News from

Climate Change

Reset All Filters
564 Results
A multidisciplinary approach to considering the Earth’s changing systems
view of earth from space

(Homepage image) Touching on a broad range of topics from climate’s impact on national security to resilient building design to emissions related to food production, the course aimed to boost students’ understanding of earth systems and climate literacy. (Image: NASA)

A multidisciplinary approach to considering the Earth’s changing systems

Bringing expertise from each of their disciplines, the School of Arts & Sciences’ Kathleen Morrison and Joseph Francisco and the Environmental Innovations Initiative’s Melissa Brown Goodall infused chemistry, anthropology, policy, and more into an introductory course on climate and the environment.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Islands on the climate front line
Four people sit on a stage at Perry World House.

Island ambassadors to the United Nations speak at the Perry World House Global Shifts Colloquium event moderated by Michael Weisberg (fourth from left).

Islands on the climate front line

Perry World House’s Global Shifts Colloquium looked at how islands can protect their people, build resilient communities, and safeguard their environment in the climate crisis.

Kristen de Groot

Turning Latin America green
Windmills on the coast of Chile.

Turning Latin America green

Santiago Cunial, a doctoral candidate in political science, investigates issues surrounding green energy in Chile and Argentina.

Solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC
Side of a building. Some of the window spaces are covered with bars. Others are covered with plants and other options for greening the building.

Solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC

The latest assessment offers both a harsh reality check and a path forward. Experts William Braham, Peter Psarras, and Michael Mann offer their thoughts.

Michele W. Berger

Protecting a singular ecosystem in the Galápagos
Giant tortoises on the Galápagos Islands.

The Galápagos giant tortoises at the the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galápagos Islands. (Image: Elias Rovielo)

Protecting a singular ecosystem in the Galápagos

Michael Weisberg, the Bess W. Heyman President's Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, students, and Ecuador's Ambassador to the United States reflect on the momentous expansion of the Galápagos Marine Reserve.

Blake Cole

Where rising seas threaten drinking water, scientists look for affordable solutions

Where rising seas threaten drinking water, scientists look for affordable solutions

Research led by Allison Lassiter of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design aims to identify water systems along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that are vulnerable to saltwater intrusion. “Besides being unpleasant to drink, salinized water can harm vulnerable populations, including people with hypertension and pregnant women,” she said.

Climate scientist Michael Mann to join Penn faculty
Michael E. Mann.

Michael E. Mann is Penn’s inaugural Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science. (Image: Joshua Yospin)

nocred

Climate scientist Michael Mann to join Penn faculty

Mann is the first new faculty member to be recruited as part of the recently announced Energy and Sustainability Initiative as a Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Unlocking the potential of ‘smart’ water in responding to climate change
Aerial view of a flooded Texas town.

Columbus, Texas, was one small town that experienced devastating floods from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Allison Lassiter’s research focuses on coastal communities from New Jersey to Texas. (Image: Weitzman News)

Unlocking the potential of ‘smart’ water in responding to climate change

Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning Allison Lassiter researches unlocking the potential of ‘smart’ water in responding to climate change.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Four takeaways from the IPCC’s report on climate adaptation and vulnerability
Person in SCUBA fear floating over bleached coral reefs.

Evidence of coral reef bleaching in a seabed off Hachijo-jima Island in Tokyo, November 2020. The latest report from the IPCC focuses on how climate change is affecting coral reefs like this and other biodiversity, as well as people and places. (Image: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)

Four takeaways from the IPCC’s report on climate adaptation and vulnerability

The assessment gets explicit about the effect of climate change on people, places, and ecosystems. Experts from Penn weigh in on what it means.

Michele W. Berger

Robert Gerard Pietrusko on landscape design, spatial modeling, and conspiracy theories
Person standing in front of two giant panels of film projected on the wall of NASA footage of a storm on planet Earth.

Still from In Plain Sight, a geospatial documentary that critiques the NASA “night lights” dataset and reveals locations with lights and no people, and locations with populations living in the dark. (Image: Weitzman News)

Robert Gerard Pietrusko on landscape design, spatial modeling, and conspiracy theories

Robert Gerard Pietrusko joined the standing faculty of the Department of Landscape Architecture as an associate professor, and teaches a landscape architecture studio called Conspiracy as Method, which looks at a number of natural disasters that have been attributed to climate change.

From the Weitzman School of Design