Tag: ” Global warming
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Nation & World
Shell makes 5-year gift to fund Harvard energy policy research
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) is the recipient of a five-year $3.75 million donation from the Shell Exploration & Production Co., KSG Dean David T. Ellwood recently announced. The funds will be used to enhance and expand University research efforts on critical issues of energy policy.
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Nation & World
Biologists remember landmark theory
Forty years ago, Edward O. Wilson and Robert H. MacArthur described how size and isolation determine how many species an island can support. Last week, biologists gathered to mark the theory’s anniversary, calling it a “pivotal point” in ecology’s relatively short history.
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Nation & World
Crimson with a touch of green
When Drew Faust is inaugurated as Harvard’s 28th president this week, there will be more than a touch of green to go with the crimson.
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Nation & World
Harvard brings the Earth to high school
Steam vents in Yellowstone National Park are part of the area’s unique environment, seen in a case study exploring Yellowstone and the reintroduction of wolves into the park. This case study is part of a new environmental science course for high school science teachers.
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Nation & World
Digging for solutions to energy crisis
In the 1970s, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it is one of the richest, with a per capita GDP higher than that of Denmark, from which it won full independence in 1944.
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Nation & World
Warming may not spark tree growth
A bright spot in the gloomy global warming picture has been scientists’ predictions that at least some carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere by a burst of growth from tropical forests. New research from the Arnold Arboretum, however, questions that prediction, finding that trees in two forests on opposite sides of the world…
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Nation & World
Jackson raps abundance of ‘experts’
In 1973, Shirley Ann Jackson became the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Decades – and 38 honorary degrees – later, Jackson is the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. Her resume includes time as a university researcher (in theoretical elementary particle physics);…
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Nation & World
Arctic hit by global warming first
Scientists from the eight nations bordering the Arctic recently enlisted representatives of the region’s native peoples to help assess climate change there. What they found put a human face on a debate often involving distant projections and abstract numbers. Less snow, less sea ice, freezing rain in winter, and the appearance of mosquitoes and robins,…
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Nation & World
Big brains better for birds
As you might guess, big-brained birds survive better in the wild than those less cerebral for their size. Scientists guessed that too, but they had to prove it to themselves.
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Nation & World
Step-by-step to a cleaner energy future
A Princeton University energy expert laid out a framework to arrest atmosphere-warming carbon emissions over the next 50 years, saying he was optimistic that significant action could be taken to…
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Nation & World
Green Campus Initiative looks at global environment
The Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) invites University faculty, staff, students, and alumni to its upcoming conference, titled “Harvard Vision 2020: A Bridge to Campus Sustainability,” to contribute their thoughts…
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Nation & World
Study shows escalating climate change impacts
The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, along with co-sponsors Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Programme, has released a study showing that climate…
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Nation & World
Warming called a global ‘experiment’
Climate scientist Daniel Schrag says that human-caused climate change is inevitable, though scientists don’t know exactly how severe or even exactly what its effects will be. Schrag said the public…
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Nation & World
Researchers observe ozone killer
Harvard researchers have implicated a particular molecule in the destruction of Earth’s ozone layer. The molecule, made up of two chlorine atoms and two oxygen atoms, is called a chlorine…
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Nation & World
Pollen production — and allergies — may rise significantly over next 50 years
Ragweed, which flourishes along roadsides and in disturbed habitats throughout North America, produces one of the most common allergens. A study by Harvard researchers found that ragweed grown in an…
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Nation & World
Atmospheric chemists fly high and low for novel carbon dioxide measurements
Political leaders throughout the world have taken notice of the increasing levels of carbon in the atmosphere and have begun negotiations on how to mitigate “greenhouse” gases through accords such…
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Nation & World
Polar bear research shows global warming is real
Harvard Professor James McCarthy was among a handful of top scientists who coordinated a remarkable report by the world scientific community in 2001 that said global warming is real, it’s…
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Nation & World
Protecting nature religiously
“Our religious institutions are the only institutions that are not completely implicated in the culture of materialism and growth,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and a fellow at Harvard…
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Nation & World
Scientists probe Northern Hemisphere ozone loss
The ozone layer shields us from cancerous ultraviolet radiation. Understanding how it is being destroyed was the mission of more than 350 scientists from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan,…