In the News
4/22 - Welcome to Earth Day! The Daily Northwestern reports on a packed week of programming on campus. Read the follow-up to Jean-Michel Cousteau's evening keynote here. You can also see wonderful video coverage of the Project Survival panel and the Cousteau presentation, done by Medill Reports, here and here.
4/1 -Sustainability: The Journal of Record covers Northwestern's 1970 "Project Survival" and the upcoming April 22, 2010 alumni panel in its April edition, which reports on what a number of organizations and institutions are doing to commemorate this auspicious 40th anniversary.3/31 - In a bid to reduce US reliance on energy imports, President Obama will open additional areas offshore to oil and gas exploration, much of it virgin drilling territory.
3/24 - Chicago has been ranked as a top-5 US city for energy efficient buildings by the US EPA.
3/2 - The Chicago Tribune reports that Evanston has joined the EPA's Community Climate Change Initiative as one of 35 Midwest cities to participate. Evanston became an official partner by joining the Energy Star Challenge as well as the new WaterSense Program.
2/16 - The New York Times reports that President Obama has approved an $8.3B federal loan guarantee for the proposed construction of 2 nuclear reactors in Georgia. If built, they would represent the first new reactors built in the US since the 1970s. See the below Feb. 1st news for past signals from the Obama administration that increased support of nuclear power would be a component of the FY 2011 federal budget.
2/15 - The major storms hitting the East Coast over the past two weeks do not contradict claims that the Earth is warming. In fact, we generally see more snow in warmer years.
2/10 - China, increasingly the largest competitor for the United States in the manufacture of the underlying infrastrucutre neccessary for the transition to a clean energy economy, is establishing a national renewable energy center, and may establish its first city-wide cap-and-trade system in Tianjin, aimed at reducing China's carbon intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) 40-45% below 2005 levels, by June 2010.
2/1 - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said that the proposed federal budget will eliminate funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Neverthless, President Obama has called for "building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country" during the State of the Union, and the proposed DOE budget will triple federal loan guarantees to $54B for new reactor construction. Read a summary of FY 2011 budget proposed spending on the energy industry here.
1/28 - Medill Reports covers the reunion of Project Survival alumni, 40 years after the historic event on Northwestern campus. Many of these accomplished individuals will be traveling to Northwestern in April for the campus' Earth Day celebrations.
1/27 - The New York Times reports that Yale and Columbia have just released their updated 2010 Environmental Performance Index, in which the US economy ranked a distant 61st out of 163 countries.
1/8 - President Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for clean tech projects. Funding for the tax credits will come from the $787 billion economic recovery package approved by Congress in early 2009. 4 of the 137 recipients are based in the Chicago-land area and secured awards totaling $47.7 million.
1/7 - The USA Today reports that clean tech accounted for 25% of venture capital investments in 2009, up from 3% just 5 years ago.
12/19 - Read the updated text of the final, non-binding political agreement that emerged from Copenhagen. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has made available all important documents related to the summit in Copehagen via its website.
12/18 - A day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conditionally pledged US support for a Global Climate Fund to help developing nationas combat the effects of climate change, President Obama spoke candidly to delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The President emphasized the neccessity of an internationally coordinated, multi-pronged approach, comprised of Mitigation, Transparency and Funding.
11/5 - The New York Times reports that no legally binding Climate Change Treaty will be reached at the Copenhagen Conference in December.
11/5 - The Daily Northwestern covers a host of Green Initiatives, from Campus to Copenhagen.
11/5 - The Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) hosted its first-ever Climate Change Symposium. The day long event brought in a distinguished panel of speakers to address current research and policy in the field. See Medill's excellent coverage here.
10/9 - A morning panel on Energy and Sustainability lead up to the Inauguration of Morton O. Schapiro as the 16th President of Northwestern University later in the day. Thomas Friedman, author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded and Mark Ratner, co-director of the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) - One Book's host-department this year at NU - were among those on the distinguised panel. Hear an archive of the discussion here. The 10/12 edition of the Daily Northwestern also covered the event.
10/7 - Northwestern scored higher on its 2010 College Sustainability Report Card - largely on the back of improvements in its Food Recycling and Green Building - but still has a long way to go. Make sure to check out NU's survey data to see what goes into the rankings and learn about Northwestern's Sustainability efforts on campus.
10/6 - The Washington Post reports that President Obama has signed an Executive Order requiring for the first time ever that federal agencies measure their GHG emissions and set and achieve reduction goals by 2020.
9/25 - According to the Washington Post, "...Climate change is happening faster and on a broader scale than the world's scientists projected in 2007, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program."
9/25 - The Daily Northwestern reports on the possibility of a way to green NU's campus...
Other News
Congrats to Green Cup and Greek Green Cup for a successful 2010 campaign! See here for the winners and associated electricity/water usage decreases.
The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern has special coverage on Climate Change throughout the year.
The Daily Northwestern.com reports on author Thomas L. Friedman's visit to campus in October for President Schapiro's Inauguration. ISEN is hosting the One Book One Northwestern program next year, using Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded. See the Events page for more detail.
Even President Obama is reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded! Read the news on Slate.com.
Read the latest Energy and Sustainability-related Op-Ed columns by Thomas Friedman from the NY Times:
5/4/10: No Fooling Mother Nature
4/28/10: Failure is Not an Option
4/24/10: A Tea Party With a Difference
3/7/10: Dreaming the Possible Dream
2/28/10: How the G.O.P. Goes Green
2/17/10: Global Weirding is Here
1/6/10: Who's Sleeping Now?
12/23/09: The Copenhagen That Matters (includes material from Monica Prasad, faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at NU)
12/20/09: Off to the Races
12/9/09: Going Cheney on Climate
11/18/09: What They Really Believe
11/15/09: Lost There, Felt Here
11/11/09: Trucks, Trains and Trees
10/6/09: Our Three Bombs
9/19/09: Real Men Tax Gas
9/15/09: Have a Nice Day
Science In Society
 |
NATURE'S BLUEPRINT FOR GOING GREEN 9/11 - Looking at photosynthesis to design the basis for new and innovative solar cells. |
 |
OUR SOLAR FUTURE 9/11 - How are researchers working to make solar energy less expensive and more widespread? |
 |
BATTERIES: A GREEN ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTION 9/20/08 - Can battery technology address the problem of intermittent supply from renewables? |