Tag: <span>carbon</span>

Fighting Climate Change, One Utility Bill at a Time

I recently started work  for the data team at Bright Power, a company with a mission to help meet and track energy efficiency needs for various multifamily building clients in an effort to combat climate change. What drew me to Bright Power was their clear commitment to that mission, so …

Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire: Influence of Arctic Tundra Fire on Methane Dynamics

Putting Theory into Practice The Arctic is the fastest-warming place on Earth. It’s one thing to learn about rapid climate change as a Bard CEP Climate Science and Policy graduate student from textbooks and classroom discussions. It’s a wholly more impactful experience to directly contribute toward advancing our scientific understanding …

Transforming Ain’t Easy

How does one transform a market? Who comprises a market? What does market transformation even mean? If there’s anyone to turn to answer these questions when it comes to the energy efficiency market, it’s the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a D.C. based non-profit that works to develop the market …

Balancing the greenhouse gas emissions budget: it’s not just carbon!–by Emma Elbaum

Imagine, for a moment, a seesaw. On one side, put volcanoes, fires, and decomposing plants. On the other side, put trees, oceans, crops, and gardens. This seesaw represents how carbon dioxide enters and leaves the atmosphere. Trees, oceans, soil, and living organisms remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, …

How data management is more challenging, and satisfying, than climbing mountains–by Holly Kistner

When I started graduate school at Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy (CEP), I also started my student employment with Bard’s Office of Sustainability as the “energy intern.” Less than a year ago, I would have laughed at the prospect of me working with energy data. Me? I’d just spent two …

A Not So Shrimpy Environmental Issue: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Aquaculture Production in Mangroves

Mangroves are arguably the coolest ecosystem on the planet, in addition to being one of the most biologically productive. Mangroves are trees with above-ground root systems that are partially submerged in water. They are located predominantly in tropical and subtropical coastal regions where freshwater meets the sea. These ecological powerhouses …

Grounds for Change: Building a sustainable business from the grounds up

“You could say this nation runs on two dark liquids — petroleum and coffee,” Professor Bob Thompson of Syracuse University once said. We’re constantly reminded of the social and environmental costs of our reliance on fossil fuels, but what about that other fuel? Conventional coffee: value without values Americans drink …

Wading in Wonky Waters

My name is Buck Doyle, and I am an accidental “Huge Policy Wonk,” or HPW.  I never expected to become one, it just kind of happened.  It dawned on me when I caught myself flipping through an article entitled, “Spatial distribution of US Household Carbon Footprints Reveals Suburbanization Undermines Greenhouse …

Realizing a Sustainable Future with NRDC

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a national environmental non-profit organization that has worked “to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends” since its foundation in 1970. NRDC draws on the expertise of lawyers, scientists, and policy advocates, as …

Collaborative Climate Education, Student Voices, and State Policy: Reflections on Power Dialog 2016

The week of April 4th, 2016, over a thousand of students from more than fifty colleges and universities in twenty state capitals participated in Power Dialog forums with state officials and other experts. The focus: state policy efforts to cut global warming pollution, and support the US commitment to reduce …