April 21, 2021
By Cristy Lytal
Global climate sustainability requires individual change; that’s why USC Provost Professor Wändi Bruine de Bruin is diving deep into the research on public perceptions of climate change, sustainability and other topics using insights from psychology.
“I’m looking to help people with decisions that they want to make,” said Bruine de Bruin, who uses her expertise in the psychology of risk to inform communications and interventions that promote health, safety, well-being and sustainability. “Some people may not care or want to know anything about climate change or whatever topic, but some people do. And those people should be able to find information that is helpful to them not just that it’s understandable, but actually useful for reducing their carbon footprint in their daily lives.”
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The magical sea creature Thyota has a seemingly impossible task: to rid the ocean of pollution and save the coral forest. Consuming toxic contaminants and freeing other creatures are key to reaching this goal, but both come at a cost to Thyota’s own health. Traveling through the ocean, Thyota must make choices that will affect the entire marine ecosystem.
Thyota is the main character in a new game, titled “Metamorphosis: Thyota’s Journey,” under development at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and in collaboration with the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, headquartered at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
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April 15, 2021
In California, the impacts of climate change are apparent from the oceans to the cities to the mountains. (Photo/NASA-Goddard-Arizona State University)
Climate change is civilization’s stress test.
While Earth’s atmosphere has changed dramatically before, it is heating up faster now than society can pace, taxing government and business efforts to adapt. The Biden administration has proposed $2 trillion in infrastructure spending, much of it for clean energy to reduce climate-altering greenhouse gases.
The city of Los Angeles and the U.S. Department of Energy, assisted by USC scientists, are developing plans to wean the metropolis off fossil fuels in 25 years the topic of an upcoming USC Facebook Live that will be broadcast at 11 a.m. April 19. The university previously announced in February that it will freeze all fossil fuel investments and liquidate such assets in several years.
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Nearly 3,800 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have been documented since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. (Photo/iStock)
Jonathan Wang has spent all year helping students emotionally grapple with the racist incidents targeting Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the pandemic. The recent killing of eight people, including six Asian women, outside Atlanta only heightened the stress many Asian Americans feel, Wang said, including those at USC.
The deaths are just the latest and most violent examples of what many have experienced all year the feeling that COVID-19 has exacerbated their feelings of being unwelcomed, different and outsiders, added Wang, director of Asian Pacific American Student Services, or APASS, at USC.