Page 55 - Environment Program News Today

Nikki DeVignes Nikki DeVignes is the Associate Director of the Energy and Environment Program where she leads operations, logistics, finance, and accounting as well as provides critical support for all aspects of the program’s forums and convenings. Additionally, she serves as the Director of the Future Leaders Initiative. Launched in 2020, the Initiative, which aims to inspire new ideas and challenge thinking around leadership and solutions to climate change, is host to the Future Leaders Cl...

5 Steps for Ocean Climate Action Across the Biden Administration The Biden-Harris administration’s “Climate Cabinet” is moving full steam ahead toward achieving the president’s domestic and international climate goals, as evidenced by today’s Leaders Summit on Climate and the release of an ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution for the Paris Agreement. Through a coordinated approach, the administration has stated its intent to incorporate the ocean into climate change strategies...

Make Way for the Future Leaders in Climate The Biden administration has appointed the most diverse collection of cabinet leaders in US history. From Vice President Kamala Harris to Assistant Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine to Secretary Deb Haaland, the proverbial glass ceiling has been broken at the national level. Yet, an important collection of voices is still missing from many critical conversations. Young activists are at the forefront of successful social movements, pushing and stretching the ...

The Ocean Decade Provides an Opportunity to Transform Maritime Shipping April 21, 2021  • Taylor Goelz For all the challenges, takeout boxes, single-use masks, and disposable gloves that characterized 2020, social distancing gave many of us the opportunity to get closer to nature, whether through walks on local trails or by wistfully staring at beach screensavers between Zoom calls. This Earth Day promises the potential of a gradual return to normalcy (at least in some fortunate parts of th...

Emily Katz Emily is a Research Associate with the Energy and Environment Program at the Aspen Institute where she works on research, writing, and communications for the K12 Climate Action initiative. Previously, she researched school climate, school health, and social emotional learning at Child Trends and served as an Education Justice Fellow at Repair the World in Pittsburgh. Emily holds an Ed.M in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Soc...

Article content Will the Great River Rapport be, well, great? Dr. Leigh McGaughey isn’t a neutral observer, but the research scientist, the GRR project lead and co-ordinator, certainly is entitled to an opinion. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser. Unique report on St. Lawrence River had input from 50 scientists Back to video “It’s already great!” McGaughey said enthusiastically, of what’s been a long-term effort going back to 2018, a project...

Professor Shalanda Baker at the online lecture on April 8, 2021 Madelyn Muschek / The Daily Beacon On Thursday afternoon, Shalanda Baker spoke about racial injustice in conjunction with the transition to clean energy as part of the Howard Baker Centers Distinguished Energy and Environment Lecture Series. Baker is a professor of law, public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University, as well as the deputy Director for Energy Justice & the Secretary’s...

On March 25, the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program virtually convened the second in its 2021 series of Clean Energy Innovation Roundtables. This convening brought together experts to discuss electricity system reliability and resilience, as well as the need for inter-regional transmission. This summary captures some of the key topics of discussion. Topic

Above: Listen to a version of this story by Jessica Seldner that aired on WUFT-FM. Some six thousand miles separate the cities of Gainesville, Florida, and Duhok, Kurdistan, Iraq, but the two are ready to reignite a long-distance friendship. The two cities are participants in a program called Sister Cities International and on Monday morning signed a renewed sister city agreement. Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and Ali Tatar, the governor of Duhok, signed an agreement that establishes mutual fri...

March 1st 2021 Brefny Raney and her daughter Jessa play in a park near their home in west Trail. The smelter stacks can be seen in the background. Photo by Louis Bockner For more than 30 years, a small city nestled in the mountains of British Columbia’s West Kootenay region has been working to clean up lead pollution that spewed from the local smelter for almost a century. Teck Metals has upgraded the smelter, and that led to major improvements, but blood lead levels among local kids are stil...