Accelerating Action for a sustainable future

Join the Salata Institute for an informal discussion with Harvard experts on Hurricane Milton. Dan Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, will address the impacts of climate change on hurricanes, generally, and what we can know about the role warming oceans may have played in intensifying Hurricane Milton. Satchit Balsari, Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Co-Director of CrisisReady, will speak to the impacts of the storm on human health and displacement and what can be expected as the recovery progresses.

Join the Salata Institute for an informal discussion with Harvard experts on Hurricane Milton. Dan Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, will address the impacts of climate change on hurricanes, generally, and what we can know about the role warming oceans may have played in intensifying Hurricane Milton. Satchit Balsari, Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Co-Director of CrisisReady, will speak to the impacts of the storm on human health and displacement and what can be expected as the recovery progresses.

Interested in where Harvard’s recycling ends up? Join us for a tour of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), our recyclables’ first stop on their journey to be processed into new materials! Get a firsthand look at the processes that separate paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal items. You’ll hear why certain contaminants are worse than others, and get to see the MRF’s latest robotic sorting technologies!
The tour will be held Monday, October 21st from 10am – 12pm (includes travel time). Transportation will be provided from Harvard Square; further details provided on registration confirmation.

The tour is open to Harvard students, staff, and faculty. Advance registration is required. Space is very limited, so sign up now if you are interested! We expect spaces to fill quickly.

Join Harvard Radcliffe Institute for the opening keynote session of the conference, “Power Shift: Energy Innovation, Sustainability, and Equity,” with Massachusetts Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—adopted by all member states of the United Nations—emphasizes “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.” Familiar alternative technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, and lithium storage cannot, however, meet the challenge alone, in either capacity or equity.

Pursuing a sustainable energy agenda necessitates producing energy more efficiently, more locally, and less harmfully to the environment and our communities. Our energy future requires radical innovations in energy production and distribution, with an emphasis on the equitable division of benefits and burdens across global and local communities.

Fortunately, exciting new developments at the frontiers of science and engineering—from fusion and hydrogen fuel to micro-fission and decarbonized global shipping—are paving the way for an energy revolution. Technologies first imagined in science fiction are fast becoming practicable realities. These developments can also help overcome the geographic constraints, socioeconomic inequities, and disparate impacts of current energy policy. The 2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute science symposium will bring together scientists, public officials, industry leaders, environmental justice advocates, and behavioral scientists to investigate an equitable energy revolution, critical to the future of our planet.