Archives

Breaking the Fossil Fuel Habit

The Promise, and Challenge, of Shifting to Alternative Energy 03.28.2013 By Leslie Friday Think of it as worldwide addiction. At least 80 percent of the energy people use to drive, heat their homes, and power gadgets comes from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and the consumption of all of the above contributes [...]

Tracking Change, Predicting Trouble

By  Century’s End, Arctic Will Feel Like U.S. South By Leslie Friday 03.26.2013 Winter is getting warmer, spring is coming earlier, and plants are enjoying an extended growing season in northern areas. “It’s the initial gold rush,” says Ranga Myneni, a College of Arts & Science professor of earth and environment, but what will follow will [...]

Why the Earth is Warming

Study Disproved Two of Three Hypotheses, Aims Blame at Man-Made Pollutants 03.25.2013By Cynthia K. Buccini. Video by Devin Hahn and Joe Chan Watch this video on YouTube In the video above, Bruce Anderson explains why global temperatures are rising, and why some theories don’t hold water. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky View closed captions on YouTube Bruce Anderson didn’t set [...]

Gridlock and Global Warming in BU’s Sights

City, University, IBM team up on research project 06.07.2012  By Rich Barlow Battling climate change and helping unknot Boston’s snarled and snarly motorists: IBM says that mix of global and on-the-street local impact is worth roughly $400,000. That’s the Smarter Cities grant that the company has given the city of Boston, which in partnership with BU [...]

Research

Templer’s Sense of Snow

In the video above, watch Pamela Templer and her team in the field and in the laboratory, where they study the effects of climate change on New England forests. Photos by Melody Komyerov   When Pamela Templer muses about silver white winters that melt into springs, she is thinking beyond the photogenic snowfall of show [...]

BU Team Wins First Annual Smart Lighting Challenge

Ten teams of students from several colleges came together on Saturday to compete in the first annual Smart Lighting Challenge, held at the Boston University School of Management. The winners of the competition were BU students Connor McEwen (EE’14), Felipe Spinel (SMG’12), Parker Fox (SMG’12) and Ahmad Nawasrah (SMG’12), who showcased their ideas for utilizing [...]

NSF Greenlights Sustainable Building Project

Past efforts to design more sustainable buildings have largely focused on finding ways to reduce their energy consumption in isolation. Now a new, four-year project drawing on engineering and architecture faculty at Boston University and MIT, respectively, promises to deliver substantial carbon footprint and energy cost reductions not only to individual buildings, but also to [...]

Using the Past to Predict Global Warming’s Future

Paleoclimatologist Maureen Raymo has spent the last two summers digging for marine fossils in the Australian desert, which was once a great sea.

Trees of Life: Can forests save the Earth from greenhouse gases?

Professor Adrien Finzi explains why we can’t depend on forests alone