The Interfaculty Initiative on the Environment, one of five Interfaculty Initiatives overseen by the Provost, is accelerating its teaching, research, and outreach activities thanks in large part to continuing support from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. More than 40 faculty from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, the Divinity School, the Kennedy School of Government, the Law School, and the School of Public Health have joined forces in an attempt to discover new ways to address worldwide environmental problems.

Recently, the Kann Rasmussen Foundation awarded the initiative $1.68 million for several specific undertakings, including research projects in China and India, Nieman environmental fellowships, development of the first environmental science and public policy archive, an environmental ethics seminar, and the enhancement of the National Public Radio program, Living on Earth.

In 1993, the Foundation made a $2 million gift to support the Initiative on the Environment for the four years through June 1997. Also, the Kann Rasmussen Foundation has provided funding to the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment, as well as the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, through which the Foundation has supported a series of 10 conferences on religions of the world and ecology.

Provost Harvey V. Fineberg said, "The Initiative on the Environment has exceeded all our expectations to date. Without the Kann Rasmussen Foundation's initial gift, we would not have been able to begin so rapidly. The Foundation's additional support allows us now to progress to the next stage on a number of fronts."

The Foundation indicated that it was extremely pleased with Harvard's utilization of its initial four-year grant and has decided to support the University's further efforts in the environmental field.

Some of the initiative's accomplishments to date include establishment of an undergraduate concentration in environmental science and public policy, the launching of a major international research project on environmental issues in China, and the creation of a series of public lectures on cutting-edge environmental issues.

"What is extraordinarily important about the Kann Rasmussen Foundation's second grant is that it allows us to increase the volume of our projects, and make those that we undertook with the Foundation's initial funding more complete," said Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and chair of the University Committee on the Environment (the initiative's governing group).

The Kann Rasmussen Foundation trustees are Hans Kann Rasmussen, Anne-Margrete Ogstrup-Pedersen, Aino Kann Rasmussen, H. N. Brandt, and Martin S. Kaplan, LLB '64.

Broad involvement across disciplines

Faculty involved in the Initiative on the Environment launched a major research project in China several years ago, partly funded by the Kann Rasmussen Foundation. A principal focus of the research involves "Joint Implementation" (JI), a plan for government-sponsored bilateral projects to use private investment capital to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

McElroy explained, "Joint Implementation has a powerful economic rationale: it is much cheaper per unit to limit greenhouse gas emissions in less-developed countries. Because of the global nature of the greenhouse hazard, one ton of carbon dioxide abated in China has the same environmental benefit as one saved in the United States."

McElroy continued, "Suppose someone in the United States wants to build a power plant in Beijing that produces more electricity with less coal. They run into numerous obstacles. What are the factors -- economic, political, legal, and cultural -- that are preventing such a move?"

Researchers, led by China Project executive director Chris Nielson, consider U.S. and Chinese laws; international commerce; negotiations to improve the environment; and the fairness of the JI strategy -- work that engages scholars of law, business, the social sciences, applied and natural sciences, politics, and economics.

"A significant factor in the China project is that Harvard faculty and researchers are working together with Chinese scholars and government officials to advance collectively issues around the environment," Nielson said.

Participant William P. Alford, director of East Asian Legal Studies and Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, indicated that his involvement in the initiative has had an impact on his teaching at the Law School. He said, "I now include cases on the environment in my courses."

Researchers will also conduct a survey of ordinary citizens' behaviors, attitudes, and living situations in Anqing, China, to attempt to understand the factors that influence local governments' abilities to implement Chinese environmental laws. Xiping Xu, associate professor of occupational epidemiology at the School of Public Health, has a long-term working relationship with officials in Anqing that is expected to help the project team.

Several other projects are planned in China, including a collaborative study between environmental epidemiologists and economists to evaluate the economic damage of health effects associated with air pollution in China. The faculty are also organizing a new venture project on reconciling economic development and environmental protection in India.

Activities extend beyond research

Given that environmental study involves multiple facets, the initiative's many endeavors also take forms other than research.

For instance, a Seminar on Environmental Values has been convened by the Divinity School Center for the Study of Values in Public Life and the University Committee on the Environment. The seminar allows scholars to come together across all disciplines and Schools to share the results of their research while they examine the ethical implications of the leading environmental issues of the day. "We want to promote the steady integration of ethical concerns into environmental policy making circles across the University and beyond Harvard," said director Timothy C. Weiskel.

The Kann Rasmussen gift will also fund the creation of the Environmental Science and Public Policy Archive. William C. Clark, Sidney Harman Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development at the Kennedy School of Government, said, "Many of the defining historical documents, reports, and correspondence of the contemporary environmental movement have escaped the notice of formal libraries and archives and, instead, are stored in the private offices of key actors. We will collect the materials to ensure that future generations can learn from our experiences and apply these lessons to policy."

Added Thomas M. Parris, environmental resources librarian at the Harvard College Library, "The archive has already attracted three major collections: national and international assessments of global environmental change from Kennedy School faculty; the personal library of international environmentalist Peter Thacher detailing the creation and evolution of the United Nations Environment Programme; and the Lamm family archive documenting the settlement of a large-scale mercury-poisoning episode affecting Ojibwe Indian reservations in northern Ontario, Canada."

The Kann Rasmussen Foundation's original grant established fellowships to encourage journalists to include environmental issues in their reporting. To date, six V. Kann Rasmussen Environmental Journalists have already spent a year at Harvard in the Nieman Fellows program. One is producing the first sustained coverage and analysis of environmental issues in Poland. Another has created a new, regularly scheduled news program on environmental issues for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Two more are providing increased environmental coverage for major California newspapers. Two new fellowships are funded under the new foundation grant.

Another communications project supported by the Kann Rasmussen grant is Living on Earth, the weekly international National Public Radio (NPR) series on the environment. The program's executive producer is Stephen T. Curwood, who is a visiting lecturer on environmental science and public policy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Through his association with the University, Harvard students conduct research and contribute to the radio series. "With nearly a half-million U.S. listeners weekly, NPR is an effective vehicle for imparting information about the environment," said Curwood. Living on Earth also is planning a Web site.

A new undergraduate concentration, Environmental Science and Public Policy (ESPP), has proved more popular than initial estimates predicted. According to Professor of Biological Oceanography James J. McCarthy, head tutor for the concentration, more than 115 students are enrolled currently in the concentration. "This is a strong, tough concentration. We require students to become fluent in economics, government, and hard science as they examine the interface between environmental science and public policy," McCarthy said. "They are learning to approach the subject with an interdisciplinary perspective that they use in a wide range of careers including law, business, medicine, environmental consulting, and public health."

McElroy and Curwood are team-teaching an ESPP course this fall on the worldwide environmental summit in Kyoto, Japan, scheduled for this December.

President Neil L. Rudenstine launched the Interfaculty Initiatives as part of The University Campaign. The others are Mind/Brain/Behavior, Ethics and the Professions, Health Policy, and Schooling and Children.