After roughly two hundred students from across Massachusetts walked out of classes today to call for strong action on climate change, Gov. Patrick (D-MA) agreed to meet with activists to discuss a ban on the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Photo credit: JP Lowenthal/ Students for a Just and Stable Future Facebook page “As […]
By Hannah Hickey Pine forests are especially magical places for atmospheric chemists. Coniferous trees give off pine-scented vapors that form particles, very quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. Forests are thought to emit many more of these scented compounds as temperatures rise, potentially slowing effects of global warming. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock New research by […]
What’s the best way to expose college students to the capabilities of solar energy? Have them build homes that will rely on it, of course. The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the 20 teams who will participate in the 2015 Solar Decathlon—a nearly two-year competition in which the teams will work together to build […]
By Rob Jordan When you are 50 feet long and weigh more than 40 tons—the maximum allowed weight on most U.S. highways—you need a lot of space to move around. Humpback whales, still recovering from whaling that wiped out as much as 90 percent of their global population, are confronted with new challenges caused by […]
With a shift of nearly two billion dollars away from fossil fuels, the divestment campaign has moved into new territory. Last week, seventeen of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations announced commitments to pull their money out of fossil fuel companies and reinvest it in the clean energy economy. The newly formed Divest-Invest coalition urges other organizations to take […]
Students across the country are escalating their campaigns for fossil fuel divestment after a number of high profile colleges and universities have rejected measures demanding they sell their stocks. Schools that have rejected requests for divestment include Harvard University, Cornell University, Middlebury College, Boston College, Vassar College, the City University of New York, Brown University and […]