesday, March 31
7:00pm (doors at 6:00 pm.)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/product/event-ticket-includes-book-ibram-x-kendi-first-parish
Cost: $45 (book included)
ABOUT CHAIN OF IDEAS
The National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginningcharts how “great replacement theory” has become a dominant political idea of our time and ushered in an antidemocratic age.
Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters across the globe—in Oslo, Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have expressed some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change.
The term was coined in 2011 by a French novelist who argued that Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” the White population. From there, politicians and theorists in the United States and elsewhere repackaged it as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and promoting diversity to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded those under threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India, all targeted with the message that they are facing an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent.
In Chain of Ideas, internationally bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. He is author of many highly acclaimed bestsellers including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.
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Politics and Culture from All Sides: The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion
Wednesday, April 1
12 – 1:15PM
Tufts, 5 The Green, Medford, MA 02155
What are the environmental costs of fast fashion?
Hosted by the newly established Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education (CEVIHE) at Tufts University, this weekly series invites Tufts faculty, students, and staff to explore politics and culture by reading controversial books and articles, engaging with faculty discussants and guest speakers, and discussing sensitive political, economic, and social issues with depth, humility, and courage. Each week, participants will encounter sophisticated arguments associated with a diversity of ideological, religious, and cultural worldviews. Lunch will be provided. Please see the workshop schedule here for more details, and please contact us if you want to participate so we can add you to the Canvas site.
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Polarization and International Politics
Wednesday, April 1
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
Rachel Myrick from Duke University will give a presentation at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.
Summary: Polarization is a defining feature of politics in the United States and many other democracies. Yet although there is much research focusing on the effects of polarization on domestic politics, little is known about how polarization influences international cooperation and conflict. Myrick argues that polarization reshapes the nature of constraints on democratic leaders, which in turn erodes the advantages democracies have in foreign affairs. Drawing on a range of evidence, including cross-national analyses, observational and experimental public opinion research, descriptive data on the behavior of politicians, and interviews with policymakers, Myrick traces the pathways by which polarization undermines each of the democratic advantages. Turning to the case of contemporary US foreign policy, Myrick shows that as its political leaders become less responsive to the public and less accountable to political opposition, the United States loses both reliability as an ally and credibility as an adversary.
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Then and Now: How Conservation Careers are Evolving
Thursday, April 2
12 – 1PM
Tufts, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pkis8_FaSnCqW3M1NB6CKw#/registration
The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) was founded in 1866 to address the loss of Atlantic salmon caused by dams and pollution. Over the last 160 years, MassWildlife has evolved into a modern, multifaceted conservation organization. In its early years, the agency’s work centered on managing game species that could be hunted or fished. Today, MassWildlife’s mission has broadened significantly, with responsibility for conserving all fish and wildlife, including rare plants and animals, and for protecting and restoring the habitats on which they depend. MassWildlife also manages over 235,000 acres for biodiversity conservation and outdoor recreation. To meet these expanding responsibilities, MassWildlife now employs a diverse workforce made up of biologists, foresters, ecologists, educators, communications professionals, and fiscal staff who all play essential roles. This evolution reflects a broader, modern understanding of conservation that integrates science, policy, land management, and public engagement to meet today’s complex environmental challenges.
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Data Centers in the AI Age: How To Up Reliability, Sustainability, and Scalable Innovation
Thursday, April 2
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/data-centers-in-the-ai-age-how-to-up-reliability-sustainability-and-scalable-innovation/
AI workloads are fundamentally changing data center requirements. Organizations now need higher performance, faster deployment, and more resilient infrastructure while managing increasingly complex supply chains and compressed timelines.
The challenge extends beyond technical capacity. Data center teams need to coordinate across land acquisition, equipment logistics, power infrastructure, and cooling systems, all while balancing reliability requirements with environmental impact. Traditional fragmented, region-by-region approaches aren’t keeping pace with these demands.
This webinar explores how organizations are building data center strategies that can scale with AI demand. The focus is on moving from reactive, regional planning to integrated approaches that reduce deployment timelines and improve operational resilience.
You’ll learn:
How to balance speed and reliability to improve data center sustainability and financial performance
What’s changing in data center planning as AI workloads scale globally
How to simplify supply chains and deployment models
How to adapt to compressed timelines without sacrificing resilience
If you can’t tune in live, register anyway and we’ll send you the recording. Trouble registering? Try switching your browser and double check that cookies are enabled. If you are still having issues, please contact support@trellis.net.
Speakers
Jake Mitchell, Director, Climate Tech Innovation, Trellis Group
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The Political Economy of Energy Transitions in the Middle East
Thursday, April 2
4:30 – 6 p.m.
Online
RSVP at https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/political-economy-energy-transitions-middle-east
SPEAKER(S) Melani Cammet, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government; Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Ezgi Canpolat, Visiting Scholar, CMES; AI for Social Good and Social Dimensions of Climate Lead, World Bank; Resident Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center.
Jeannie L Sowers, Visiting Scholar, CMES; Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, University of New Hampshire.
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Climate Change Negotiation Challenge
Friday, April 3
3 – 6PM
Tufts, Mugar Hall, 160R Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXBBn9HfOi7Kx0KwmTThbTaOel0PJL-EEZGw6hn8cr3QEWzw/viewform
The Climate Change Negotiation Challenge will be a round-based simulation activity pushing students to improve their negotiations skills while learning about contemporary and emerging environmental and climate change issues.
Join the Fletcher Energy & Environment Club (FLEEC) and the International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (INCR) Club on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Mugar 200 from 3 - 6 p.m. Dinner will be provided. All participants will receive a certificate of participation upon completion of the negotiation challenge.
Registration is free but required: the design of the negotiation is impacted by the number of participants. If you register you confirm that you will be available for the entire duration of the event.
The registration deadline for this event is March 27, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET.
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Swiftynomics
Friday, April 3
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/misty-l-heggeness-swiftynomics-tickets-1982906261005
Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of Swiftynomics with author Misty L. Heggeness
Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy
A feminist romp through pop culture that illuminates how women influence and shape the economy.
Taylor Swift isn't just a pop megastar. She is a working woman whose astounding accomplishments defy patriarchal norms. And while not all women can be Beyoncé or Dolly Parton or Reese Witherspoon, the successes of these trailblazing stars help us understand the central role of women in today's economy.
Swiftynomics assesses the complex economic lives of everyday American women through the stories of groundbreakers like Taylor Swift, Misty L. Heggeness digs into the data, revealing women's hidden contributions and aspirations—the unexamined value they create by pursuing their own ambitions. She highlights the abundance of productive activity in their daily lives and acknowledges the barriers they still face.
Exploring critical reforms regarding caregiving and gendered labor, this book offers advice for women to thrive in an economy that was not built for them.
Misty L. Heggeness is co-director of the Kansas Population Center, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the University of Kansas, and former Principal Economist and Senior Advisor at the US Census Bureau. She is also creator of The Care Board, a dashboard of economic statistics built by and for caregivers that brings their economic contributions into the fold.
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No!: The Art and Activism of Complaining
Monday, April 6
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Sara Ahmed—independent feminist scholar and author of eleven books, including The Feminist Killjoy Handbook—for a discussion of her new book, No!: The Art and Activism of Complaining. She will be joined in conversation by Durba Mitra—award-winning author of Indian Sex Life and The Future That Was.
About No!
To be heard as complaining is not to be heard, writes Sara Ahmed. In her sweeping exploration of complaint as a means of resistance, Ahmed attunes her “feminist ear” to those who seek to challenge powerful institutions. She shows how complaints can unbury past complaints, getting them out of filing cabinets or from behind closed doors, allowing us to see institutions more clearly—how they work, and for whom they work.
Where complaints live, how complaints are made, who receives them, who buries them and where—Ahmed’s accessible, attentive writing brings to life the lessons learned from people knocking at closed doors, teaching us how to collectively resist the glacial weight of institutional power. This book inspires all of us to persist, to say “No!” and to build new collectivities that break down brick walls together.
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