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 (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html).
A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn’t already been done.
If anyone knows of such a global listing of open energy, climate, and other events is available, please put me in contact.
Thanks for reading,
Solar IS Civil Defense,
George Mokray
gmoke@world.std.com
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency
http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com - zero net energy links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
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Index
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Green Transportation: Co-benefits for Climate, Air Quality, and the Economy
Monday, April 27
3 – 4 p.m.
Harvard, Pierce Hall Room 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
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When Acts of God Became Acts of Man: Floods, Property, and the Legal Origins of Climate Change in Houston
Monday, April 27
3:45 - 5pm EDT [12:45 - 2 p.m. PT]
UC Berkeley, 2240 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720
And online
RSVP at https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nsm7A7sYQyWbo3szBCasmg#/registration
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The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
Monday, April 27
6:00pm(doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chanda-prescod-weinstein-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1983282603656
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Growing Up Online: Interactive Media and Youth Well-Being
Monday, April 27
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/GrowingUpOnlineInteractiveMediaandYouthWell-Being
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AHA Symposium 2026: Raised by AI?
Tuesday, April 28
8:00am — 5:00pm ET
MIT Media Lab, E14 - 6th floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA
And online at https://www.media.mit.edu/events/aha-symposium-raised-by-ai/
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The Latest Trends in Global Emissions
Tuesday, April 28
10:00 - 11:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/4/latest-trends-global-emissions?_gl=1*d92wxp*_gcl_au*MTEwNzM3NjQxNS4xNzc0NzUzNjE3#register
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What Is College for Today?
Tuesday, April 28
5 PM
Online
RSVP at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/6017761844579/WN_F6jyMTEoQnqQZ1Cd6jTh9Q#/registration
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Indigenous Insights for Planetary Health and Sustainable Food Systems
Tuesday, April 28
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Onliine
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pepin-lecture-online-book-talk-with-shailesh-shukla-priscilla-settee-tickets-1985280921679
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Half-Life of Memory: Virtual Screening and Panel Discussion
Tuesday, April 28
6:00–8:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://watch.eventive.org/halflifeofmemory/play/69dd425ad3678edd6062579c
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Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good
Tuesday, April 28
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Maritime Geopolitics: Power, Trade, and Security at Sea
Wednesday, April 29
10 – 11AM
Cabot Intercultural Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/4417763571316/WN_G6aI2exQSPqinBZXfGZVzg#/registration
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To Reflect or Deflect: Assessing Internal Accountability in the U.S. Military
Wednesday, April 29
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
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AI and Propaganda: Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Generated
Wednesday, April 29
5:00pm to 6:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E25, 111, 45 CARLETON Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeQ9lHpokj096qWLuafaIOq6HUqynHiklx5SYXfyxJ804PKA/viewform
Seats are limited!
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Climate Change and Its Impact on Insects: Pollinators, Beneficial Insects, Pests and Invasive Species.
Wednesday, April 29
9 pm to 10:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/climate-change-and-its-impact-on-insects-tickets-1981395095067
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Frontline Climate Defenders: A Call for Recognition, Inclusion and Protection
Thursday, April 30
9:00 - 10:30am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/4/frontline-climate-defenders-call-recognition-inclusion-and-protection
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Escape Velocity - How Technical Leadership Skills Launched Chris Birch to New Heights
Thursday, April 30
5:00pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building 34, 101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1986801800669
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Beyond Carbon Accounting: The Critical Missing Climate Lever
Thursday, April 30
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-carbon-accounting-the-critical-missing-climate-lever-tickets-1987008977340
Cost: $15
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The Amazon: A Planetary Forest
Thursday, April 30
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/TheAmazonAPlanetaryForest#/
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Environmental Career Path Exploration Panel
Friday, May 1
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/yrg4kvg/lp/50d50655-f762-4a81-92bb-5953cd3d0f82
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Elusive Water: The Life and Death of Central Asia's Aral Sea
Friday, May 1
6 – 7:15 p.m.
Harvard, CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-graduate-student-conference-on-central-asia-tickets-1987006253192
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Wake Up the Earth Festival
Saturday, May 2
10:30AM @ CURTIS HALL - CENTER ST PARADE
11:00AM @ ROBERT LAWSON PARK - EGLESTON SQAURE PARADE
12-6PM SOUTHWEST CORRIDOR PARK @ STONYBROOK T
https://www.wakeuptheearth.org/
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The Spring 2026 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday May 2
NOON to 2 pm
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday May 3, 12-2
at Fayette Park (near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Street, Cambridge, MA)
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Cambridge: Japanese Hibakusha Delegation
Sunday, May 3
2:30 am EDT
St James Episcopal Church 1991 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
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Frontiers in New Manufacturing: A Symposium in Honor of Ted de Winter
Monday, May 4
9 am-1 pm
Photonics Building, Room 206, 8 St. Mary’s Street, Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/eng/frontiers-in-manufacturing-a-symposium-in-honor-of-ted-de-winter/
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Net Impact Boston & BASG Kickoff to Boston Climate Week Networking Event
Monday, May 4
5:30 PM - 7 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/net-impact-boston-basg-kickoff-to-boston-climate-week-networking-event-tickets-1987283457317
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A special screening of Living in Pryde
Monday, May 4
7:00 p.m.
Modern Theatre, 525 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
And online
RSVP in person at https://ci.ovationtix.com/34432/production/1272046?performanceId=11794178
RSVP online at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/9717752285537/WN_vHQYh-3TTHGykfv7-K_Hfw#/registration
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Stanford Energy Seminar | Alice Jackson, Breakthrough Energy
Monday, May 4
7:30pm EDT [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Hewlett Teaching Center, 201, 370 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-alice-jackson-breakthrough-energy#about_stream
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Never Settle: Persuasion and Negotiation Skills to Get What You Want
Tuesday, May 5
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/pon-live-book-talk-never-settle-persuasion-and-negotiation-skills-to-get-what-you-want/
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The future of connected cars
Tuesday, May 5
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-future-of-connected-cars/
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National Treasure: How the Declaration of Indepedence Made America
Tuesday, May 5
7 - 8pm
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-treasure-how-the-declaration-of-independence-made-america-tickets-1987156396274
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The future of corporate energy sourcing - Exploring energy demand growth, policy shifts and evolving Scope 2
Wednesday, May 6
8am EDT [1pm BST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.businessgreen.com/sponsored/4527767/register-sustainable-talks-future-corporate-energy-sourcing
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Climatetech Pitch Party
Wednesday, May 6
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Greentown Labs Boston, 444 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA, 02143
RSVP at https://luma.com/e275hjqk
Cost: $0 - $25
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Refusing Generative AI: A Critique of Rhetorical Commonplaces about “AI” in Education
Wednesday, May 6
5:00pm to 6:30pm EDT
MIT, Building 32, 155V, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMX95_ETVS8vbpG1Irjgukg6SvUZxsqWXXAtyJP1y1rHWD4w/viewform
—————
Energybar: Place to Build — Why Climate Innovators Choos Massachusetts
Wednesday, May 6
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Greentown Labs Boston, 444 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA, 02143
RSVP at https://luma.com/wmb1wfo6
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Stealing America
Wednesday, May 6
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/linford-d-fisher-stealing-america-tickets-1985403765107
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The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw
Wednesday, May 6
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, Cambridge Edition, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140-1413
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/form/rsvp-sylvester-allen-jr-and-bell
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Exploring a Clean Energy Future in Massachusetts
Thursday, May 7
10:30 AM - 12 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-a-clean-energy-future-in-massachusetts-tickets-1985931172597
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Carbon Experts Summit Boston
Thursday, May 7
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM
The Link, 255 Main St. Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://oneclicklca.com/carbon-experts-summit-boston-2026
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Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun Book Talk and Q&A
Thursday, May 7
5 PM - 6 PM
MIT Killian Hall (14W-111), 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-mckibben-here-comes-the-sun-book-talk-and-qa-tickets-1986089372778
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Learning to Listen: Interspecies Communication
Thursday, May 7
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/LearningtoListenInterspeciesCommunication
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Climate Week Boston: A Developer Roundtable
Thursday, May 7
6 PM - 9 PM
553 E 2nd Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-week-boston-a-developer-roundtable-tickets-1987065411135
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Built to Thrive: Designing Ecosystems for Climate Tech Innovation
Thursday, May 7
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Venture Café Cambridge, Havana Room, Broadway 5th floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://community.venturecafecambridge.org/login?redirectTo=%2Fevents%2F110291a6-9c73-48d2-8e1c-1ab76997b8f7%3Fflow%3Dregister
—————
MIT D-Lab Spring Student Showcase
Thursday, May 7
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
—————
Solar Return for Change
Friday, May 8
8 PM - 10 PM
MIT Kresge Auditorium, MIT Building W16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/solar-return-for-change-tickets-1761102136899
Cost: $0 - $21.99
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MIT K-12 Climate Action & Education Conference
Saturday, May 9
9 AM - 4 PM
MIT Sloan School of Management, 100 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-k-12-climate-action-education-conference-tickets-1986002343471?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
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Corporate Reckoning: How Businesses Can Address Historical Wrongs
Monday, May 11
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/kelman-seminar-corporate-reckoning-how-businesses-can-address-historical-wrongs/
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Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work
Monday, May 11
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alvin-e-roth-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1984822822492
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What are Tipping Points and Why Do They Matter? With Tim Lenton OBE
Tuesday, May 12
1 AM - 2 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-are-tipping-points-and-why-do-they-matter-with-tim-lenton-obe-tickets-1987597863715
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Saving Lives in a Warming World: Investing in Climate Services for Health
May 12
9:00 - 10:15am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/5/saving-lives-warming-world-investing-climate-services-health
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Progress Is Built: Practical Solutions for Today’s Energy Moment
Tuesday, May 12
12–1 p.m. ET/10–11 a.m. MT
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.tfaforms.net/219
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Climate Change, Drinking Water Security, and Public Health Book Launch
Tuesday, May 12
12 PM - 1 PM
MIT D-Lab, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, MIT N51-310 Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-drinking-water-security-and-public-health-book-launch-tickets-1988099556291
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Edinburgh Earth Initiative: Multilateralism at a Crossroads
Tuesday, May 12
2 PM - 3:30 PM
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-earth-initiative-multilateralism-at-a-crossroads-tickets-1988079439120
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Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Tuesday, May 12
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Stories from a warming world
Wednesday, May 13
7:00 pm Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth AvenueBoston, MA 02215O
RSVP at https://www.wbur.org/events/1078962/stories-from-a-warming-world
Cost: $10.00–30.00
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[UK] Local elections 2026: Implications for just climate action
Thursday, May 14
9 - 10 EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-elections-2026-implications-for-just-climate-action-tickets-1985918005213
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Talking Climate in the Age of Disinformation! Action Party
Tuesday, May 19
7 PM - 8 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-climate-in-the-age-of-disinformation-action-party-tickets-1986927323110
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The microscopic world of kelp forest ecosystems
Tuesday, May 19
9pm - 10pm EDT [6pm to 7pm PT]
Hopkins Marine Station, Izzie Abbott Boatworks Auditorium, 120 Ocean View Blvd Pacific Grove, CA 93950
And online
RSVP in person at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/friends-of-hopkins-talk-brooke-weigel-the-microscopic-world-of-kelp-tickets-1988033337228
RSVP online at https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1mZzxy5rSU6Wftf6xe_6mw#/registration
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Advancing Indigenous and diverse knowledge systems in global assessments
Wednesday, May 20
9 AM - 10:30 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/advancing-indigenous-and-diverse-knowledge-systems-in-global-assessments-tickets-1986319921355
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Extreme Heat for Contractors and Landscapers
Wednesday, May 20
4 PM - 6:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/extreme-heat-for-contractors-and-landscapers-tickets-1988107250304
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Nitrogen Scarcity, Surplus, and Carbon Impacts in Northeastern US Forests
Thursday, May 21
11 AM - 12 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nitrogen-scarcity-surplus-and-carbon-impacts-in-northeastern-us-forests-tickets-1987865766018
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The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky - May 21, 2026
May 21, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T6gslRTtRyGQZf854UnkQQ#/registration
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How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University
Thursday, May 21
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
—————
How community energy can scale social and environmental impact
Friday, May 22
7am - 8am EDT [12:00 - 13:00 BST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/scaling-community-energy-for-impact/
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Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund
Friday, May 22
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
—————
Curious and Complex Connections: Environmental History and the War of Independence
Wednesday, May 27
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EDT
MA Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215-3695
And online
RSVP in person at https://18308a.blackbaudhosting.com/18308a/Curious-and-Complex-Connections-Environmental-History-and-the-War-of-Independence--In-Person-Prog
RSVP online at https://18308a.blackbaudhosting.com/18308a/Curious-and-Complex-Connections-Environmental-History-and-the-War-of-Independence---Virtual-Prog
Cost: $0 - $10
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Jeremy Lent / Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All
Wednesday, May 27
10 PM - 11:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jeremy-lent-ecocivilization-making-a-world-that-works-for-all-tickets-1982670686395
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Modelling to Policy: Circular Economy Pathways Towards Net-Zero
Thursday, May 28
7am - 12pm EDT[13:00-18:00 Brussels]
Brussels
And online
RSVP at https://iiasa.ac.at/events/may-2026/modelling-to-policy-circular-economy-pathways-towards-net-zero
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Voices of Change: An online youth panel on hope, agency and action
Thursday, May 28
1 PM - 2:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/voices-of-change-an-online-youth-panel-on-hope-agency-and-action-tickets-1983535094864
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Budgeting in Place: How People's Budgets Shape Civic Life
Thursday, May 28
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/69e13733b6c4ac1fedccd7f1
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Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Saturday, May 30
7:00pm (doors open at roughly 5:30pm)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/senator-chris-murphy-at-first-parish-church-tickets-1986465894966
Cost: $20.00 (admission only); $45.00 (book included)
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2026 International White Hat Conference
Monday, June 1-Wednesday, June 3 • 9 AM-8 PM
Park Hyatt Mendoza, Mendoza, Mendoza
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-international-white-hat-conference-tickets-1985606246735
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The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government
Wednesday, June 3
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/barbara-mcquade
Cost: $12.00 (admission only); $42.00 (book included)
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House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Wednesday, June 3
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
—————
Conference: Geo-Solutions for the Energy Transition
Wednesday, June 10 - 11
MIT, Building 55-110 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge, MA
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Events
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Green Transportation: Co-benefits for Climate, Air Quality, and the Economy
Monday, April 27
3 – 4 p.m.
Harvard, Pierce Hall Room 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
SPEAKER(S) WU Ye, Professor, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Executive Deputy Director, Beijing Laboratory of Environment Frontier, China
Dr. WU Ye has devoted more than 25 years to the research on characterizing and controlling vehicular pollution. He has developed multiple methods and technologies to support a sustainable transportation system by integrating advanced vehicle technologies, clean fuel systems and efficient traffic management. Before he joined Tsinghua University, he worked with the GREET team in Argonne National Laboratory during 2002-2007. He has published more than 100 papers in prestigious journals and played a key role in formulating 16 national and local standards and guidelines, which secured a more stringent and elaborate emission control for vehicles in China. Served as the technical chief scientist from the China consortium, he is leading a couple of national projects to develop ultra-low emission and zero carbon transportation strategies for national and local policymakers and stakeholders.
Ellectric vehicle (EV) promotion is a key strategy to improve air quality and address climate change. As the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs and batteries, China’s rapid development in both passenger and commercial fleets has also facilitated the global electrification transition. The promotion of electric vehicles must balance cost viability and environmental benefits, and notable variations across different use scenarios. Air quality benefits depend on the amount and spatiotemporal distribution of pollutant emission reductions, whereas climate benefits should be assessed from a life-cycle perspective across EV and battery supply chains.
This talk will involve recent data research on real-world carbon footprints, air pollutant emissions, traffic activity, and cost to quantify the carbon reduction, pollution mitigation, and economic characteristics of EVs and batteries. Next, it will present case studies of two megacities, Shanghai and Chengdu, evaluating the air quality benefits and costs of different electric truck fleets informed by real-world usage data. For example, it will introduce the real case of road right policy design which has enhanced the economic competitiveness of electric trucks while generating considerable air quality improvements.
Non Harvard ID Holders: To access the seminar, please enter through the lobby doors of Maxwell Dworkin (33 Oxford Street). From there, take the stairs to the second floor and use the footbridge
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When Acts of God Became Acts of Man: Floods, Property, and the Legal Origins of Climate Change in Houston
Monday, April 27
3:45 - 5pm EDT [12:45 - 2 p.m. PT]
UC Berkeley, 2240 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720
And online
RSVP at https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nsm7A7sYQyWbo3szBCasmg#/registration
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The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
Monday, April 27
6:00pm(doors open at 5:30pm)
Harvard Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chanda-prescod-weinstein-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1983282603656
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Chanda Prescod-Weinstein—prize-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos, and an associate professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire—for a discussion of her new book, The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie. She will be joined in conversation by Evelynn M. Hammonds—the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 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 The Edge of Space-Time
A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos.
In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she embraces that cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves.
Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past and drawing on poetry and popular culture—from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek—Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity’s undeniable connection with the stars.
Through Prescod-Weinstein’s clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of post-colonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Time argues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that “the edge” is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture.
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Growing Up Online: Interactive Media and Youth Well-Being
Monday, April 27
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/GrowingUpOnlineInteractiveMediaandYouthWell-Being
How can we better understand and support adolescent well-being in an increasingly digital world? Join Swissnex and the IBSA Foundation for scientific research for an interdisciplinary conversation at the intersection of research, digital health, and youth development.
In a world where digital environments evolve faster than science can follow, understanding how technology shapes young lives requires collaboration, creativity, and dialogue across borders. Recent years have seen a global wave of policies restricting smartphone use in schools and social media access, aimed at improving focus, learning, and well-being. Yet emerging research suggests that while such bans may reduce in-school distractions, they do not necessarily translate into improved mental health or reduced overall screen time, highlighting the need for more comprehensive digital health strategies beyond restriction alone. We will discuss these topics across Switzerland and the US, with panelists coming from IBSA Foundation for scientific research (Lugano) and the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The discussion will examine how digital well-being is defined. Moving beyond simplified metrics like “screen time,” panelists will explore more meaningful indicators, including belonging, autonomy, identity, resilience, and overall digital health. Together, we will consider how digital media can actively support adolescent development, offering opportunities for connection, creativity, health education, and self-expression, while raising awareness of its problematic aspects, including Interactive Media Use Disorders.
The conversation will also focus on translating research into practice. What gaps remain between academic findings and real-world implementation in digital health? How can clinicians, educators, families, and tech companies collaborate more effectively to design environments that promote well-being? And what responsibility should technology platforms bear in shaping healthier digital ecosystems for youth?
Through audience participation, case examples, and research findings across Switzerland and the US, this dialogue on digital wellness will emphasize the importance of science-based guidance and youth voices in shaping healthy digital futures.
Looking ahead, we will reflect on how cultural values shape what constitutes “healthy” digital engagement across contexts, and on what countries can learn from one another in policy, education, and family practices.
Join us to rethink digital well-being and imagine what comes next.
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AHA Symposium 2026: Raised by AI?
Tuesday, April 28
8:00am — 5:00pm ET
MIT Media Lab, E14 - 6th floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA
And online at https://www.media.mit.edu/events/aha-symposium-raised-by-ai/
How do we ensure the first generation growing up with AI thrives?
Every generation is shaped by the technologies of its time. This generation is the first to grow up with AI as a constant presence in their classrooms, their homes, their pockets. What does that mean for who they become, and how do we ensure the best outcomes for the generations ahead? “Raised by AI?” will explore what it means to come of age in the age of AI and how AI might also raise (elevate) us.
Please note: In-person attendance is invite-only
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The Latest Trends in Global Emissions
Tuesday, April 28
10:00 - 11:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/4/latest-trends-global-emissions?_gl=1*d92wxp*_gcl_au*MTEwNzM3NjQxNS4xNzc0NzUzNjE3#register
On April 28, join Climate Watch for a platform training and deep dive into global GHG emissions data.
In this session, Climate Watch expert Mengpin Ge, a senior associate at World Resources Institute, will highlight one of our most widely used analyses: 4 Charts That Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Countries and Sectors. This resource is currently being revised with the latest available data, and during this webinar, we will discuss what has changed and what the updates reveal about global emissions trends.
We’ll also provide a live demo of the Climate Watch platform, showing how to find, interpret and use the underlying data behind the visualizations. There will be ample time left at the end of the webinar to answer questions from the audience.
Whether you’re a long-time user or new to the platform, this session will help you better understand global emissions trends and how to apply these insights in your own research, communications, or policy work.
Speakers:
Mengpin Ge, Senior Associate, WRI’s Global Climate Program
Leandro Vigna, Outreach & Data Partnership Manager, Climate Watch
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What Is College for Today?
Tuesday, April 28
5 PM
Online
RSVP at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/6017761844579/WN_F6jyMTEoQnqQZ1Cd6jTh9Q#/registration
The traditional path through higher education is becoming harder to recognize. For generations, the university served as a stable bridge to the workforce and a vital center for civic life. Today, that bridge is under immense pressure from all sides.
As tuition rises and public funding shrinks, families are forced to shoulder more of the cost at the very moment when the economic payoff feels less certain. Simultaneously, artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the labor market, disrupting the entry-level roles that once justified the degree. Students are now preparing for a world and a workforce that are shifting faster than institutions can adapt.
Beyond the financial burden, a question looms: who is the current system truly designed to serve—and who is being left behind? Universities also face mounting political scrutiny. Legislative pressures and ideological battles are testing the foundational civic mission of colleges: to protect the pursuit of knowledge and cultivate a shared democratic life.
What is college for today—and what is at stake for our democracy if its purpose erodes?
Join the conversation.
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Nicole Lynn Lewis is the founder and CEO of Generation Hope, a national nonprofit supporting teen parents in college and advancing a two‑generation approach to economic mobility. A former teen mother who earned her degree from the College of William & Mary, she now works to change the statistic that fewer than 2% of teen mothers graduate by age 30. Her latest book, Student Parent: The Fight for Families, the Cost of Poverty, and the Power of College, illustrates the transformative power of education and determination.
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Susan D. Blum is an anthropologist whose work examines the gap between humans’ natural capacity for learning and the constraints of modern schooling. After beginning her career studying China, she has spent the past two decades focused on education, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching experience, including at the University of Notre Dame since 2000. Her latest book, Schoolishness, challenges the alienation built into traditional academic structures and argues for learning environments that foster authenticity, curiosity, and joy.
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Paul J. LeBlanc is a Visiting Scholar and Special Advisor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he is completing a forthcoming book on AI and education. He served as President of Southern New Hampshire University for 21 years, overseeing its growth from 2,800 students to more than 250,000 and establishing it as the largest nonprofit provider of online higher education in the U.S. Widely recognized as one of the nation's most innovative education leaders, he has received major honors including the Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence and the University of Pennsylvania's Zemsky Medal for Innovation, along with several honorary degrees.
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Anya Kamenetz speaks, writes, and thinks about thriving and caring for others on a rapidly changing planet. Her newsletter on these topics is The Golden Hour. She covered education for many years including for NPR, where she co-created the podcast Life Kit: Parenting. Her last book was The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now. Kamenetz is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute and the Climate Mental Health Network, working on new initiatives at the intersection of children, well-being, education, and climate change.
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Indigenous Insights for Planetary Health and Sustainable Food Systems
Tuesday, April 28
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Onliine
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pepin-lecture-online-book-talk-with-shailesh-shukla-priscilla-settee-tickets-1985280921679
Join Shailesh Shukla & Priscilla Settee to discuss their book: Indigenous Insights for Planetary Health and Sustainable Food Systems.
Community-based case studies guide readers to understand the emergence, potential application, and renewal of Indigenous food systems and planetary health innovations and their role in supporting the well-being of their communities and lands and advancing the global vision of sustainable futures through interdisciplinary perspectives.
Shailesh Shukla is a Chair and an Associate Professor at the Department of Indigenous Studies, University of Winnipeg. His teaching and research interests include exploring and promoting Indigenous perspectives and knowledge systems to improve food security, sovereignty, well-being, and planetary health in Canada and globally.
Priscilla Settee is a member of Cumberland House Swampy Cree First Nations and Professor Emerita in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. She is recognized nationally and internationally as an award-winning professor, writer, and global activist.
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Half-Life of Memory: Virtual Screening and Panel Discussion
Tuesday, April 28
6:00–8:00 p.m. ET
Online
RSVP at https://watch.eventive.org/halflifeofmemory/play/69dd425ad3678edd6062579c
We at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) are very excited to invite you to a special virtual screening of the acclaimed documentary, Half-Life of Memory, to be followed by a live discussion with the film maker, Jeff Gipe. The film exposes the impacts of nuclear weapons production on individuals and communities.
Jeff Gipe, draws on his personal and regional history in his creative work. Growing up near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, a facility with a deeply complex environmental and social legacy, Gipe has developed an artistic practice that explores the impacts of nuclear production and environmental contamination through sculpture, film, and public engagement. Half-Life of Memory examines the legacy of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant and explores how this history continues to reverberate through the land, nearby communities, and the nation's nuclear arsenal.
The virtual screening will be followed by a discussion featuring film maker and artist, Jeff Gipe, UCS Kendall Fellow and epidemiologist Dr. Libby McClure, and Nuke Watch New Mexico Associate and Communications Director Sophie Stroud.
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Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good
Tuesday, April 28
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Omer Aziz—journalist, lawyer, former foreign policy advisor, and author of Brown Boy—for a discussion of his new book, Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good.
About Shadows of the Republic
An unflinching account of the resurgence of American fascism by first-generation scholar, lawyer, and journalist Omer Aziz.
What is driving the rise of fascism--and how can we stop it?
In this singular investigation into the sinister realms of fascism and its many guises, Omer Aziz, author of the acclaimed Brown Boy and contributing writer for The Boston Globe, sets out to answer the question: Why are so many young people like him drifting to the ultranationalist right? Shadows of the Republic offers a haunting portrait of American fascism, how it began, and why it is now focused on immigration, technology, and the purification of society.
Fascism is not coming to America; it has been here for a long time. With astringent clarity, Aziz traces the flaring up of fascist ideas in both American history and our current moment. From the dominance of the KKK, to the Nazi rally in New York in 1939, to the alliances between U.S. elites and European fascists, Aziz examines the long shadows of fascism. Traveling across the United States and Europe, he illuminates connections between street fascists and the ones in suits, between Hitler and the country across the ocean he so admired. Aziz examines culture in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, where propaganda ministers made people believe both everything and nothing, and he examines the apppeal of the far right among the very group it targets. Using interviews with experts and his own experience, he also offers an anti-fascist playbook to reinvigorate democracy and our civic life.
Fascism is a precise term, cheapened by overuse. Yet when a word describes reality, we can't afford to ignore it. From the pulsing power of an ideology of the past to its comeback among even those with the most to lose, Shadows of the Republic offers the definitive story of American fascism--and what we can do to salvage democracy for years to come.
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Maritime Geopolitics: Power, Trade, and Security at Sea
Wednesday, April 29
10 – 11AM
Cabot Intercultural Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/4417763571316/WN_G6aI2exQSPqinBZXfGZVzg#/registration
The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important strategic maritime chokepoint for crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports from OPEC countries, mostly to Asian and European markets. It is also important for exports of fertilizer and helium to global markets. Global energy markets are experiencing the most significant supply disruptions since the 1973 OPEC oil embargo. One major difference from 1973: the U.S. is in a much better position to weather the energy market storm because it is the world's largest producer of both crude oil and natural gas.
Consequently, energy markets have witnessed a widening divergence between oil and natural gas prices in Asian and European markets, where prices are rising rapidly, versus North American markets, where crude oil prices have risen slowly and natural gas prices have largely remained stable. Commercial shipping has dropped dramatically in the Strait of Hormuz. In addition to Iranian threats of drone or missile attacks against commercial vessels, the U.S. Navy has now initiated a blockade of ships calling at Iranian ports or transiting Iranian territorial waters. European and Asian nations, including the United Kingdom and France, are starting to build an international maritime coalition to provide naval escorts for commercial ships transiting the Strait.
But even after commercial shipping through the Strait returns to pre-war levels, Iran's attacks on crude oil and natural gas production facilities and refineries in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Arab Gulf states will have a longer-term impact on global energy markets.
About Rockford Weitz: Professor of the Practice in Maritime Studies, Director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program
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To Reflect or Deflect: Assessing Internal Accountability in the U.S. Military
Wednesday, April 29
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5ooD8Ydk4vd83Ac8VNEoQ
Summary:
The U.S. military's approach to accountability overemphasizes individual actions and decisions rather than institutional factors. As a result, this often leads to institutional failures of accountability through an insufficient acknowledgment of the military's role in poor outcomes, an inadequate investigation and assessment of institutional problems, and consequently, too little reform to address these issues. This paper offers a novel framework of institutional accountability and uses that to examine two contemporary cases: the U.S. military's failures in the war in Afghanistan and its struggle to meaningfully combat sexual assault and sexual harassment within the ranks.
Bio:
Dr. Heidi A. Urben is Associate Director of the Security Studies Program and Professor of the Practice in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She also serves as a senior associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to assuming her current position in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, she served as its Director of External Education and Outreach. From 2021-2022, she served as a Chamberlain Fellow in the political science department at Howard University.
A retired U.S. Army colonel, highlights from her 23-year career on active duty include: commander of a military intelligence brigade at Fort Meade, Maryland; Vice Deputy Director of Current Analysis and Warning in the Joint Staff Directorate for Intelligence; Deputy Director for Intelligence in the Joint Staff’s National Military Command Center; commander of a military intelligence battalion in Hawaii; assistant professor of American Politics, Policy, and Strategy in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; operations officer and executive officer for a counterintelligence battalion; military aide to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates; and various positions in two light infantry divisions, two deployments to Afghanistan, and a peacekeeping deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Her research interests focus on civil-military relations, military and defense policy, and national security strategy, and her research has been featured in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, and Politico, as well as in numerous academic journals. Her book entitled, Party, Politics, and the Post-9/11 Army was published with Cambria Press in 2021.
Dr. Urben holds a B.A. in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College, and an M.P.M., M.A., and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University.
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AI and Propaganda: Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Generated
Wednesday, April 29
5:00pm to 6:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E25, 111, 45 CARLETON Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeQ9lHpokj096qWLuafaIOq6HUqynHiklx5SYXfyxJ804PKA/viewform
Seats are limited!
Join us for a public conversation with Peter Pomerantsev, British-Ukrainian author, journalist, and one of the world's leading voices on propaganda and authoritarian disinformation. His books "Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible," "This Is Not Propaganda," and "How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler" have defined how a generation understands modern information warfare. A senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at John Hopkins University, Pomerantsev has spent decades documenting how autocratic regimes weaponize media, narrative, and, now, artificial intelligence to destabilize democracies and erode the very idea of truth.
As AI reshapes the information landscape at breathtaking speed, this conversation asks the questions that matter most: How does AI-powered propaganda differ from what came before — and how do new technologies shape public reality? What happens to our collective capacity for critical thinking when personalized, algorithmically generated realities become the new normality? How can AI help us to protect ourselves from information manipulation? Who are the main actors in disinformation as a business, and what can the world learn from Ukraine, which has become an unexpected laboratory for countering disinformation under existential pressure?
In conversation with Halyna Padalko — disinformation researcher, Fulbright scholar at MIT Center for International Studies, and instructor of the MIT course AI and Propaganda.
This event is sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the MIT-Ukraine Program, and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, in conjunction with the MIT course AI and Propaganda in Contemporary War taught by Elizabeth Wood and Halyna Padalko.
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Climate Change and Its Impact on Insects: Pollinators, Beneficial Insects, Pests and Invasive Species.
Wednesday, April 29
9 pm to 10:30 pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/climate-change-and-its-impact-on-insects-tickets-1981395095067
This session will examine how a changing climate affects the range and distribution of insects.
The Grow (Garden-Based Renewal Of Wellness) Project is a Horticultural Therapy program hosted by Unitarians Calgary, with a mandate to sustain and improve the health and wellness of participants through purposeful gardening projects at Unitarian Calgary.
Part of our mandate is to develop an ecologically sound & sustainable gardenscape at Unitarians Calgary, but also to provide educational opportunities for all to learn. We are delighted to be able to offer this 6 part series of talks in 2026!
In this fourth talk, we welcome Ken Fry, Entomology Instructor in the School of Life Sciences & Business at Olds College,shares his knowledge and expertise of insects and the effect of climate change on their range and distribution in Albeta.
Climate Change and Its Impact on Insects: Pollinators, Beneficial Insects, Pests and Invasive Species.
Abstract: This session will examine how a changing climate affects the range and distribution of insects. We will explore the impacts on pollinators and other beneficial insects, current pest insects, and potential invasive species, including the Spongy Moth, Emerald Ash Borer, and Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. Suggestions on how to mitigate the effects will also be discussed.
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Frontline Climate Defenders: A Call for Recognition, Inclusion and Protection
Thursday, April 30
9:00 - 10:30am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/4/frontline-climate-defenders-call-recognition-inclusion-and-protection
Frontline environmental defenders (or EHRDs) risk their lives to address environmental challenges and protect the vital ecosystems that sustain their communities – and our world. They include Indigenous Peoples protecting ancestral territories from extractive industries, women leading food sovereignty and community resilience efforts, youth advancing climate action through strikes and litigation, and local communities implementing sustainable land management.
Defenders stand on the front lines of the global climate fight while facing corruption, intimidation, threats and even murder (Global Witness reports that at least 2,253 defenders were killed or disappeared between 2012 and 2024). Yet recent WRI research shows they remain largely shut out of decision-making and formal climate governance - while often facing criminalization in their home countries. As a result, governments and multilateral institutions lose out on crucial local knowledge and decades-old ecosystem expertise that can improve climate outcomes, while defenders are left to brave risks alone.
Join this webinar – co-convened by World Resources Institute and the Leaders Network for Environmental Activists and Defenders (LEAD) initiative – to hear from real-world defenders and explore ways to catalyze their meaningful participation in climate decision-making while ensuring their protection around the world.
Speakers
Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, Environmental Rights Defender and Lawyer, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Juan David Amaya, Youth Climate Activist and Founder, Life of Pachamama NGO, Colombia
Isatis Cintron Rodriguez, Director, ACE Observatory
Igo Martini, Coordinator, Protection Programme for Human Rights Defenders, Environmental Activists and Communicators, Ministry of Human Rights of Brazil
Nino Latsabidze, Policy Advisor, Department for the Reykjavík Process and the Environment, Council of Europe
Orsolya Toth, Human Rights Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva
Anamaría Martinez, Research, Data and Impact Manager, WRI México & WRI Colombia
Elizabeth Moses, Senior Environmental Rights and Justice Associate, Environmental Democracy Practice, World Resources Institute (moderator)
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Escape Velocity - How Technical Leadership Skills Launched Chris Birch to New Heights
Thursday, April 30
5:00pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building 34, 101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1986801800669
Fireside Chat with Astronaut Chris Birch MIT PhD ’15
Astronaut. Professor. Champion Cyclist. Engineering Leader. Achieving lofty goals is in Chris Birch’s DNA. She conducted original research in synthetic biology, microfluidics, and infectious disease while earning a PhD in biological engineering at MIT. She then taught at the University of California and Caltech before joining the U.S. Cycling National Team, where she won 11 National Championships and three World Cup medals. Now she is a NASA astronaut working to reach her highest goal – flying to the International Space Station and beyond.
Join us for a Fireside Chat with NASA Astronaut Chris Birch. Hear about her remarkable achievements and the leadership principles that have guided her journey.
Chris Birch Bio: https://www.nasa.gov/people/nasa-astronaut-christina-birch/
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Beyond Carbon Accounting: The Critical Missing Climate Lever
Thursday, April 30
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-carbon-accounting-the-critical-missing-climate-lever-tickets-1987008977340
Cost: $15
What if the most powerful lever we have for reducing global warming this decade isn't the one we have been measuring?
Traditional carbon accounting has played an essential role in emissions reporting and long-term target setting. But it was not built to see the full picture, and what it is missing matters enormously right now.
A set of pollutants, methane, black carbon, HFCs, tropospheric ozone— are responsible for nearly half of today's warming. And though they are our only emergency brake on near-term warming they are chronically underrepresented in standard frameworks and climate action plans.
This session explores what it looks like to account for the full set of drivers influencing atmospheric warming, and the practical implications for sustainability and climate leaders seeking to prioritize the actions that move the needle fastest, allocate resources more effectively, and connect their work to real-world climate outcomes.
The session will include a short talk, Q&A, and breakout discussion on where current approaches fall short and what a more complete, decision-useful framework looks like in practice.
Guest Speaker:
Boston native, Kiff Gallagher is an entrepreneurial executive and award-winning social innovator with 30 years of experience scaling mission-driven enterprises. He is Founder and CEO of Global Heat Reduction (GHR), a climate intelligence and strategy platform that helps organizations and municipalities prioritize actions that reduce near-term warming and pollution on the path to net zero.
Kiff served as a domestic policy aide in the Clinton White House, President of the Social Venture Network, Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Califia Farms, and Senior Vice President at Winrock International, which owns the American Carbon Registry (ACR).
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The Amazon: A Planetary Forest
Thursday, April 30
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/TheAmazonAPlanetaryForest#/
The Amazon is an ecosystem with global implications, but it is also a complex and vibrant more-than-human community. Join Swissnex at the Planetary Embassy to explore the Amazon through the lenses of global history, indigenous knowledge, soil science, and more.
The Amazon transcends easy categorization. Stretching across nine countries, it shelters one in ten of all known species on Earth and locks away an estimated 200 billion tons of carbon in its soil and vegetation. Moisture released by its plants creates “flying rivers” that seed rain and regulate temperatures across continents. Because of its planetary significance, it has become a matter of global concern, debated in international forums, measured by satellites, and managed through carbon markets and conservation agreements.
This global perspective risks flattening an extraordinarily complex biome into a global utility — a reservoir of carbon, water, and biodiversity to be managed for the benefit of humanity. But the Amazon is more than that. It is a living ecosystem, a site of encounter and co-creation among a vast network of actors: plants and animals, rivers and mountains, and more than 50 million people, including hundreds of Indigenous communities whose knowledge has shaped the forest for centuries.
The evening will begin with a short film screening by Claudia Tomateo, a Quechua Chanka architect, designer, planner, and activist whose work explores Indigenous methodologies of data visualization. A panel discussion will follow, led by Tomás Bartoletti, a historian researching the development of global forest governance. In addition to Tomateo, the panel will feature Livio Silva-Mueller, a sociologist researching the intersection of decarbonization, inequality, and democracy in Latin America; and Mauricio Fontes, a scientist studying Amazon soils and their transformation.
Situated within Swissnex’s Planetary Embassy in Boston, the conversation invites audiences to move past familiar images of the Amazon as a distant wilderness or planetary utility, and instead engage with it as a place of deep relations — and to ask what it would mean for the Amazon, in all its diversity, to have a voice on the global stage.
Program
6:00pm – Doors open
6:30pm – Opening remarks
6:35pm – Discussion
7:20pm – Q&A
7:40pm – Reception
8:15pm – End
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Environmental Career Path Exploration Panel
Friday, May 1
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST
Online
RSVP at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/yrg4kvg/lp/50d50655-f762-4a81-92bb-5953cd3d0f82
What is it really like to work in the environmental and energy industry? What is the transition from school to employment in the industry like? How do you even begin to figure out what type of job is right for you?
As a follow up to the 2026 Environmental, Energy, and Engineering Career Fair, this virtual panel discussion will allow students to ask any and all of the questions they have about the different types of internships and jobs available to them within the industry – and also demonstrate that there is no one “right” path toward a career!
Moderated by Becky Raymond of SAGE Environmental and current Vice Chair of the EBC Ascending Professionals Committee, you will hear from panelists:
Laura Hawes, Account Manager, Resource Options
Becca Cameron, Sustainability & Resilience Engineer, Jacobs
Caroline Santangelo, Environmental Scientist, Stantec
While this panel discussion is geared toward those who participated in the 2026 Career Fair, all are welcome to attend. Please register in advance. There is no cost to register.
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Elusive Water: The Life and Death of Central Asia's Aral Sea
Friday, May 1
6 – 7:15 p.m.
Harvard, CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-graduate-student-conference-on-central-asia-tickets-1987006253192
SPEAKER(S) Sarah Cameron, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park
Nargis Kassenova, Senior Fellow and Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center
In 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the disappearance of Central Asia’s Aral Sea, “probably the biggest ecological catastrophe of our time.” Centering the people who lived around the sea and their stories, this talk examines the causes and the consequences of the disaster. And rather than framing the Aral case as a uniquely Soviet story, it will consider what we can learn from it, as we confront similar cases of shrinking bodies of water around the globe.
This talk is part of the Graduate Student Conference on Central Asia at Harvard University, taking place May 2 through May 3rd, 2026.
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Wake Up the Earth Festival
Saturday, May 2
10:30AM @ CURTIS HALL - CENTER ST PARADE
11:00AM @ ROBERT LAWSON PARK - EGLESTON SQAURE PARADE
12-6PM SOUTHWEST CORRIDOR PARK @ STONYBROOK T
https://www.wakeuptheearth.org/
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The Spring 2026 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday May 2
NOON to 2 pm
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday May 3, 12-2
at Fayette Park (near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Street, Cambridge, MA)
Bring anything you’d like to share. No need for elegant packaging, but please do write down the names of plants. We usually have perennials, seedlings, seeds, indoor plants, books, pots, tools, and lots of "whatever." Feel free to just come, chat with neighbors, talk gardening. If you have native plants or seeds to share, please bring ‘em!
And, if you have jumping worms, please wash off plant roots, and either pot the plants in clean soil or bring them bare-root, in paper or a plastic bag. Thanks!
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Cambridge: Japanese Hibakusha Delegation
Sunday, May 3
2:30 am EDT
St James Episcopal Church 1991 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Disarmament and Peace Movement Exchange with Japanese A-Bomb Survivors
Join us for an exchange between Japanese A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) and Boston area peace and nuclear disarmament activists. Hiroshi Kanamoto and Yoshinori Ohmura, and Gensuikyo Assistant General Secretary Yayoi Tsuchida are in the US to participate in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Review Conference at the U.N. The are leaders of the Nobel Peace Prize recipient organization Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- & H-Bomb Sufferers Organization.) Join us and Boston area peace and justice movement leaders describe their commitments and campaigning.
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Frontiers in New Manufacturing: A Symposium in Honor of Ted de Winter
Monday, May 4
9 am-1 pm
Photonics Building, Room 206, 8 St. Mary’s Street, Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/eng/frontiers-in-manufacturing-a-symposium-in-honor-of-ted-de-winter/
Please join us for a special symposium featuring leading voices in manufacturing innovation, held in honor of Professor Ted de Winter and his lasting impact on engineering education and research.
This symposium explores the convergent frontiers shaping the future of manufacturing, from advanced materials and intelligent systems to scalable, real-world applications. Bringing together faculty, researchers, students, and industry leaders, the event highlights the collaborative, cross-disciplinary work driving innovation across engineering.
Event Schedule
8:30 am: Breakfast & Networking
9 am: Opening Remarks
9:10 am: Tributes to Ted de Winter
9:30 am: Faculty & Industry Talks
11 am: Student Presentations
Noon: Faculty & Industry Talks
12:40 pm: Student Awards
12:45 pm: Closing Remarks
1 pm – 1:30: Lunch & Networking
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Net Impact Boston & BASG Kickoff to Boston Climate Week Networking Event
Monday, May 4
5:30 PM - 7 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/net-impact-boston-basg-kickoff-to-boston-climate-week-networking-event-tickets-1987283457317
oin us in celebrating the first ever Boston Climate Week with a kickoff networking event for sustainability professionals!
To help celebrate the first ever Boston Climate Week, Net Impact Boston and the Boston Area Sustainability Group (BASG) are hosting a kickoff networking event for local sustainability professionals to connect and share what they are excited about in the upcoming week. Join us for light refreshments, "May the Fourth Be With You" Star Wars/sustainability themed activities, and community on the first night of Boston Climate Week.
Please bring a government issued photo I.D. to enter the building.
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A special screening of Living in Pryde
Monday, May 4
7:00 p.m.
Modern Theatre, 525 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
And online
RSVP in person at https://ci.ovationtix.com/34432/production/1272046?performanceId=11794178
RSVP online at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/9717752285537/WN_vHQYh-3TTHGykfv7-K_Hfw#/registration
A GBH News documentary by Jack Doyle, Emily Judem, and Robert Tokanel
Following the screening, Pascale Florestal, associate artistic director, Front Porch Arts Collective will be in conversation with residents of The Pryde.
Living in Pryde is a powerful short documentary following residents of The Pryde—New England’s first LGBTQ+ welcoming, affordable senior housing community. As LGBTQ+ rights face renewed challenges, the film highlights a generation that came of age without basic legal protections. Residents draw on a lifetime of resilience, reflecting on surviving the AIDS crisis, fighting for same-sex marriage, and coming out as transgender. Located in a former public school in Boston’s Hyde Park, The Pryde is both a refuge and a target—a place where community becomes a powerful force in the ongoing fight for civil rights and equality.
A lifetime of courage. A community that endures.
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Stanford Energy Seminar | Alice Jackson, Breakthrough Energy
Monday, May 4
7:30pm EDT [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Hewlett Teaching Center, 201, 370 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
And online
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-alice-jackson-breakthrough-energy#about_stream
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Never Settle: Persuasion and Negotiation Skills to Get What You Want
Tuesday, May 5
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/pon-live-book-talk-never-settle-persuasion-and-negotiation-skills-to-get-what-you-want/
Attia Qureshi, Lecturer in Negotiation, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Founder, AQ Consulting
John Richardson, Lecturer in Work and Organization Studies, MIT Sloan School of Management Tuesday, May 5, 2026
In this webinar, negotiation experts Attia Qureshi and John Richardson will share insights from their new book, Never Settle: Persuasion and Negotiation Skills to Get What You Want. Drawing from decades of experience teaching at Harvard and MIT, as well as incorporating insights gathered from FBI hostage conflict resolution strategies and work with the U.S. State Department to negotiate with Colombian drug cartels, they outline actionable strategies to negotiate with confidence, no matter the circumstance. Rather than focusing only on concepts, Qureshi and Richardson provide actionable tools and exercises designed to help people strengthen their negotiation reflexes in low-stakes environments.
In this session, they will provide guidance on how to:
Build trust through reciprocity.
Understand your own interests—and the other party’s—clearly.
Craft multiple win-win outcomes through creative problem solving.
Practice saying “no,” even when it’s uncomfortable.
Manage rejection and failure (and even seek them out!).
Leverage a good deal into future successes.
Effective negotiation does more than improve your daily life and relationships; when done correctly, it can make the world a better place. About the Speakers:
Attia Qureshi is the founder of AQ Consulting, where she supports companies through negotiation, conflict resolution, and organizational strategy. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and has previously taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Ross School of Business. She has also worked on behalf of the U.S. State Department in conflict zones.
John Richardson teaches negotiation at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and previously taught at Harvard Law School, and was an associate at the Harvard Negotiation Project. He was coauthor with Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp of Getting It Done and Negotiation Analysis with Howard Raiffa and David Metcalfe. He is also a graduate of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.
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The future of connected cars
Tuesday, May 5
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-future-of-connected-cars/
Cars are more connected than ever. From digital interfaces and safety features to entertainment devices and AI algorithms, the days of tooling around truly alone are over. In some ways, these innovations mean more convenience and better safety for drivers. But with new technology, comes questions about data privacy, security, and accountability with high stakes for businesses and consumers.
On May 5, as part of the seventeenth annual A. Alfred Taubman Forum on Public Policy, Governance Studies at Brookings will host a webinar to discuss the benefits and implications of connected cars.
This event will be open to watch online. Viewers can submit questions via e-mail to events@brookings.edu.
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National Treasure: How the Declaration of Indepedence Made America
Tuesday, May 5
7 - 8pm
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-treasure-how-the-declaration-of-independence-made-america-tickets-1987156396274
From its drafting by Thomas Jefferson to today, award-winning historian Michael Auslin’s National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America charts the many lives of a document that captures the soul of America and has united generations around its defiant ideals. As the 250th anniversary of America’s founding approaches, Auslin discusses the Declaration as a physical object and a set of ideals that have made America what it is today with Arun Rath, Executive Editor and Host at GBH.
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The future of corporate energy sourcing - Exploring energy demand growth, policy shifts and evolving Scope 2
Wednesday, May 6
8am EDT [1pm BST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.businessgreen.com/sponsored/4527767/register-sustainable-talks-future-corporate-energy-sourcing
Electricity markets are entering a period of structural change. Rapid demand growth driven by electrification and wider economic trends, combined with ongoing price volatility and geopolitical pressures, is reshaping how organisations source energy. At the same time, evolving guidance from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is set to increase scrutiny on Scope 2 emissions and corporate energy claims.
Together, these forces are accelerating a shift in corporate energy sourcing, from a compliance-driven activity to a strategic priority focused on cost stability, resilience and long-term value.
BusinessGreen's upcoming Sustainable, Talks event - hosted in partnership with SE Advisory Services - will bring together several top industry experts to explore how organisations can respond to these changes, adapt their sourcing strategies and position themselves for the next phase of the energy transition.
SUSTAINABLE, TALKS SPEAKERS: Dr. Camille Louhichi, Strategic Adviser, Energy & Sustainability Management
Miguel Gil, Director, Renewable Energy and Carbon Advisory
Host: Michael Holder, Editor, BusinessGreen
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Climatetech Pitch Party
Wednesday, May 6
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Greentown Labs Boston, 444 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA, 02143
RSVP at https://luma.com/e275hjqk
Cost: $0 - $25
Greentown Labs Boston supports more than 150 game-changing climatetech and energy startups that are reshaping how we power our world, grow our food, build our infrastructure, and reduce emissions across key greenhouse‑gas‑emitting sectors.
Founded in Boston by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, philanthropists, and more to build a decarbonized, resilient future right here in Massachusetts.
Join the Climatetech Pitch Party during Boston Climate Week to hear pitches from members of Greentown Labs' startup community and network with other climate champions passionate about innovations in climatetech and the energy transition.
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Refusing Generative AI: A Critique of Rhetorical Commonplaces about “AI” in Education
Wednesday, May 6
5:00pm to 6:30pm EDT
MIT, Building 32, 155V, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMX95_ETVS8vbpG1Irjgukg6SvUZxsqWXXAtyJP1y1rHWD4w/viewform
Join us for a conversation with the scholars who created Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies. The speakers will share how and why they decided to create Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies as well as its impact as a rhetorical intervention. In addition, they will address stock arguments in support of generative AI adoption in the classroom before offering some practical teaching strategies for negotiating some of the challenges that generative AI poses for education, particularly writing education. Teachers from all disciplines who assign writing, who are interested in learning about diverse perspectives on generative AI in higher education, and who are interested in resisting Big Tech’s incursion in higher education may benefit from attending this teaching talk.
Jennifer Sano-Franchini (she, her) is the Gaziano Family Legacy Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies and an associate professor of English at West Virginia University where she teaches courses on professional writing theory, multimedia writing, and cultural rhetorics. She serves as Immediate Past Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication.
Megan McIntyre (she/her) is the Director of the Program in Rhetoric and Composition and an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, where she teaches courses on writing pedagogy, research methods, and digital rhetorics. Her most recent work has appeared in Computers and Composition, Composition Forum, Peitho, and The Journal of Writing Assessment.
Maggie Fernandes (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Arkansas. Her scholarly expertise is in digital/cultural rhetorics, writing assessment, institutional oppression, and user experience design. Her work is published and forthcoming in journals such as Computers and Composition, Composition Studies, Enculturation, Peitho, Kairos, among others.
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Energybar: Place to Build — Why Climate Innovators Choos Massachusetts
Wednesday, May 6
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Greentown Labs Boston, 444 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA, 02143
RSVP at https://luma.com/wmb1wfo6
Greentown Labs Boston, along with Canary Media, are hosting a special edition of EnergyBar during Boston’s inaugural Climate Week! The event will feature a timely conversation focused on strategies to retain climate and energy innovators in the Commonwealth.
EnergyBar is Greentown Boston’s signature networking event that fosters conversation and collaboration among entrepreneurs, investors, corporate leaders, students, policymakers, and other climate champions passionate about innovations in climatetech and the energy transition.
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Stealing America
Wednesday, May 6
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/linford-d-fisher-stealing-america-tickets-1985403765107
Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of Stealing America with author Linford D. Fisher.Register for the event!RSVP to let us know you're coming! Depending on the volume of responses, an RSVP may be required for entrance to the event. In the event that we reach capacity and have to close RSVPs, there will not be a waiting list.Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History
“An indispensable book, as intellectually provocative as it is emotionally wrenching.”
—Greg Grandin¸ author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The End of the Myth
Although the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619, European slavery in America began more than a century before. In a work distinguished not only by its original research but by its “passionate prose” (James F. Brooks), historian Linford Fisher demonstrates how the enslavement of Indigenous people began in the years just after 1492, ensnaring an estimated three to six million Natives throughout the Americas. Although largely erased from the public consciousness, Native enslavement continued for centuries to become a colossal phenomenon that affected nearly 600,000 Native?Americans in North?America?alone, revealing the shocking truth that American colonizers enslaved Natives in roughly the same numbers as they imported enslaved Africans.
From Virginia to California, from New England to Barbados, Stealing America traces the history of Indigenous enslavement and land dispossession, detailing how colonizers captured Natives and often deliberately mislabeled them as Black slaves to avoid detection. While the American Revolution pealed the bells of freedom for colonists, it paved a larcenous trail of westward expansion that subsequently plundered Indigenous land and stole the labor of Natives from nations like the Cherokee, Navajo, Nisean, and many others. “This double theft,” Fisher writes, “was central to the origins, growth, and eventual success of the English colonies and the United States—not just initially but throughout all of American history.”
In this expansive narrative, Fisher weaves together accounts of major episodes in American history including early colonization, the American Revolution, and the Civil War with lesser-known stories of Native enslavement and land loss. Fisher upends conventional histories about the nature of American slavery, revealing enslaved Natives in places we have overlooked, including southern antebellum plantations and the nineteenth-century American West. After Congress outlawed Native slavery in 1867, Americans forced Indigenous children into boarding schools and white homes, where they labored under forced assimilation. This practice was not reformed until the latter twentieth century, when Native nations finally secured increasing rights and self-determination.
Nearly fifteen years in the making, this magisterial volume not only uncovers a five-century genocidal history but also illuminates the myriad ways Native Americans have fought for their sovereignty and maintained community. The most comprehensive work of its kind, Stealing America emerges as a saga of both persistent colonialism and Indigenous resilience, one that reframes American history at its core.
Linford D. Fisher is an associate professor of history at Brown University. The author of The Indian Great Awakening and principal investigator of the Stolen Relations project, he lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
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The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw
Wednesday, May 6
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, Cambridge Edition, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140-1413
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/form/rsvp-sylvester-allen-jr-and-bell
Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Sylvester Allen Jr. and Belle Boggs for the release of The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw.
ABOUT THE LEGEND OF WYATT OUTLAW
Wyatt Outlaw's story was one of Black success: He was a Union League leader, business owner, and the first Black town constable and commissioner in Graham, a small town located in North Carolina's Alamance County. But in 1870, Outlaw was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, setting off a dramatic series of events: more lynchings, a Republican-led "war" against the Klan, and a white supremacist crackdown on Black political power that continues today. As a child, Black activist, musician, and Graham native Sylvester Allen frequently passed the site where Outlaw was killed without ever learning his name. Belle Boggs, white and also from the South, taught high school in Alamance County without knowing Outlaw's importance.
Allen and Boggs both sought to discover why Outlaw had been erased from mainstream history books. In The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw, they share what they found in artful detail and connect Outlaw's story to the violence against Black people in Alamance and throughout the United States, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow, the civil rights era, and Black Lives Matter. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and their own personal stories, Allen and Boggs join the conversation begun by historian Peniel Joseph and activist William Barber II about a third Reconstruction in America, but they also offer ways to move forward for any community struggling with a history of racism.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sylvester Allen Jr. is a writer, composer, and director based in Graham, North Carolina.
Belle Boggs is professor of English at North Carolina State University, and author of several books, including The Gulf and The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood.
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Exploring a Clean Energy Future in Massachusetts
Thursday, May 7
10:30 AM - 12 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-a-clean-energy-future-in-massachusetts-tickets-1985931172597
MA policymakers & stakeholders: Discover the Massachusetts Energy Explorer, a new tool to guide the state’s clean energy transition.
Learn about the Massachusetts Energy Explorer, an engaging storytelling platform designed to highlight progress, trends, and challenges around the clean energy transition at the state and municipal level.
The purpose of this session is to introduce policymakers and stakeholders to the Massachusetts Energy Explorer, a new data platform that will support their efforts to understand the state of the clean energy transition in the Commonwealth, and to identify drivers, best practices, opportunities, and trends. Data visualizations can reveal how the Commonwealth’s energy system can be transformed to reduce inequity, steer communities from climate impacts, improve health and other social outcomes, and lead to healthier natural systems.
The target audience for this event is government officers, clean energy project managers, data analysts, and decision-makers involved in the implementation and oversight of clean energy policies and projects in Massachusetts.
The Explorer is a new product of the Clean Energy and Environment Legacy Transition (CELT) Initiative, a partnership to advance an equitable energy transition in Massachusetts, focusing on supporting state agencies and municipalities through actionable data and fellowship programs. The Healey-Driscoll Administration, UMass Lowell, and the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability collaborate on CELT.
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Carbon Experts Summit Boston
Thursday, May 7
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM
The Link, 255 Main St. Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://oneclicklca.com/carbon-experts-summit-boston-2026
On May 7, the Carbon Experts Summit will bring together the people writing the rules, testing what works in practice, and pushing the construction industry forward, live in one room during Boston Climate Week.
If you work in the built environment, you already know how fast things are changing: new requirements, new expectations, and constant pressure to deliver results with less clarity on what actually works.
This is your chance to be part of that conversation.
Why you should join:
Hear directly from the City of Boston
John Dalzell will break down Article 37, what design efficacy means in practice, and where regulation is heading next
Get ahead of LEED v5 embodied carbon requirements
Understand what will change for your projects and prepare for the July 1st cutoff date
See what is working in Boston right now
Local firms will share what’s working and what is holding us back from real decarbonization efforts
Be part of the conversation shaping what comes next
This room will include the people influencing policy, projects, and standards across the region
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Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun Book Talk and Q&A
Thursday, May 7
5 PM - 6 PM
MIT Killian Hall (14W-111), 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-mckibben-here-comes-the-sun-book-talk-and-qa-tickets-1986089372778
Acclaimed environmentalist and Solar Return for Change environmentalist Bill McKibben discusses his new book Here Comes The Sun
Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun Book Talk Thursday, May 7, 2026 /5:00–6:00pm
Acclaimed environmentalist and Solar Return for Change guest author and environmentalist Bill McKibben discusses his new book Here Comes the Sun—A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. In this call to harness the power of the sun, McKibben shares his positive message about how we can rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.
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Learning to Listen: Interspecies Communication
Thursday, May 7
6:00 PM - 8:15 PM
SwissnexBoston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://swissnex.zohobackstage.eu/LearningtoListenInterspeciesCommunication
Humans have long assumed that complex language belongs to us alone – but thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and linguistics, we could soon be able to translate animal languages. Join us to explore these developments, and how they are changing our understanding of the more-than-human world.
Humans have long assumed that complex language belongs to us alone. But other animals have been communicating all along in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and linguistics are now making it possible to detect increasingly complex patterns in animal behaviours and vocalizations. For the first time, we face the possibility of genuine translation between human and non-human language.
What would it mean to translate across species? If we can begin to understand what other animals are saying, new questions and obligations follow. How do they make sense of one another? How do they express their interests and needs? And how can we learn to listen more closely? Language, and the ability to translate between languages, has always been at the foundation of diplomacy — the means by which different parties express their interests, negotiate their differences, and find a basis for coexistence. Could interspecies translation become the basis for a new kind of diplomacy, one that represents the more-than-human?
This event brings together researchers working at the intersection of biology, cognition, and technology to explore the frontiers of animal communication. The evening will begin with a participatory, immersive sound workshop, Deep Listening for Nonhuman Perspective-Taking, led by Mason Youngblood, a behavioral scientist and sound artist at Stony Brook University. Afterwards, Youngblood will moderate conversation with Simon Townsend (University of Zurich) and Martin Surbeck (Harvard) who collaborated on a recent study illuminating the complex syntax of bonobo vocalizations; as well as Ciara Sypherd (Harvard) whose work applies machine learning to decode animal signals.
Program
6:00pm – Doors open
6:30pm – Opening remarks
6:35pm – Sound Workshop: Deep Listening for Nonhuman Perspective-Taking
6:45pm – Discussion and Q&A
7:45pm – Reception
8:30pm – End
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Climate Week Boston: A Developer Roundtable
Thursday, May 7
6 PM - 9 PM
553 E 2nd Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-week-boston-a-developer-roundtable-tickets-1987065411135
The Future of Sustainable Building in Boston
There's a shift happening in how buildings go up in this city. New materials. New methods. New technology that didn't exist two years ago. The companies behind it are small, they're moving fast, and they're changing the game.
During Climate Week Boston, The Union is hosting a developer roundtable focused on the intersection of sustainability and real estate development. We'll hear from builders and developers who are actually implementing these changes on their projects — what's working, what's not, and what's next.
What to Expect
6:00 PM — Doors open, networking and drinks
6:30 PM — Roundtable discussion: sustainable building practices in Boston
7:30 PM — Open Q&A
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM — Networking and continued conversation
Topics We'll Cover
Passive House and high-performance building envelopes
Mass timber and alternative materials
Energy efficiency retrofits and electrification
Navigating green building incentives and regulations
The business case for sustainable development
Who Should Attend
Developers, architects, GCs, sustainability consultants, energy professionals, and anyone interested in the future of green building in Boston.
About The Union
The Union is Boston's first coworking space built exclusively for real estate professionals. Located at 553 E 2nd St in South Boston.
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Built to Thrive: Designing Ecosystems for Climate Tech Innovation
Thursday, May 7
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Venture Café Cambridge, Havana Room, Broadway 5th floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://community.venturecafecambridge.org/login?redirectTo=%2Fevents%2F110291a6-9c73-48d2-8e1c-1ab76997b8f7%3Fflow%3Dregister
What does it actually take for climate tech companies to succeed—not just survive, but scale?
The answer isn’t just better technology or more capital—it’s the environments that surround them. The spaces where founders collide with the right partners, where ideas are tested against real-world constraints, and where innovation is shaped into something that can actually be adopted at scale.
This panel explores how those environments are intentionally built. From physical hubs to cross-sector networks, these ecosystems are redefining how climate companies grow—connecting startups to each other, to institutions, and to the larger systems they’re ultimately trying to change.
As new models for climate innovation take shape—from emerging hubs in New York City to established ecosystems in Boston—the conversation will examine how place, proximity, and design can accelerate collaboration, unlock opportunity, and turn early momentum into lasting impact.
Whether you’re building, supporting, or investing in climate solutions, this session offers a closer look at what it really takes to create the conditions for climate tech to thrive—and why those conditions matter now more than ever.
Featuring:
BATWorks — A climate innovation hub in New York City operated by CIC and NY Development Authority to bring together startups, industry, and community to accelerate scalable climate solutions.
SeaAhead — A Boston-based organization supporting ocean and climate tech startups through commercialization programs, partnerships, and ecosystem building.
Sierra Club — A national environmental organization advancing climate solutions through advocacy, community engagement, and policy leadership.
Ceres — A nonprofit working with companies, investors, and policymakers to drive sustainable business practices and accelerate the transition to a cleaner economy.
Pier 71 — A global maritime and port innovation ecosystem based in Singapore that connects startups with industry partners to advance decarbonization and ocean-related technologies.
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MIT D-Lab Spring Student Showcase
Thursday, May 7
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
Join us for an end-of-semester presentation by MIT D-Lab students featuring posters and prototypes by each team from eight D-Lab classes.
Final presentations, posters, and prototypes from students in from 9 Spring 2025 MIT D-Lab classes:
Introduction to Engineering Design for International Development
D-Lab: Smallholder Agriculture
Thermal Energy Networks for Decarbonization of Campuses, Neighborhoods, and Cities
D-Lab: Leadership in Design
D-Lab: Climate Change and Planetary Health
Introduction to Energy in Global Development
D-Lab: Design
D-Lab: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
Terrascope: Design for Complex Environmental Issues
Following a welcome and overview from MIT D-Lab staff, attendees will have the opportunity to speak with student teams and view all the posters and prototypes on display throughout the D-Lab space!
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Solar Return for Change
Friday, May 8
8 PM - 10 PM
MIT Kresge Auditorium, MIT Building W16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/solar-return-for-change-tickets-1761102136899
Cost: $0 - $21.99
This environmentally themed concert brings together three of the most innovative musicians of their generations with the MIT Wind Ensemble and celebrated author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben. The performance features the world premiere of Guillermo Klein’s Guitierra, a prayer for the Earth, and Klein’s Solar Return Suite, a work honoring the energy and depth of the natural world. Solar Return Suite is performed in honor of the 20th anniversary of its premiere by the MIT Wind Ensemble in 2006. It features MacArthur Fellow and GRAMMY®-winning saxophonist Miguel Zenón, Professor of Jazz at MIT, alongside the internationally renowned jazz guitarist Ben Monder.
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MIT K-12 Climate Action & Education Conference
Saturday, May 9
9 AM - 4 PM
MIT Sloan School of Management, 100 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-k-12-climate-action-education-conference-tickets-1986002343471?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Join MIT CATE for workshops, speakers, and panels focused on current climate issues aimed at high school students and K-12 educators & admin
Teachers, high school students: join us for climate and energy workshops focusing on education, activism, policy, and readily available resources.
MIT's Climate Action Through Education (CATE) Program, alongside Subject to Climate, welcomes high school students and K-12 teachers/administrators to engage with local climate and energy organizations, educational resources, research, and experts.
The conference will offer an exclusive look at CATE's high school climate curriculum (materials for English, History, Math, and Science classrooms) with workshops to consider classroom implementation.
Collaborators will also host workshops about the youth-led climate movement in MA, Subject to Climate's online educator resources, the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator, the MIT Climate Policy Center's work and research, and other climate education resources, followed by an expert panel. Join us to learn how you can make a difference in your community with education and action.
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Corporate Reckoning: How Businesses Can Address Historical Wrongs
Monday, May 11
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/kelman-seminar-corporate-reckoning-how-businesses-can-address-historical-wrongs/
Sarah Federman Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego
Survivors and descendants continue to demand reckoning from governments, universities, museums and seminaries for participation in a variety of historical wrongs. Increasingly, corporate executives also find themselves called upon to atone for their predecessors’ moral transgressions. While many business leaders can address inherited failed product lines or dysfunctional teams, fewer know how to handle demands that their enterprise address legacies of mass atrocity such as slavery, genocide, or colonialism. When survivors and descendants demand reckoning, many corporate leaders initially shirk the responsibilities that follow from these requests. They may claim that history belongs to the historians, that their company’s activities were legal at the time, or that too much time has passed. If it comes to it, courts will rule in their favor, they reassure themselves. Others avoid these issues simply because they have no idea how to address them.
In this webinar, Sarah Federman provides a pathway forward that serves companies and those affected by these historical harms. The atonement model she presents is developed in her new book, Corporate Reckoning (MIT Press, 2026), which offers case studies across atrocities, industries, and geographies.
Demands for reckoning ebb and flow, but these histories do not disappear. Taking responsibility for irreparable harm is not easy or comfortable. Despite the dilemmas and difficulties, the only way out is through.
About the Speaker:
Sarah Federman is Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies. She is the author of the award-winning books Transformative Negotiation and Last Train to Auschwitz, as well as two coauthored anthologies, Introduction to Conflict Resolution and Narratives of Mass Atrocity. Her latest book is Corporate Reckoning, published by MIT Press on April 21, 2026. In addition to her literary works, in 2022 Federman testified before Congress concerning the responsibility of US banks to respond to their slavery ties. Federman’s TEDx talk on this topic has been selected by TED’s main conference for wider promotion.
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Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work
Monday, May 11
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alvin-e-roth-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1984822822492
Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Alvin E. Roth—Nobel Prize–winning economist, the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard University—for a discussion of his new book, Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work. He will be joined in conversation by Ray Fisman—who holds the Slater Family Chair in Behavioral Economics at Boston University.
About Moral Economics
A Nobel Prize–winning economist shows us why we have to deal in trade-offs when we can’t agree on what’s right and what’s wrong.
Some of the most intractable controversies in our divided society are, at bottom, about what actions and transactions should be banned. Should women and couples be able to purchase contraception, access in vitro fertilization, and end pregnancy by obtaining an abortion? Should people be able to buy marijuana? What about fentanyl? Can someone be paid to donate blood plasma, or a kidney?
Disagreements are fierce because arguments on both sides are often made in uncompromising moral or religious terms. But in Moral Economics, Nobel Prize–winning economist Alvin E. Roth asserts that we can make progress on these and other difficult topics if we view them as markets—tools to help decide who gets what—and understand how those markets can be fine-tuned to be more functional. Markets don’t have to allow everything or ban everything. Prudent market design can find a balance between preserving people’s rights to pursue their own interests and protecting the most vulnerable from harm.
Combining Roth’s unparalleled expertise as market design pioneer with his incisive, witty accounts of complicated issues, Moral Economics offers a powerful and innovative new framework for resolving today’s hardest controversies.
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What are Tipping Points and Why Do They Matter? With Tim Lenton OBE
Tuesday, May 12
1 AM - 2 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-are-tipping-points-and-why-do-they-matter-with-tim-lenton-obe-tickets-1987597863715
Webinar discussing environmental tipping points with world expert, Tim Lenton OBE
UKY4N is thrilled to host a webinar with Professor Tim Lenton OBE, exploring the role of tipping points and systems change in the climate and nature crises. Tim is Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter, where he was founding Director of the Global Systems Institute. He has more than 25 years research experience, focused on modelling life’s coupling to the Earth system and associated tipping points. Tim is world-renowned for his work identifying climate tipping points, which informed the setting of the “well below 2°C” climate target.
Recently Tim has highlighted the opportunities for positive tipping points to accelerate social change towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions and global sustainability. In 2025 he was awarded an OBE “for services to understanding climate tipping points”.
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Saving Lives in a Warming World: Investing in Climate Services for Health
May 12
9:00 - 10:15am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/5/saving-lives-warming-world-investing-climate-services-health
From heat stress and outbreaks of climate-sensitive diseases to infrastructure disruptions and emergency response failures, climate change is intensifying health risks around the world. It is increasingly critical for governments and communities to better anticipate and prepare for risks before they escalate — through early warning systems, disease surveillance, analysis of disease vectors, public awareness campaigns and more resilient health facilities. These proactive measures, collectively known as climate services for health, are powerful yet underfunded tools for reducing climate-related sickness and death.
Investing in tools and services that enable governments and communities to stay ahead of climate-related health risks generates strong economic returns — by preventing illness, saving lives, and avoiding costly disruptions to health systems. But what does it take to scale climate services for health? How can countries integrate them into national health planning and financing? And what role can international organizations and funders play in accelerating their adoption?
In the lead up to the World Health Assembly, join us for a high-level discussion featuring global leaders and experts on how countries and partners are advancing climate-informed health systems. Drawing on new WRI research commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation, which highlights the economic case for climate services for health, this conversation will explore practical pathways to move from evidence to implementation — helping to protect lives, strengthen resilience and improve health outcomes in a warming world.
Speakers
Greg Kuzmak, Director, Health Initiative, Rockefeller Foundation
Ousmane Ndiaye, Director General, the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development
Madeline Thomson, Head of Climate Impacts, Wellcome Trust
Joy Shumake-Guillemot, Chief of the WHO/WMO Joint Climate and Health Office
Carter Brandon, Lead Author and Senior Fellow, WRI
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Progress Is Built: Practical Solutions for Today’s Energy Moment
Tuesday, May 12
12–1 p.m. ET/10–11 a.m. MT
Online
RSVP at https://rmi.tfaforms.net/219
Energy progress doesn’t happen all at once. It’s built — step by step — through practical decisions, rigorous analysis, and sustained effort.
Join RMI leadership — including cofounder Amory Lovins — for a grounded, forward-looking conversation on what’s working now and what it takes to scale real-world clean energy solutions in today’s energy landscape. This conversation reflects the kind of progress your support helps make possible.
At a time of rising global energy constraints, we'll look at what’s working now — made possible by the support of our donor community.
Moderated by Vikram Singh, this discussion brings together CEO Jon Creyts, Amory Lovins, Sarah Ladislaw, and Debbie Gordon to share practical solutions that strengthen affordability, reliability, and energy security — drawing on decades of experience building and scaling solutions.
As today’s system faces rising demand and volatility, they’ll explore:
What solutions are working right now — and why they make economic sense
What it takes to turn bold ideas into durable, real-world impact
Where progress can accelerate in today’s rapidly shifting landscape
Because lasting progress isn’t flashy. It’s built.
Join us for a clear, solutions-focused conversation on what comes next— and how real progress continues to take shape.
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Climate Change, Drinking Water Security, and Public Health Book Launch
Tuesday, May 12
12 PM - 1 PM
MIT D-Lab, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, MIT N51-310 Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-drinking-water-security-and-public-health-book-launch-tickets-1988099556291
Lunch-n-Learn presentation by D-Lab's Libby Hsu & Susan Murcott on the themes of their chapters in this recently published textbook.
Join MIT D-Lab for a Lunch-n-Learn to celebrate the publication of a new textbook, Climate Change, Drinking Water Security, and Public Health, and the three chapters authored by D-Labbers! D-Lab Associate Director of Academics Libby Hsu and D-Lab Lecturer Susan Murcott will discuss their chapters and discuss with attendees! A light lunch will be served.
The chapters:
Drinking Water Status Around the World and Its Effect on Health - Libby Hsu, MIT D-Lab Associate Director of Academics
Waterless and Low-Water Sanitation Technologies that Improve Quality of Life and Conserve Water Resources - Libby Hsu, MIT D-Lab Associate Director of Academics
Impact of Climate Change and War on Water, the Environment, and Health in Ukraine - Boris Faybishenko, Chad Cox, Oksana Halych, Volodymyr Korniichuk, Yevgen Matseliuk, Susan Murcott, D-Lab Lecturer, et al.
Libby Hsu graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received master's degrees in structural engineering and building technology from MIT.
She leads D-Lab's academic program by managing its teaching team, creating and promoting a coherent strategy for D-Lab's academic offerings at MIT, aligning D-Lab's educational mission with its research and practice work around the world, and building instructors' capacity to provide transformative educational experiences to their students.
Libby is also an educator who teaches D-Lab: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene and D-Lab: Development; coordinates D-Lab's student work in many countries including Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic; and trains D-Lab trip leaders who are taking students to the field. She has worked with dozens of students on projects related to sanitation, water quality, education, and participatory design; and is also a first-year adviser.
Susan Murcott an environmental engineer with a focus on water, is a Lecturer in MIT D-Lab where she teaches Thermal Energy Networks for Decarbonization of Campuses, Neighborhoods, and Cities ((EC.716 / EC.786 (G)) and D-Lab: Water, Climate Change, and Health (EC.719/EC.789). She has led MIT student teams in over 25 countries spanning five continents.
In 2014-2015, she led the water filter evaluation of the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE), a five-year USAID-funded project. From 2005 to the present, she founded and helped establish the non-profit organization, Pure Home Water, with Ghanaian partners, which has built a ceramic pot filter factory in northern Ghana. She was the principal investigator of a team, in partnership with the Environment and Public Health Organization in Kathmandu, Nepal, that invented and widely disseminated the KanchanTM Arsenic Filter, as well as being involved in MIT-funded emergency relief following the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Murcott is the author of over 50 professional papers as well as the book Arsenic in the World: an International Sourcebook.
Editorial Comment: I’ve known Susan Murcott for 30 years. She has consistently done the work all around the world.
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Edinburgh Earth Initiative: Multilateralism at a Crossroads
Tuesday, May 12
2 PM - 3:30 PM
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-earth-initiative-multilateralism-at-a-crossroads-tickets-1988079439120
Hybrid panel discussion exploring Multilateralism at a Crossroads: Reimagining Global Climate Cooperation in a Fragmented World.
This event seeks to critically examine the evolving landscape of multilateralism in the context of climate governance, interrogating how law, science, diplomacy, and environmental politics intersect in shaping global climate action today.
At present, the international climate regime stands at such a critical and defining juncture. Whereas frameworks such as the Paris Agreement have long symbolised the strength of multilateral cooperation, recent geopolitical developments—including rising great power competition, shifting alliances, resource nationalism, and conflicts—are increasingly testing the resilience and effectiveness of multilateralism in addressing climate change.
The urgency of the climate crisis demands coordinated global action. Yet, the current geopolitical climate risks fragmenting consensus, slowing ambition, and complicating the implementation of collective commitments. Questions are emerging as to whether existing multilateral structures remain fit for purpose, or whether new approaches to cooperation, negotiation, and governance are long overdue.
Collective action
At a time when collective action is more necessary than ever, this event provides a timely platform to reflect on the future of multilateralism in climate governance.
By bringing together diverse expertise and perspectives, the discussion aims to contribute meaningfully to ongoing debates on how best to sustain and strengthen global cooperation in the face of unprecedented geopolitical turbulence.
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Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Tuesday, May 12
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Dylan Gottlieb—Assistant Professor of History at Bentley University and cohost of Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism Podcast—for a discussion of his new book, Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York. He will be joined in conversation by Quinn Slobodian—Professor of International History at Boston University and author of Globalists, Crack-Up Capitalism, and Hayek’s Bastards.
About Yuppies
How the rise of Wall Street in the 1980s lured a generation of young upstarts to New York, unleashing a political and cultural transformation whose national repercussions are still felt today.
Yuppies may have been a classic 1980s stereotype, but they were also a very real demographic: a wave of hundreds of thousands of highly educated young professionals that washed over New York during that decade. As Wall Street moved to the center of American life, it drew a generation of young people into its vortex. For the first time, banks recruited roughly one-third of graduating classes from top universities.
America’s economy had a new main character. Young bankers extracted profits from waning industries, shattering the foundations on which stable middle-class employment had long rested. Yuppie lawyers devised deals and tax strategies that eroded workers’ power and wages. As consumers, yuppies created new cultures of fitness and of excess, popularizing marathon running and fine dining as status markers. As city-dwellers, they were pioneers of gentrification. And as voters and political donors, yuppies engineered a takeover of local and national government, using their wealth to back candidates who would remake the country in their image.
Yuppies reminds us that we still live in the shadow of the greed-is-good 1980s: Our cities are playgrounds for the wealthy, and Wall Street and Washington remain locked in a tight embrace. Dylan Gottlieb’s exquisite recounting leaves no doubt that the yuppie takeover of New York began a more unequal chapter in American life—one we continue writing today.
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Stories from a warming world
Wednesday, May 13
7:00 pm Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth AvenueBoston, MA 02215O
RSVP at https://www.wbur.org/events/1078962/stories-from-a-warming-world
Cost: $10.00–30.00
Join Boston University’s Center for Media Innovation & Social Impact at CitySpace for a special event featuring journalists, filmmakers, photographers, activists and scholars sharing intimate stories of survival, resilience, identity and memory in a time of environmental upheaval. From the floodwaters of New Orleans to the green shoots of a community garden in East Boston, hear tales about what we share, what we cherish, what we're losing and how we might move forward together.
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[UK] Local elections 2026: Implications for just climate action
Thursday, May 14
9 - 10 EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-elections-2026-implications-for-just-climate-action-tickets-1985918005213
Join our panel of leading climate researchers and activists to unpack what May's local election results mean for climate action in the UK.
UK politics is in a state of considerable flux, and while climate action is not driving that volatility, it is caught up in its implications. Parties both opposing climate action and those arguing for its acceleration are gaining in support, and the older consensus-based politics of climate change has all-but collapsed. Social justice and inequality are also at the heart of the competition between those pushing for climate action and those opposing it.
With the May 2026 local elections offering fresh insight into these shifting dynamics, the JUST Centre is convening a panel of leading climate researchers and activists to unpack what the results mean for climate action in the UK.
This webinar will feature analysis from JUST Centre members on emerging political volatility as it affects climate change, a preliminary interpretation of the election outcomes and a live Q&A with our panel.
The session will also explore:
What the election results tell us about political pressures on climate policy
The role of social justice in climate politics
The best strategies for pushing for socially just, transformational action on climate change.
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Talking Climate in the Age of Disinformation! Action Party
Tuesday, May 19
7 PM - 8 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-climate-in-the-age-of-disinformation-action-party-tickets-1986927323110
Join this Climate Action Party to explore how climate communication and bold conversations can cut through disinformation!
"The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: [is] talk about it." That's the famous rallying cry of climate scientist and communicator Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. No group has taken it more to heart than Climate Action Now's community of CAN-Doers, with nearly four million messages sent and thousands more going out every week.
But we're living in a new Age of Disinformation. People inhabit alternate information universes. The fossil fuel industry controls the conversation in one of them. The word "climate" has become a culture war trigger that causes minds to slam shut. And even among climate advocates, climate action is losing ground to fears for our democracy. So the question we have to ask is: is talking about climate still an effective strategy?
In this Climate Action Party, we'll learn from two of the world's most gifted climate communicators. We'll hear from Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and author of Talking Climate, whose research shows that values-based conversations can open minds even across deep political divides; and Bernadette Woods Placky, Chief Meteorologist, whose work connects local weather to climate change for audiences across the country. The conversation will be moderated by Jessica Craven, community organizer and author of the popular Substack newsletter Chop Wood, Carry Water. Together, we'll get their fresh takes on what's working, what's changed, and how to keep climate in the conversation when the odds feel stacked against us.
While we learn from our experts, you’ll also be invited to take action with the free CAN Action Carousel from Climate Action Now. Let's keep the climate conversation alive and turn it into action!
About Our Expert Speakers
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is one of the world's most celebrated climate scientists and communicators, renowned for her ability to connect climate change to the values and lived experiences of diverse audiences. As Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancyand an author on multiple U.S. National Climate Assessments, she brings rare credibility to both the science and the conversation. Her PBS series Global Weirding, bestselling books Saving Us and A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions (co-authored with her husband, Andrew Farley), and weekly Substack newsletter Talking Climate have made her one of the most widely reaching voices in climate today. Named one of Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders and recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People, Dr. Hayhoe is a powerful example of what it looks like to keep talking about climate, even when it's hard.
Bernadette Woods Placky is a veteran meteorologist and leading climate communicatorwho has spent her career connecting the dots between everyday weather and the broader climate crisis. An Emmy Award-winning weathercaster, she spent more than a decade in local TV news and holds both the AMS Seal of Approval and the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist distinction. Her work has helped transform local weather broadcasts into a powerful vehicle for climate education, reaching millions of Americans in their own communities and in their own language. She has presented on global stages, including COP 21 in Paris and serves as an elected member of the National Academy Board of Atmospheric Science and Climate. A passionate advocate for science communication, she is widely recognized for making climate change tangible, relevant, and actionable for everyday audiences.
About Our Moderator
Jessica Craven is a community organizer, activist, mom, and elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. She’s also the author of Chop Wood, Carry Water, a daily actions Substack newsletter that’s been published five days a week since November of 2016. She’s a delegate to the California Democratic Party, a climate activist, and a grassroots volunteer who has knocked on doors, phone-banked, fundraised, texted, and postcarded for hundreds of progressive candidates. She’s also a political TikTok content creator and a correspondent for Courier News.
About Our Climate Action Parties
An Action Party is an online event that packs valuable information and concrete action into a 60-minute venue.
Each Action Party has an environment-related topic and features guests who are experts in that topic. We begin with a 10 minute presentation, followed by a panel discussion. Participants are invited to share questions for the panelists. Throughout the event, optional action-taking with the Climate Action Now app is available. The actions have been prepared in advance to help participants take the most impactful action in the shortest period of time. The party's moderator sets a goal for the number of actions to be taken and shows participants their progress towards that goal in real time with an online, automated goal tracker.
Action Parties are free and open to all who seek a more just and sustainable world, but we welcome donations to help us continue our mission of creating a just and liveable planet for all.
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The microscopic world of kelp forest ecosystems
Tuesday, May 19
9pm - 10pm EDT [6pm to 7pm PT]
Hopkins Marine Station, Izzie Abbott Boatworks Auditorium, 120 Ocean View Blvd Pacific Grove, CA 93950
And online
RSVP in person at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/friends-of-hopkins-talk-brooke-weigel-the-microscopic-world-of-kelp-tickets-1988033337228
RSVP online at https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1mZzxy5rSU6Wftf6xe_6mw#/registration
Towering giant kelp forests can reach heights of 100 feet tall in our coastal ocean, but did you know that half of the kelp life cycle is microscopic – hidden beneath the waves on the ocean floor? In this talk, Dr. Brooke Weigel will take you on a tour of the microscopic world contained within kelp forest ecosystems. In addition to growing and studying microscopic kelp in her lab at Hopkins, Brooke's research zooms in even further - using genomic tools to discover the diverse microbial communities that live on the surfaces of kelp. Every square centimeter of kelp hosts 25 million bacteria - but what do they do for the kelp? Are they friends or foes? Join us as we dive into the microscopic world of our local kelp forest ecosystems!
Dr. Brooke Weigel is an Assistant Professor of Oceans at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.
Registration required whether attending in person or via Zoom.
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Advancing Indigenous and diverse knowledge systems in global assessments
Wednesday, May 20
9 AM - 10:30 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/advancing-indigenous-and-diverse-knowledge-systems-in-global-assessments-tickets-1986319921355
How to meaningfully and ethically engage Indigenous and diverse knowledge into global assessments, with insights from IPCC/IPBES authors
Global environmental assessments, such as those conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), increasingly recognise the importance of engaging Indigenous and diverse knowledge systems.
However, translating this recognition into meaningful and ethical practice remains a complex challenge.
This webinar will create a space to reflect on these issues. Building on findings from a recent study on authors’ perspectives, the session will explore real experiences of engaging Indigenous and diverse knowledge systems into global assessments.
It will examine both the persistent barriers and enabling conditions identified by contributors involved in past processes.
Through interactive audience engagement, participants will be invited to reflect on how the insights and recommendations from the study and the expert panel resonate with their own experiences and how they can inform future work.
Structure and outcome
The webinar will consist of a:
Presentation of key findings and recommendations from the recent IIED study on authors’ perspectives (IPCC and IPBES)
Panel of speaker reflections from authors involved in global assessments, and
Interactive discussion, audience engagement and idea sharing to arrive at shared insights from authors and practitioners and the identification of practical approaches to improve future global assessment processes.
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Extreme Heat for Contractors and Landscapers
Wednesday, May 20
4 PM - 6:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/extreme-heat-for-contractors-and-landscapers-tickets-1988107250304
Learn how to build climate-resilient homes,address extreme heat impacts, protect health, and apply practical adaptation strategies for CA.
Extreme Heat for Landscape and Construction Professionals As one of the most climate-stressed places in the world, California experiences profound and varied impacts across its vast expanse. Preparing for climate change requires learning how to adapt in the face of this change in order to increase the resilience of communities, natural systems, and our built environment to withstand and recover from climate-related disruptions. Climate adaptation and resilience are related, but distinct concepts. Generally, climate adaptation is an action or set of actions that reduces physical climate risk, which builds climate-resilient communities.
This training will provide climate benefits by teaching those who work directly with residents, homeowners, property managers and building owners to understand climate resilient options to make buildings more resilient to the increasingly costly effects of climate change. This will help California achieve a carbon-neutral economy, and workers will be at the center of this effort.
The foundation of this content will be based on communicating to industry professionals what the short and long-term impacts of extreme heat are on worker and community health, with strategic solutions on how to mitigate those impacts. Lastly, it will address climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience by training contractors to adopt best practices for home improvements to reduce the impacts of extreme heat.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Learn that weather is not the same as climate; climate will impact weather patterns, making them more difficult to predict and more severe.
Learn that urban areas, while more sustainable in certain elements, can cause a heat bubble in the way we currently design our cities, heating and cooling.
Learn that our current infrastructure cannot support the all electric goals we have to reduce emissions. Renewable energy will have to replace all current energy use so we need to reduce our use by making more efficient systems along with electrification.
Learn that we have the knowledge and skills to build climate resilient communities, now we need to change our thinking to make this the standard.
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Nitrogen Scarcity, Surplus, and Carbon Impacts in Northeastern US Forests
Thursday, May 21
11 AM - 12 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nitrogen-scarcity-surplus-and-carbon-impacts-in-northeastern-us-forests-tickets-1987865766018
Speaker: Christy Goodale, Cornell University
On Thursday, May 21 @ 11am ET, join us for a virtual scientific seminar by Dr. Christy Goodale, Cornell University.
In temperate forests, scarcity of nitrogen – a vital nutrient – often constrains plant growth, while nitrogen excess causes a host of soil, air, and water pollution problems. Most of these effects hinge on the fate of nitrogen entering terrestrial ecosystems and the capacity of plants and microbes to acquire and retain it. Research insights gained from stable isotope (15N) tracer studies, ecosystem monitoring, and a long-term (2011 – present) N x pH fertilization experiment highlight important roles of seasonal variations in N uptake processes, forest soils as nitrogen sources and sinks, and changes in plant above- and belowground C allocation and ecosystem C storage in response to variations in N availability. These advances in forest carbon-nitrogen biogeochemistry are used to inform both ecosystem theory and the Earth System models used to predict terrestrial carbon sequestration and future climate.
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The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky
Thursday, May 21
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T6gslRTtRyGQZf854UnkQQ#/registration
Join Erica Chenoweth and Steven Levitsky for the eighth session of The Breakdown, a webinar series on the ongoing struggle for American democracy. Each month, Chenoweth and Levitsky will break down key developments, reflect on this moment’s historical precedents both at home and abroad, and offer evidence-based reflections on the path forward.
Speakers include:
Erica Chenoweth, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard Kennedy School
Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government at Harvard University
This event is online only and registration is required. A recording will be made available after the event’s conclusion. The information collected in the registration form is for internal use only and will not be shared externally.
The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. Should you wish to enquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event.
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How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University
Thursday, May 21
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Theo Baker—undergraduate at Stanford University and the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award—for a discussion of his book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University. He will be joined in conversation by Indira Lakshmanan—co-host of NPR's Here & Now.
About How to Rule the World
Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford’s president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubris.
Slush funds. Shell companies. Yacht parties. This is life for Silicon Valley’s favored teenagers.
Seventeen-year-old Theo Baker showed up for freshman year at Stanford University as a tech-obsessed coder. It seemed like paradise. There were Rodin sculptures next to nuclear laboratories and inventors lounging with Olympians. But Baker soon discovered a culture that embraced corner-cutting, that vested infinite excess and access in the hands of kids with few safeguards to catch bad behavior.
Stanford, he realized, was less a school than a business. Its annual budget was nearly twice that of Harvard or Yale and higher than those of 116 countries. The product? Students. Especially those special few identified as the next trillion-dollar startup founders. For them, there were secret societies, “pre-idea” funding offers, and social calls from billionaires, all with the expectation that these geniuses would soon join the ruling elite.
At the helm of this business was Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a superstar neuroscientist and wealthy biotech executive. But when Baker joined the student newspaper and started poking around the Stanford president’s record, he discovered never-reported allegations of research misconduct in studies published across two decades bearing Tessier-Lavigne's name.
Only one month into college and thousands of miles from home, Baker began receiving anonymous letters, going on stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources. High-powered lawyers and public relations teams were hired to attack his reporting. Stanford opened an investigation into its own leader. And by the end of the year, Tessier-Lavigne was out as president.
This is the incredible journey of a reluctant teenage reporter who uncovered a story that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world—and what they’re learning from those who already do.
How to Rule the World is a shocking, hilarious, and moving debut, showcasing Silicon Valley’s training ground as never before.
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How community energy can scale social and environmental impact
Friday, May 22
7am - 8am EDT [12:00 - 13:00 BST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.sei.org/events/scaling-community-energy-for-impact/
Join this webinar to explore how community energy initiatives across the UK can grow their impact through citizen-led approaches. Drawing on insights from SEI’s Community Energy – Citizen Science project, Luke Gooding will highlight practical lessons for scaling community energy in ways that are socially inclusive and environmentally effective.
In this webinar, hosted by the Energy Institute, Luke Gooding will share insights and findings from SEI York’s Community Energy – Citizen Science (CE-CS) project.
The CE-CS project brought together community energy groups and stakeholders across the UK and used a citizen science approach to explore how these initiatives can scale their activities while maximising social and environmental impact. During the webinar, Luke will draw on this research to highlight lessons from engagement with community organisations. He will focus on the governance, finance and delivery challenges these groups face, as well as the support they identify as needed from policy and industry.
The session will also reflect on the role of citizen-led approaches in shaping more inclusive, locally grounded energy transitions and consider the implications for practitioners working across the sector.
Speaker
Luke Gooding, Research Associate at SEI York (luke.gooding@sei.org}
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Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund
Friday, May 22
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Molly Crabapple—two-time Emmy Award-winning animator, author of Drawing Blood and co-author of Brothers of the Gun, long-listed for a National Book Award—for a discussion of her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. She will be joined in conversation with Shaul Magid—author of many books and Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence at Harvard University.
About Here Where We Live Is Our Country
The dramatic story of the Jewish Bund—a revolutionary movement from a vanished world—and their radical vision of solidarity in an age of division.
When artist Sam Rothbort created his “Memory Paintings” in the aftermath of the Holocaust, he was trying to resurrect the vanished world of his shtetl childhood. When his great-granddaughter, the award-winning artist and journalist Molly Crabapple, discovered his archives decades later, one painting stood out: a girl, her dress the same color as the sky above, hurling a rock through a cottage window. Itka the Bundist, Breaking Windows.
That single painting sent Crabapple on a journey into the Jewish Labor Bund. Once the most influential Jewish political force in eastern Europe—and a player in some of the most important events of the twentieth century—they were secular, socialist, and uncompromisingly anti-Zionist. They fought for dignity and equality, not in an imagined homeland in Palestine, but “here, where we live.”
In the first popular history of the Bund, Crabapple recreates their extraordinary world through dramatic portraits of leaders and foot soldiers alike. The characters Crabapple brings to such vivid life—insurgent poets and anti-religious rebels, clandestine revolutionaries and lovers on the barricades—live deeply through this violent, volatile, and somehow hopeful period, their stories intimately bound up with the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust. Crabapple also grapples with the vital question raised by their rise and fall: What can we learn from a movement that, for all its toughness, imagination, and moral clarity, was largely destroyed?
With intimate portraiture and sweeping history, Here Where We Live Is Our Country reanimates a band of idealists who broadened our global political imagination. As we once again contend with nationalism, repression, and the struggle for belonging, the Bund’s remarkable story and message—that liberation, dignity, and solidarity must begin where we stand—reaches across time as a guide to our own urgent moment.
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Curious and Complex Connections: Environmental History and the War of Independence
Wednesday, May 27
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EDT
MA Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215-3695
And online
RSVP in person at https://18308a.blackbaudhosting.com/18308a/Curious-and-Complex-Connections-Environmental-History-and-the-War-of-Independence--In-Person-Prog
RSVP online at https://18308a.blackbaudhosting.com/18308a/Curious-and-Complex-Connections-Environmental-History-and-the-War-of-Independence---Virtual-Prog
Cost: $0 - $10
David Hsiung, Juniata College, in conversation with Joyce Chaplin, Harvard UniversityThis program was rescheduled from its original date of 20 October 2025.
Many of us give only a moment’s thought about the environment when considering the War of Independence: the slope of Breed’s Hill, the ice-choked Delaware River, and diseases such as smallpox. But what might we gain by connecting biology, ecology, and geology to the thinking and actions of soldiers and civilians? Rebels and British soldiers acquired and used energy in the form of food, fuel, and work animals, which shaped people’s lives, the course of the war, and the direction of environmental change. Join us as David Hsiung, in conversation with Joyce Chaplin, discusses the intricate and often surprising ways in which the natural environment and the war changed each other.
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Jeremy Lent / Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All
Wednesday, May 27
10 PM - 11:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jeremy-lent-ecocivilization-making-a-world-that-works-for-all-tickets-1982670686395
Get ready to dive deep into creating a sustainable future for all with Jeremy Lent in this eye-opening event!
Jeremy Lent in conversation with Stuart Cowan
City Lights and Melville House present Jeremy Lent discussing his new book Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All Published by Melville House
It has often been said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism—and yet that is what the historical moment urgently calls for. Climate change has reached an emergency state, inequality continues to grow, and, for many, the future has never seemed more bleak. Incremental policy improvements are no longer enough—we need a deep transformation of our current civilization to continue to survive.
In Ecocivilization, leading thinker Jeremy Lent reimagines the basis of our civilization, and argues for a new global system of living, one based on life-affirming principles modeled after nature’s own design. What enfolds is a robust framework incorporating Lent’s own expertise, and the lived experiences of those on the ground already putting ecological civilization’s core tenants into practice—justice, mutuality, diversity, and symbiosis.
From the global economy to universal housing and income, from infrastructure to agriculture, every major aspect of our society could be redesigned to work together as a coherent whole, setting the conditions for all people to flourish. Ecocivilization shows how this future on a regenerated Earth is not only desirable, but entirely feasible.
Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. He is the author of the books The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe. He is the founder of the Deep Transformation Network, a global community exploring pathways to an ecological civilization, and the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth. He lives with his partner in Berkeley, California.
Stuart Cowan brings 25 years of experience as a planetary strategist, ecological designer, systems scientist, and regenerative economist. Stuart currently serves as Executive Director of Buckminster Fuller Institute, where he launched the BFI Innovation Lab + Venture Studio to support a cohort of about 10 initiatives centering planetary thriving, ranging from life-centered AI to bioregional-scale regeneration.
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Modelling to Policy: Circular Economy Pathways Towards Net-Zero
Thursday, May 28
7am - 12pm EDT[13:00-18:00 Brussels]
Brussels
And online
RSVP at https://iiasa.ac.at/events/may-2026/modelling-to-policy-circular-economy-pathways-towards-net-zero
Volker Krey, Research Group Leader and Principal Research Scholar (IACC, S3)
Marina Jovanovic, Project Officer (ECE, IACC)
Pat Wagner, Program and Project Officer (IACC, S3, TISS)Event details
Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE)Integrated Assessment and Climate Change (IACC)Developing circular pathways for a EU low-carbon transition (CircEUlar)
A dynamic afternoon exploring evidence-driven insights on climate mitigation contributions from circular economy strategies for construction - buildings, transport and energy infrastructure; services - housing and mobility; and system-wide enablers and impacts including digitalization, behavior change, and rebound effects.
The CIRCOMOD, CircEUlar, and CO2NSTRUCT Horizon Europe research projects are hosting their final joint conference “Modelling to Policy: Circular Economy Pathways Towards Net-Zero”, taking place on 28 May 2026, from 13:00 to 18:00 CEST, at Thon EU in Brussels. This interactive event will delve into emerging key messages on circular economy strategies, identify key priorities for further research and present policy recommendations supporting an EU low-carbon transition. The day will close with a networking session over drinks, giving participants the chance to connect, exchange ideas and continue the conversation.
Highlights of the program / What to expect:
Keynote speakers and project contributions - the coordinators of the three sister projects, University of Utrecht’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development - The Netherlands, International Institute for Applied System Analysis based in Austria and Technical University of Denmark will lead the discussions on circularity pathways, key messages, further research and policy recommendations.
Policy panel discussion - Leading researchers will present cutting-edge results on a range of circular economy strategies, and prominent policy specialists - experts in current and upcoming EU-level policy developments - respond fueling discussion and dialogue. Attendees, both online and in person, will be invited to engage and ask the panelists questions to help guide the exchange.
Interactive breakout sessions - Participants can partake in facilitated discussions and practical exchanges across three thematic areas all linked to circular economy pathways, strategies and practices:
Construction approaches: Ecosystem of materials industries, built assets, transport and energy infrastructure at scale led by CO2NSTRUCT
This session explores circular construction strategies and practices, implications for material industries (e.g., steel, cement, glass, copper), supply chains, sustainable material choices, and infrastructure design to reduce material use and emissions. Policymakers, material and sector specialists, industry professionals in construction and infrastructure, and researchers will find this session particularly relevant.
Service-focused measures: Integrated solutions for mobility and housing - led by CIRCOMOD
This session focuses on solutions for transportation and housing services and sectors to reduce material demand as well as their interconnections. It will also touch upon urban form, waste and household appliances. It aims to speak to policymakers, planners, transport and housing officers, and researchersworking on sustainable mobility and shelter.
System-wide enablers: digitalization, behaviors, rebound effects and economic impacts - led by CircEUlar
This session explores the key drivers shaping circular transitions, from digitalization and socio-economic dynamics to citizen behaviors and the broader rebound effects and economic impacts they generate. Policymakers, social scientists, researchers, and civil society actors interested in systemic circular economy strategies will gain the most from this discussion.
Networking opportunities - The event will also offer dedicated slots for networking, enabling participants to connect and exchange ideas with researchers who are currently at the forefront of academic expertise in this field after intensively studying the topic for the past four years.
Who should attend
This event will be particularly relevant for policymakers, industry representatives, researchers, and professionals working on sustainable construction, mobility, planning, housing, circular economy initiatives, and environmental policy.
All sessions, except the breakout sessions, will be streamed online on the day and open to all. In-person participation is by invitation only.
More details and registration information will follow soon. If you are interested in attending please contact:
CircEUlar - circeular.secretariat@iiasa.ac.at
CIRCOMOD - a.a.doranova@tilburguniversity.edu
CO2NSTRUCT - co2nstruct@sustain.dtu.dk
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Voices of Change: An online youth panel on hope, agency and action
Thursday, May 28
1 PM - 2:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/voices-of-change-an-online-youth-panel-on-hope-agency-and-action-tickets-1983535094864
Youth voices lead the way for nature: young people share how all of us can drive climate action and create a wilder future.
What does it look like when young people lead the way for nature? As part of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Centenary Wild Weekend, this candid and energising panel brings together some of the UK’s most compelling youth voices in climate and nature action. Representatives from grassroots movements, national campaigns and creative activism will explore how change actually happens – from reimagining local communities, to transforming education, to championing urgent action through writing, organising and direct community projects. Featuring emerging leaders including Jaz Brook- Sustainability, Social Impact and Youth Empowerment Specialist, alongside Scarlett Westbrook- Teach The Future, this discussion invites audiences into a hopeful, practical dialogue about the steps we can each take today to build a wilder future.
Open, optimistic and rooted in real experience, Voices of Change celebrates a generation refusing to wait its turn – and shows how all of us can take meaningful action for nature, right now.
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Budgeting in Place: How People's Budgets Shape Civic Life
Thursday, May 28
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/69e13733b6c4ac1fedccd7f1
Each year, cities and towns release budgets that allocate public funding for municipal services and public infrastructure. While these budgets can feel like mundane, bureaucratic documents, they’re central to the functioning of civic life—and from Boston to Nashville, everyday people across the U.S. are increasingly taking a more active role in shaping the line items on these important public ledgers.
On Thursday, May 28 from 5:30-7:30 pm, join us for an in-person conversation and workshop to learn more about participatory budgeting and People’s Budgets campaigns. Learn how residents can contribute to their city’s budget processes. Moderated by LMEC staff member Ian Spangler, this event brings together a panel of experts from Boston, New York City, and Nashville for a discussion about what participatory budgeting is, where it came from, and how you can get involved.
Light fare will be provided by the Kirstein Business Library & Innovation Center.
Meet the Panelists
Dr. Emily Barrett is a community-based researcher whose work focuses on economic geography, urban development, and affordable housing. Her recent research examines debates over public goods and municipal budgeting in U.S. cities, analyzing how they shape community-led efforts to create more affordable cities. Emily has an ongoing collaboration with the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition.
Dr. Celina Su is the inaugural Marilyn J. Gittell Chair in Urban Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, as well as Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College. Her academic, pedagogical, and creative work focuses on everyday struggles for collective governance, centering economic democracy and racial justice. Grounded in specific struggles and with specific communities (e.g., in education organizing in the South Bronx, refugee public health in northwest Thailand, and participatory budgeting in New York City), Celina’s work seeks to engage critical, bottom-up perspectives across geographical locales and disciplinary lines. Her latest book is Budget Justice: On Building Grassroots Politics and Solidarities, from Princeton University Press.
The Better Budget Alliance is a grassroots coalition of community-based organizations in Boston working to increase democratic control over Boston’s public budget. Since the passage of participatory budgeting through a ballot initiative in Boston in 2021, the Better Budget Alliance has convened a dynamic team of community leaders, participatory budgeting experts, and academic researchers to engage more Bostonians in the budget process and advocate for a city-wide participatory budgeting process that center equity and transparency. The BBA is currently organizing the People’s Campaign in Boston—join us to learn more.
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Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Saturday, May 30
7:00pm (doors open at roughly 5:30pm)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/senator-chris-murphy-at-first-parish-church-tickets-1986465894966
Cost: $20.00 (admission only); $45.00 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes Senator Chris Murphy—lawyer, author, and politician serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Connecticut—for a discussion of his new book, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America. He will be joined in conversation by Heather Cox Richardson—professor of history at Boston College and bestselling author of Democracy Awakening.
Note: Books bundled with tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand. Ticket holders who purchased a book-included ticket and are unable to attend the event will be able to pick up their book at Harvard Book Store up to 30 days following the event. This offer expires after 30 days. Please note we cannot guarantee signed copies will be available to ticket holders who do not attend the event.
Please be aware that security measures at the venue will be heightened for this event. Large bags or backpacks will not be permitted. If you must carry a bag, please use a small wristlet or handheld wallet, or clear plastic, vinyl or PVC. All items brought into this event are subject to inspection.
About Crisis of the Common Good
A prominent senator assesses the destructive ideas that have seized the American spirit—and shows how the hidden alignments in our politics can free us from their hold.
Today, the United States is in a crisis—and it’s not just a political one: over fifty years, the pursuit of profit has undermined virtue and character, while too many of us have become convinced that happiness results from acting as good consumers, rather than as good citizens. New technologies threaten essential human capabilities, and a winner-takes-all mentality has given the rich and well-connected nearly uncontested control and has corrupted our government. The result: Americans have lost the sense of purpose and connection that are vital to happiness. In this vacuum, Donald Trump, feeding off the emptiness and resentment, has come to power.
In recent years, Senator Chris Murphy has stepped forward to challenge the Trump administration’s assaults on our democracy. He sees that these assaults are a symptom of a deeper crisis: the abandonment of the common good as our country’s organizing principle. In his unflinching new book, he draws on history and political philosophy to expose how six different cults have seized hold of American life and paved the way to our current troubles: cults of profit, globalism, technology, consumption, credentialism, and corruption.
Refusing despair, Murphy offers a new politics of the common good that is both deeply rooted in our past and a challenge to the status quo. A majority of Americans favor policies that confront these destructive cults by curbing corporate power, controlling predatory technology, enhancing face-to-face connection, granting workers greater control of their lives, and removing big money from our politics. The common good, Murphy shows, is a vital principle ready to be claimed today.
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2026 International White Hat Conference
Monday, June 1-Wednesday, June 3 • 9 AM-8 PM
Park Hyatt Mendoza, Mendoza, Mendoza
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-international-white-hat-conference-tickets-1985606246735
Get ready to dive into the world of mega events with cybersecurity experts across the globe at the 2026 International White Hat Conference!
The 2026 International White Hat Conference is themed "Cybersecurity & Digital Crime Prevention: Building Global Readiness for Mega Events."
Global mega events such as the FIFA World Cup present heightened risks related to cybersecurity threats and digitally enabled crime. These risks include cyberattacks, cryptocurrency-related financial crime, identity theft, online fraud, and technology-facilitated human trafficking—many of which are increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
The 2026 International White Hat Conference addresses the growing need for coordinated global readiness to prevent, investigate, and prosecute cybercrime and digital offenses associated with large-scale international events. The conference convenes law enforcement agencies, prosecutorial offices, cybersecurity and Al experts, cryptocurrency investigators, industry professionals, policymakers, and academic researchers from around the world.
Through evidence-based research, prosecutorial and investigative case studies, and cross-sector dialogue, the conference focuses on emerging technologies, threat intelligence, legal and regulatory frameworks, and operational strategies to strengthen cybersecurity preparedness and digital crime prevention efforts.
Join virtually or attend in-person in Mendoza, Argentina, June 1-3, 2026!
Conference Address: Park Hyatt Mendoza, Chile 1124, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
Hosted by the Government of Mendoza, CLICLEX, Boston University, and the Center for CIC
Learn more about the White Hat Conference at https://live.bu.edu/whitehat/
Learn more about Cybersecurity Programs at Boston University Metropolitan College at https://www.bu.edu/met/cyber/
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The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government
Wednesday, June 3
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.harvard.com/event/barbara-mcquade
Cost: $12.00 (admission only); $42.00 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes Barbara McQuade—author of the national bestseller Attack from Within and the first woman to serve as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan—for a discussion of her new book, The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government. She will be joined in conversation by Carmen Ortiz—partner at Anderson Kreiger in Boston and the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
About The Fix
The New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Attorney offers a piercing exposé on the escalating threat of far-right politics—and a clear roadmap for saving our democracy.
In The Fix, McQuade draws on her decades of experience as a federal prosecutor to reveal how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power—using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. With clarity, precision, and moral force, she exposes the tactics of today’s far-right MAGA system: information warfare, aggressive retribution, conformism enforced by fear, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances necessary to defend the public interest and uphold justice.
Weaving together courtroom stories, real-time political analysis, and cautionary lessons from history and democratic backsliding abroad, McQuade makes the case that the threats we face are not future possibilities—they’re already here. Yet The Fix is not just a warning; it is a call to action. In the book’s final chapters, McQuade outlines common-sense reforms and strategies that can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people.
Accessible, eye-opening, and grounded in constitutional faith, The Fix is essential reading for everyone concerned about the future of America—and ready to work together to take a stand for it.
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House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Wednesday, June 3
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Book Store welcomes Justin Baer—award-winning journalist and editor for The Wall Street Journal—for a discussion of his new book, House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing.
About House of Fidelity
The gripping, definitive account of the private family behind one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world.
When Edward C. Johnson 2d founded Fidelity in 1946, investing was a pursuit reserved for the elite. Today, more than $15 trillion flows through Fidelity’s customer accounts and investment funds—touching the lives of one in five American adults. Fidelity helped invent modern retail investing: democratizing access to mutual funds, introducing the 401(k), and upending the need for traditional brokers. But behind the scenes of this financial juggernaut is a family saga unlike any other.
In House of Fidelity, veteran journalist Justin Baer tells the definitive story of the Johnsons—a New England dynasty that fiercely guarded control of their company while reshaping Wall Street. From the founder’s bold leap into Boston’s insular investing circles, to the meteoric rise of Peter Lynch, to behind-closed-doors battles over succession and legacy, Baer reveals a company and a family locked in a delicate balance of innovation, influence, and internal power struggles.
House of Fidelity is a sweeping history of American investing—and the dynasty that came to define it.
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Conference: Geo-Solutions for the Energy Transition
Wednesday, June 10 - 11
MIT, Building 55-110 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge, MA
The path to a net-zero future runs directly through the earth beneath our feet.
As the global energy landscape shifts, subsurface innovation is becoming the backbone of decarbonization. MIT’s Earth Resources Laboratory is hosting a two-day conference to take a deep dive into the technical and economic scaling of:
Advanced geothermal systems (EGS)
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)
GeoH2
Critical minerals
Wild card factors
This summit will bring together geoscientists, engineers, policy-makers, and industry leaders to bridge the gap between traditional geoscience and the renewable frontier. We especially encourage students and postdocs to attend and present on their work. The conference will be a mix of oral and poster presentations.
Advanced registration is required. Free to attend, but space is limited — contact erl-info@mit.edu to request the registration link.
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