Climate change

How to shape the anticipated build-out of industrial-scale renewable energy in a way that minimizes risk to wildlife remains contentious. The challenge of balancing wildlife conservation and decarbonization of the electricity sector is well …

Wind and solar energy will constitute an increasingly large share of the electricity generated in the United States as concerns grow about climate change, air and water pollution, and the political, social, and economic costs of reliance on fossil fuels. This will result in significant increases in the amount of land dedicated to energy production and transmission and, in turn, increase the potential for trade-offs to arise between the expansion of renewable energy capacity and competing land uses, including habitat for wildlife. In this project, I seek to understand the nature of these trade-offs and to identify potential solutions.

Last night I did something that I rarely do: I coerced my son into watching a documentary film with me. Obigatory family viewings of “important” movies always feels stilted to me, like making a passenger in your car listen to your favorite song and insisting that they pay close attention to the lyrics. Climate change has been much on my mind this week. Not just because we are enduring yet another early-season heat wave here in the northeastern US, but also because I’m attending the Mind and Life Institute’s Summer Research Institute, which this year has the theme of “The Mind, the Human-Earth Connection, and the Climate Crisis”.