Climate change

The price of fresh airHow costly are the health damages from air pollution in China?

Moving climate change regulation forwardU.S. chief climate negotiator, MIT panel examine the science and policy of global warming.

Science and policy can catalyze each other, EPA head saysIn MIT visit, Lisa Jackson discusses how technology can affect government regulations.

Study: U.S. drought risk to increase with climate changeWhile impacts will vary by region, projections indicate that drought frequency will increase throughout most of the contiguous United States.

Reading Earth’s magnetic historyNew tool allows unprecedented accuracy in dating of some seafloor rocks, with potential to help climate analysis.

What's the price of environmental policies?Joint Program report examines discrepancies in climate-change cost estimates

Minor changes in precipitation may have major impact on groundwater supplies in arid regionsCrops and timing of storms amplify role played by rainwater.

Laws of attractionOcean micro-organisms are shown to behave like larger animals in the presence of sulfur. Might this offer clues about the roles they play in regulating Earth’s climate?

Study sees changing intensity of storms from warmingHemispheres will respond to climate change differently, with weaker summer storms in the North, study suggests.

More hurricanes in greener seas?Research suggests ocean color is linked to formation, movement of tropical cyclones

The aerosols conundrumResearch shows that aerosols not only cool, but also heat the planet — a finding that may cloud the validity of climate-change models.

Lunch with a Laureate: Eric ChivianPresented by the MIT Museum and the Cambridge Science Festival

Helping cities adapt to climate changeField-based graduate training program releases new publication

Chris Zegras on greenhouse gases and the built environmentpresented by Transportation@MIT

MIT-led clean-energy projects win ARPA-E funding$11 million in grants to Institute research awarded in DoE agency’s second round

Providing for future energy needsStrategies for safe, economically competitive nuclear power

Wind resistanceMIT analysis suggests generating electricity from large-scale wind farms could influence climate — and not necessarily in the desired way.

Explained: Radiative forcingWhen there’s more energy radiating down on the planet than there is radiating back out to space, something’s going to have to heat up

Ecological balancing actPhytoplankton diversity depends on balance between competition and the ocean’s physical dynamics, new research suggests

Ancient hurricanesIntense hurricane activity millions of years ago may have caused and sustained warmer climate conditions, new research suggests

A silver lining to the Copenhagen cloud?Though widely seen as a failure, December’s climate conference may actually have set the world on the right path, panelists suggest

Americans still concerned on climate change, but less supportive of major action, MIT survey finds

Can a game save the world?New game will teach students collaboration skills--and might help fix climate change in the process

Carbon-capturing enzyme: MIT chemists learn from nature

Figuring out where to put the carbonIf we plan to keep using fossil fuels, we need to figure out how to sequester the resulting carbon dioxide. New tools from MIT could help evaluate where to do it — and how to keep it contained.

Creating a game plan for transition to a sustainable economyJeffrey Hollender enumerates the many reasons he’s feeling bleak these days.

Harnessing the world’s collective intelligence to deal with climate changeClimate Collaboratorium lets the public review the impacts of plans now being discussed and debated internationally