Author: Nicolas Lusardo (Page 1 of 12)

Sept 13: Rio+20: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

When: Thursday, September 13, 12pm – 1pm

Where: Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room on the Medford Campus (map)

Join us as we start off the fall 2012 semester with a team of Tufts faculty, staff, and students who attended the Rio+20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this past June 2012. The main purpose of their trip was to host a side event titled “From Burden Bearing to Opportunity Sharing: Reframing Environmental Negotiations,” focusing on how the current negotiations can shift from a pollution prevention framework to opportunities for sustainable development through access to cleaner energy technologies, resilient development, access to fresh water, and improved health. Team members also conducted their own research and analyzed the Rio+20 text that was being negotiated. The panel will discuss some key themes that came out of Rio+20 and some ideas for ways forward.

Panelists include:

Kelly Sims Gallagher is Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School at Tufts. She directs the Energy, Climate, and Innovation (ECI) research program in the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP). Broadly, she focuses on energy and climate policy in both the United States and China. She is particularly interested in the role of policy in spurring the development and deployment of cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, domestically and internationally.

Mieke van der Wansem is the Associate Director of Center for Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School. Mieke has over fifteen years of experience as organizational and program leader and manager, trainer, facilitator, and researcher on environmental and natural resource policy issues.

Laura Kuhl is a doctoral candidate at Fletcher, focusing on environmental policy and development economics. She is a recipient of a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship in Water and Diplomacy. Current research projects include the study of technology transfer for adaptation conducted with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and a NOAA-funded project on climate change adaptation, sea level rise and environmental justice communities conducted in collaboration with a team from Tufts, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the University of Maryland.

Rishikesh Bhandary is a doctoral candidate at Fletcher, focusing on international environment and resource policy and negotiations and conflict resolution. He has a keen interest in climate change policy and is looking to explore innovative sources of finance and market based strategies for low carbon development.

Andrew Tirrell is a doctoral candidate at Fletcher, a human rights attorney and sustainable development researcher, focusing on rights-based approaches to natural resource development and climate change adaptation. Much of his past research has been in Latin America and Southeast Asia on issues of development and human rights, but he has just begun a new project examining climate change adaptation in arctic regions.

Sponsored by Tufts Environmental Studies Program, Lunch and Learn Series and The Tufts Institute of the Environment.

Sept 17: CIERP Meet & Greet

When: Monday, September 17, 5:30pm – 7:00pm

Where: Chase Center, Carmichael Hall (map)

Join us for light refreshments while learning about the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy’s ongoing research, upcoming events, internship and job opportunities, as well as other Tufts environmental programs and centers.

Click here for more info.

April 28: Mystic Earth Day River Cleanup

When: Saturday, April 28th from 10:00am until noon

Where: Assembly Row, Waterfront Park in front of the Staples lot, 165 Middlesex Avenue, Somerville, MA

Join the Mystic River Watershed Association and Gentle Giant Rowing Club for an Earth Day River Cleanup along the Mystic River on Saturday, April 28th from 10:00am until noon. Parking is available in the Staples parking lot and volunteers are needed to remove trash along the banks of the Mystic. Find out more here (http://mysticriver.org/watershed-clean-ups/). At noon volunteers can join the City of Somerville at the DCR Blessing of the Bay Boathouse on Shore Drive for a spring clean-up BBQ.

Eco-Reps visit local wind turbine

Last Monday, the Tufts Eco-Reps (along with a few Eco-Ambassadors and staff members who graciously offered to give us a ride) took a field trip to the wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School in Medford… a mere three miles from the Tufts campus! If you’ve ever driven down I-93 or the Mystic Valley Parkway, it’s hard to miss the towering 150-foot-high structure next to the Mystic River. The renewable energy icon was officially unveiled back in January 2009 but has already generated upwards of 250,000 kWh of energy since it became operational 3 years ago.

Tufts students and staff members visit Medford wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School

Northern Power Systems, the electrical engineering company that built and manages the turbine, provides real-time data of the turbine’s total energy production, saved energy costs, and even the current rotor speed! Our hosts, Carey Duques, Director of Energy and Environment for the City of Medford, and Alicia Hunt, Medford Energy Efficiency Coordinator, explained thatteachers at McGlynn Middle School have incorporated hands-on lessons from the turbine into their classroom curriculum in order to teach students the benefits of community wind. Although the project faced opposition from those fearing it would be an eyesore, a Medford clean-energy committee worked on the project for three years and was able to raise nearly $650,000 in grant money to pay for the turbine. The project has a payback period of 5-7 years with a carbon emissions offset of 133 tons per year. Read the case study about this exciting innovation in renewable energy in our very own community.

On a national level, there is good news from the US Department of Energy (DOE) – last week, the Obama Administration announced an agreement to streamline offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. The DOE also awarded more than $5 million for advanced fuel cell research and $10 million for promoting zero-emission vehicles.

If you are interested in exploring more topics related to energy, The 2012 Tufts Energy Conference is being held on campus next week from April 20-21. Register here. We hope to see you at Cabot Center next week!

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