Sustainable Planet - NYAS

A shot looking straight up at tall trees in a forest.

The ISR is designed to mobilize and use different kinds of knowledge from across borders, sectors, and disciplines.

Published May 11, 2022

By Nicholas B. Dirks

Crossing the streams has always been part of my academic career. As a historian and cultural anthropologist, my own research and writing has been rooted in the value of interdisciplinary thought. I have been fortunate to draw together insights from colleagues who largely work in separate if contiguous worlds. When bridging disciplines as separate as those in the humanities and social sciences with the sciences, however, the efforts we make to connect must be even more strenuous. At the same time, the rewards that can come from this kind of exchange are even greater.

I strongly believe we need to create new ways to learn from differing perspectives and disciplines. This means more than interdisciplinary inquiry, as it can also be about linking traditional forms of knowledge with those that come from cutting edge research and analysis.

This kind of capacious thinking lies at the heart of our commitment at The New York Academy of Sciences to promote science-based solutions to global challenges through our International Science Reserve (ISR), which is designed to mobilize and use different kinds of knowledge from across borders, sectors, and disciplines.

In my own areas of expertise, I know that the decades between the 1970s and end of the 20th century saw the disciplines of history and anthropology draw closer together, with historians paying more attention to social and cultural factors and the significance of everyday experience in the study of the past.

The people, rather than elites, became the focus of their inquiry—anthropological insights into agriculture, kinship, ritual, and folk customs enabled historians to develop richer and more inclusive narratives about social structures and relationships, as well as about human relationships with the environment over the long period of time we now call the Anthropocene. In the same way, the ISR will aim to bring together not only cutting-edge scientific expertise but also past knowledge that may come from an era when we were more attuned to natural rhythms and processes than we are today, when industrialization and technological development have created new levels of autonomy from the natural world.

The ISR recently launched its first scenario planning exercise—focusing on how scientific expertise and resources can be mobilized to combat wildfire emergencies. Wildfires are not new environmental phenomena; human civilization has lived alongside the risk of wildfires for thousands of years. And so, as wildfires increase in both frequency and magnitude due to climate change, we can learn from indigenous communities and traditional forms of knowledge when it comes to environmental stewardship.

In California, which saw a record-breaking season of devastating wildfires in 2020, local knowledge from the Yurok and Karuk Northern California tribes may hold the key to managing wildfires through ‘cultural burns.’ This is a practice which involves

intentional burning designed to cultivate biodiverse landscapes, remove excess fire fuel, and ensure that the ecosystem is more resilient overall. Indigenous preparation of the land has been practiced for thousands of years but it is only recently being recognized as an effective tool to control fire risk.

After a century of fire suppression, enforced by laws which prevented cultural burning, the Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks in California’s Sierra Nevada initiated programs to manage wildfires through burning programs. A recent UC Berkeley Study of the Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite showed that where traditional fire regimes were restored, there were multiple positive effects: greater landscape and species diversity, increased soil moisture, decreased drought-induced tree mortality, and more landscape fire resistance due to a reduced forest cover.

Decreased forest cover during the managed wildfire period means that when an unintended fire is started (by lightning strike for instance), the more varied landscapes – with trees, shrubland, bushes all at different heights – were more resilient to fire. In contrast, when the crowns of trees catch fire in a homogenous forest canopy, a blaze can spread rapidly along the top of the uniform tree canopy, helping the fire spread more quickly.

The view that indigenous burning can benefit forest ecosystems is gaining growing acceptance among policy makers in different parts of the world as evidenced by the Aboriginal burning regimes in Kakadu national park in Australia and Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa. Meanwhile in the US, the federal Forest Service increasingly partners with Tribes to improve wildfire resilience and protect cultural resources through the Tribal Relations Program. In California, fire suppressing laws have been reversed with a new California law, effective January 1, 2022, affirming the right to cultural burns, reducing the layers of liability and permission needed to set fire to the land for the purposes of controlled forest management.

Recognizing indigenous knowledge benefits our understanding of wildfire management in the 21st century and provides insights into other challenges such as biodiversity loss, including even the hunt for new drugs such as antibiotics. This is reinforced in the findings of the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services that indigenous and local knowledge plays a large part in preventing wildfire and other crises.

For habitats in which indigenous people and local communities can manage their land, there is less loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. For example, in the Amazon (region of Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia): wherever indigenous people have secure tenure, the deforestation rates are two-to-three times lower than in similar forests where they don’t have control over the forests.

Increased recognition of such knowledge will also help retain traditional culture and inform land management policy, which has historically excluded indigenous voices and banned indigenous practices.

This is why the ISR and The New York Academy of Sciences proudly aligns with ‘Open Science’ principles and welcomes involvement from everyone – regardless of discipline or geography – within our community of experts. Everyone may register to encourage project proposal submissions in relation to ISR identified crisis areas, so that we are able to benefit from the rich and diverse forms of knowledge that in some cases have been part of our heritage for centuries – particularly in terms of environmental stewardship.

Indeed, our first call for proposals on the topic of wildfires included submissions from a range of countries including Brazil and the Philippines as well as the US and Australia. I strongly support the incorporation of different sources of knowledge in the service of a larger, shared culture of enquiry and practice, ultimately adapting modern and traditional modalities of knowledge for the work of science in developing appropriate and effective solutions for tackling the global challenges that we all face today.

The Future of Climate Transitions: Marking Earth Day

Earlier this month, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of climate change, and issued a stark warning: “The evidence is clear: the time for action is now.” To limit global warming to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) and secure a livable future, the world needs to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent by 2030.

Published April 21, 2022

By Nicholas B. Dirks

On Earth Day 2022, this call to action resonates loudly. As extreme weather events and other environmental impacts multiply, climate change feels like a ticking time bomb. But there is a risk that, faced with an existential challenge and gloomy predictions, individuals and communities—particularly young people—become overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness.

At The New York Academy of Sciences, we want to use our convening power and our status as an independent, democratic, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral institution to contribute to the public conversation about climate change. We can harness the expertise of our 20,000 member-strong global network of scientists—from our young high school students in the Junior Academy to the Nobel Laureates on our President’s Council—to broaden our understanding of various aspects of climate change and explore ways to support the transition to a low-carbon future.

Expanding Public Discourse

Environmental issues have long featured in our activities. We have held conferences and webinars on climate-related topics such as the impact of climate change on human health, its effects on environmental ecosystems and explored how policymakers can use scientific knowledge of climate change to inform decision making.

As an independent body, the Academy can use its unique platform to raise difficult questions. In the months and years ahead, we intend to organize a series of conferences to address the complexities of climate change and the science around it. How do scientists make their discoveries, and how do they evaluate discrepant data as they seek to better understand complex systems?

Science operates in ways that often appear mysterious to non-scientists who want to hold to a fixed truth. While science has made enormous progress in our understanding of so many aspects of the world, science continuously evolves through a process of debate, peer review, revision, and experimentation. In the end, it is this process rather than any particular finding on its own that makes scientific knowledge so authoritative and reliable.

Climate change is a source of growing concern for many people who wonder what they can do at an individual level. We need therefore to examine the role of individual behavior and collective action in the transition to a more sustainable way of life. The Academy promotes Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), but also deeply values the social sciences and arts and culture. We aim to contribute to a healthy public debate on possible pathways to reliance and sustainability, which will involve collective action at national and global levels along with individual contributions of many kinds.

Preparation and Mitigation

In partnership with IBM, we recently launched the International Science Reserve (ISR) whose mission it is to help us prepare for complex global crises, so we can limit their negative impact on individuals as well as on societies. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that when disaster hits, science needs to react quickly and decisively to save lives, ensure the continuity of services, and support recovery.

Scientists worldwide, contributing their knowledge and resources, are already participating in ISR readiness exercises to address specific threats. Our first such exercise focused on wildfires, which have increased in intensity and frequency around the world, in large part the result of climate change and its myriad and complex effects on our weather. The ISR will tap the expertise of scientists across disciplines to tackle other risks, many of them related to the global environmental crisis.

Inspiring a Global Generation

The New York Academy of Sciences is deeply committed to a global approach. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of international collaboration across the scientific community. At a time when globalization appears in retreat, we believe in a planetary approach to foster innovation and produce solutions. By teaming up with our peers around the world, scientists at all levels—including the STEM students who participate in our international educational programs—will generate the energy and creativity needed to limit the damage of global crises and help us chart a path forward that will lead to greater resilience and a shared sense of control over our collective future.

Environmental issues feature heavily in our STEM educational programs for middle and high school students as participants from around the world display a great interest in climate-related issues. Our mentoring and educational projects nurture their passion for science but also show these young people that they can make a difference and contribute to averting environmental disaster, even if problems cannot be solved overnight. The future may be full of peril, but if we work together, we believe it is also full of great promise.

Despite the sobering projections contained in its latest assessment, the IPCC stressed that the goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is still within reach. One of the missions of The New York Academy of Sciences is to catalyze collective action to address global challenges. None is as complex, daunting and urgent as climate change. By supporting scientific education and collaboration—and by bringing together individuals, organizations, private sector companies and decision makers—the Academy aims to contribute to a brighter and more sustainable future.

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Assessing Fire Risk and Preparedness

A wildfire blazes on dry grasses, while firefighters combat the flames.

We’ve faced unimaginable difficulties in public health since 2020, but the pandemic isn’t the only crisis confronting communities across the globe.

Published January 11, 2022

By ISR Staff

Although wildfires have been ravaging countries around the world for the last decade, many have recently seen their worst blazes in generations.

In 2020, Colorado and California made global headlines for recording their largest wildfires in history, collectively burning through almost 5 million acres of land. In a report from the National Interagency Coordination Center, the amount of land burned by wildfires in the western U.S reached 8.8 million acres—an area larger than the entire state of Maryland. Unfortunately, these disasters are not just occurring in the U.S.

Climate change exacerbates conditions that are favorable for wildfires, including hotter temperatures, longer droughts, and drier vegetation. Today, we’re experiencing these conditions in real-time as record high temperatures now occur twice as often as record lows across the United States.

As wildfires continue to increase in frequency and severity, we must be prepared for the next crisis that threatens to devastate lives.

Scientists are a crucial component of any large-scale response to a global emergency, and the current procedures around wildfire preparedness and prevention are not sufficient enough to successfully mitigate the issue.

Over the last decade, federal investments in wildfire research have been disproportionately lower than the amount spent on wildfire suppression. For example, the U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $2 billion towards putting out wildfires in 2016, yet only received $27 million to fund their National Fire Plan Research and Development Program that same year. More recently, the ongoing health crisis has led to researchers getting reduced financial support from federal and state government agencies to help address the magnitude of fire risk and preparedness.

Outside of the need for increased research investments, there is also a lack of cohesion between industry, academia, and government when it comes to wildfire prevention. Last year’s COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, an innovative public-private body that provided more than 600 petaflops of free computing power to the COVID-19 research effort, successfully proved that harnessing the power of industry and academia is the best way to flexibly address a future crisis.

This is why we’re recruiting scientists to join the International Science Reserve (ISR), a global network of experts working to accelerate solutions that will help mitigate global crises like wildfires. While there are existing organizations dedicated to crisis response, the ISR is specifically focused on mobilizing scientists to augment existing response organizations. This creates an engaged ‘crisis community’ which regularly participates in preparedness exercises and contributes to a better understanding of the role of science in crisis mitigation. In the long term, this could influence future policy regarding the role of science in crisis preparation and response.

The International Science Reserve will bring together an esteemed network of scientists to accelerate solutions to prepare for — and help mitigate — the impact of wildfires.

To help slow the rapid spread of wildfires, scientists in the International Science Reserve (ISR) will address the issue with a multitude of actions. These actions may include:

Integrating long-term climate modelling into scenario planning so national and international organizations can better prepare for when and where wildfires are likely to be a danger.
Collaborating with international scientists to examine long-term climate trends as well as organizations involved in short- and medium-term weather forecasting, such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Partnering with the World Meteorological Organization to ensure that accessible and timely data are made available to determine impacts of smoke and air pollution stemming from the fires.
Conducting in-depth analyses of the responses of various organizations to wildfires, as well as highlighting best practices for actions which are known to be effective to help with future prevention.

If you or your organization are interested in learning more about the International Science Reserve and how you can get involved, please contact us at ISR@nyas.org. We need your partnership in this mission.

Also read: The International Science Reserve – An Ambitious Future-Proofing Initiative for the Public Good

Raising Awareness about Water Quality in Ukraine

Meet Sea Saviors, the winning team of the Fall 2021 Junior Academy Challenge “Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems.”

Published December 15, 2021

By Roger Torda

In the fall of 2021, six budding scientists entered the Junior Academy Challenge and teamed up online to address eutrophication in the Black Sea area and the Dnieper River that runs across Ukraine. Team members were Anzhelika-Mariia H. (Team Lead) (Ukraine), Kusum S. (Nepal), Aman Kumar F. (India), Manan P. (India), Ksheerja S. (India), and Viktoriia L. (Ukraine); the team worked under the mentorship of Pratibha Gupta (India).

Eutrophication is a naturally-occurring process that affects the chemical composition of water bodies. When this process is accelerated by human factors like industrial waste, sewage and fertilizers from farms, it causes excessive growth of algae and phytoplankton, oxygen deficiency, and dead zones – thus threatening ecosystems, biodiversity, and public health.

As a first step, the Challenge participants conducted research to better understand the root causes of the problem in the Dnieper River basin.

“I got tons of insights on eutrophication and how it is destroying our planet’s life,” explains Aman Kumar.

Encouraged by their mentor Pratibha (a.k.a. “Power Girl”), the students also looked at existing solutions before brainstorming new approaches that could improve the aquatic environment.

“Our mentor’s enlightening advice and expertise showed me just how vital the role of mentor is,” says Manan. “Hopefully, some day, I can become a Junior Academy mentor!”

Focusing Ecological Ditches

The team eventually opted to focus on ecological ditches, a traditional drainage system that developed in Ukraine in the 1960s, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. Located at the edge of fields, eco-ditches allow excess rainwater to be carried away. In their conventional form, the drainage channels are inefficient at filtering unwanted fertilizer or nutrients and the team sought ways to improve them with better engineering.

“The diversity of our group, not only geographical, but also the unique personality that each of us carried added immense value to our work,” says Kusum.

The students identified a potential solution of adding plants with strong filtration capacity to eco-ditches, and looked at hydraulic flow rate control.

“I met hardworking individuals who helped me improve my own skills and taught me many valuable lessons in teamwork and analytical thinking,” says Ksheerja.

Eco-ditches require regular maintenance to remove sediments. While polluting industries can be easily identified, farms are harder to locate – yet farms release nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers that affect the delicate chemical balance of water bodies. The students saw a potential path to a sustainable solution: by mapping agricultural farms and existing canals, they could be linked into common drainage systems that could be monitored.

Raising Awareness Through Gaming

Raising awareness of the threats posed by eutrophication is also crucial. The Sea Saviors designed a web-based computer game aimed at children aged 8-13 to sensitize them to environmental issues.

“My role was to be a game designer and developer. Because of the Junior Academy, I found out about different ways of creating the video game and practiced one more game developing engine,” says Viktoriia.

In the two-level game, a friendly sea monster tries to make the aquatic environment more habitable for his fish buddies. In the process, Bob the Monster introduces young players to ecological ditches and the cultivation of oyster shells as ways of regulating the aquatic ecosystem.

“My team was tenacious and industrious from the beginning,” says Pratibha, thrilled with her mentees’ achievements. “Each member had faith in the other one to work diligently.”

For the winning team members, the project has been a stimulating learning experience that allowed them to form strong bonds.

“Working on this project boosted my motivation to continue my studies in the hope of becoming a scientist one day,” said Anzhelika-Mariia.

Promoting the Magic of Compost Worms

Sashti Balasundaram is a soil expert and worm lover who strives to grow better plants, vegetables, and flowers. The educator and entrepreneur shares his stories about composting and microorganisms.

Published December 8, 2021

By Roger Torda

Sashti Balasundaram at work in Manhattan’s Riverside Park.

“It was magical when I saw food scraps break down in a worm bin,” recalls Sashti Balasundaram. “I thought to myself, worms are amazing.”

Sashti is a Master Composter, which means he is an expert at turning organic matter–like banana peels and apple cores and table scraps–into nutrient-rich compost. Mixed into soil, compost improves plant growth, enhances soil fertility, and reduces soil erosion. Results include healthy vegetables and flowers.

Sashti was amazed by worms when he worked in India with an organization that supports recycling. That fascination led to a passion for soil, and the microorganisms that are at the heart of composting. Now he heads an organization called WeRadiate that uses data and technology to improve soil health. He helps others learn how to create great compost, working with community gardens, schools, and urban farms.

The Importance of Compost

Sashti is just one of many experts in science and technology who share their stories in the Chat with a Scientist series of webinars, hosted by The New York Academy of Sciences’ Global STEM Alliance. In the 60 minute programs, scientists share their passion, explain how they got where they are, and take questions from curious students.

Sashti has taught at the Brooklyn Urban Garden School (known, of course, as “BUGS”), helped community gardeners across all five boroughs, and even helped the United Nations start composting at its General Assembly Building in Manhattan.

What does Sashti want kids to know about the importance of compost? “All the nutrients, the vitamins, and minerals that your family, your friends, and all humans consume each day come from soil,” he says. And there’s something else: “The environmental benefit is massive!” Compost helps soil capture carbon from the air and reduces the need for the transportation of organic waste. Composting also creates local jobs and saves communities the cost of moving garbage somewhere else.

There are many different ways to work toward a career in soil science, gardening, or agriculture. Sashti’s route was very indirect, with a background in biology, ecology, and public health. But it is easy to get started. Sashti says there are plenty of volunteer opportunities at botanical and community gardens.

Learn more about the Academy’s educational programming.

The Science of Tomorrow: Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel

Overview

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel is one of the largest prizes ever created for early-career researchers in Israel. Given annually to three outstanding, early-career faculty from Israeli universities in three categories—Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry—the awards recognize extraordinary scientific achievements and promote excellence, originality, and innovation.

On August 2, 2021, the New York Academy of Sciences celebrated the 2020 and 2021 Laureates at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem, Israel. The multidisciplinary symposium, chaired by Israel Prize winners Adi Kimchi and Mordechai (Moti) Segev, featured a series of lectures on everything from a new class of RNA to self-assembling nanomaterials.

In this eBriefing, you’ll learn:

The secret life of bats, and how the brain shapes animal behavior
How genetic information in unchartered areas of the human genome—known as long noncoding RNA—could be used to develop treatments for cancer, brain injury, and epilepsy
Creative ways of generating light, X-rays, and other types of radiation for practical applications such as medical imaging and security scanners
The intricate choreography of protein assembly within cells, and how this dance may go awry in disease

Speakers

Yossi Yovel, PhD
Tel Aviv University

Igor Ulitsky, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science

Emmanuel Levy, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science

Ido Kaminer, PhD
Israel Institute of Technology

Life Sciences of Tomorrow

Speakers

Yossi Yovel, PhD
Tel Aviv University

Igor Ulitsky, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science

From Bat Brains to Navigating Robots

Yossi Yovel, PhD, Tel Aviv University

In this presentation, Yossi Yovel describes his studies on bats and their use of echolocation to perceive and navigate through the world. To monitor bats behaving in their natural environment, he has developed miniaturized trackers—the smallest in the world—capable of simultaneously detecting location, ultrasonic sounds, movement, heart rate, brain activity, and body temperature changes.

By attaching these small sensors to many individual bats, Yovel is able to monitor large groups of free-flying bats—a task which would be almost impossible in other mammals. His current and future studies include applying bat echolocation theory to engineering acoustic control of autonomous vehicles.

Decoding the Functions of Long Non-coding RNA

Igor Ulitsky, PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science

Igor Ulitsky outlines his investigation of the biology of a subtype of genetic material—long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)—an enigmatic class of RNA molecules. Similar to other classes of RNA molecules, lncRNAs are transcribed from DNA and have a single-strand structure; however, lncRNAs do not encode proteins. Even though non-coding regions of the genome comprise over 99% of our genetic material, little is actually known about how these regions function.

Ulitsky’s work has shown dynamic expression patterns across tissues and developmental stages, which appear to utilize diverse mechanisms of action that depend on their sub-cellular positions. These discoveries have unlocked the potential of using lncRNAs as both therapeutic agents and targets with promising leads for the treatment of diseases such as cancer, brain injury, and epilepsy.

Chemistry and Physical Sciences & Engineering of Tomorrow

Speakers

Emmanuel Levy, PhD
Weizmann Institute of Science

Ido Kaminer, PhD
Israel Institute of Technology

Playing LEGO with Proteins: Principles of Protein Assembly in Cells

Emmanuel Levy, PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science

In this presentation, Emmanuel Levy describes how defects in protein self-organization can lead to disease, and how protein self-organization can be exploited to create novel biomaterials. Levy has amassed a database of protein structural information that helps him to predict, browse, and curate the structural features—charged portions, hydrophobic and hydrophilic pockets, and point mutations—within a protein that govern the formation of quaternary structures. By combining this computational approach with experimental data Levy is able to uncover new mechanisms by which proteins operate within cells.

Shining Light on the Quantum World with Ultrafast Electron Microscopy

Ido Kaminer, PhD, Israel Institute of Technology

Ido Kaminer discusses his research on light-matter interaction that spans a wide spectrum from fundamental physics to particle applications. Part of his presentation addressed the long-standing question in quantum theory over the predictability of motions quantum particles. He also demonstrated the first example of using free electrons to probe the motion of photons inside materials. Finally, he talked about the potential applications of tunable X-rays generated from the compact equipment in his lab, for biomedical imaging and other applications.

Climate Change and Collective Action: The Knowledge Resistance Problem

Unlike the pandemic, the impact of climate change has always been a much tougher sell.

Published June 29, 2021

By Nicholas B. Dirks

June 1 marked the official start of hurricane season and already tropical storms Ana, Bill and Claudette have made their respective debuts.

And while summer has only just officially started, early hot dry conditions in Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah and New Mexico are exacerbating enormous wildfires putting a strain on local first responder services. Severe drought conditions in the west is restricting the use of essential water supplies. Its impact on the nation’s food supply has yet to be determined.

In May, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released revised temperature “normals” which show a significant shift towards warmer temperatures. We are far from the state of readiness required to deal with the inevitable outcomes.

Scientists have been sounding the alarm about the human impact upon climate change for well over a century. French mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier, who is generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect, wrote in an 1827 paper that: “The establishment and progress of human societies, the action of natural forces, can notably change, and in vast regions, the state of the surface, the distribution of water and the great movements of the air.”

But unlike the pandemic, which was a highly visible emergency with nightly news reports showing crowded ER’s and patients on ventilators, the impact of climate change has always been a much tougher sell. In addition, when proposed changes come up against “the pocketbook,” there is pushback.

Recent Research and “Crisis Fatigue”

A recent paper published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences — The distributional impact of climate change – discusses the various impacts of climate change from both a social and environmental perspective. As with many other global issues, the impacts of climate change will most certainly affect poorer countries even more severely, but that doesn’t let the rich ones like the United States off the hook.

Then there is the risk of “crisis fatigue”—the continual sounding of an alarm about something that is not immediately visible, to the point that the problem is so overwhelming that individual actions won’t help. But as we learned from Covid-19, there is no local crisis of this kind that doesn’t soon become a global crisis.

Science is an incremental process, and scientific knowledge is based on multiple arguments, experiments, and developments. However, the scientific consensus that climate change is not only real, but escalating faster than many scientists had predicted, is based on measurements and models that issue a clear and urgent warning. We need to act now, and fast, to drive effective policy to combat climate change.

Training scientists to be better communicators is a good step, but much more must and can be done to develop a public consensus that might mirror the scientific consensus. Climatologists, meteorologists and environmental scientists play an important role, but we need to enlist all the disciplines of the academy (including social scientists and humanists), all the agencies of government (domestically and internationally), and all the major sectors of the economy to help chart a way forward.

The Impediment of Knowledge Resistance

As Mikael Klintman, in his recent book, “Knowledge Resistance,” has argued, “it becomes crucial to ask what we as individuals and groups can do about knowledge resistance in cases where, in the long run, it is problematic to ourselves and to others – humans, animals, and the environment alike.”

Professionals from healthcare, insurance, business, as well as legal and financial sectors can help scientists and public officials “sell” appropriate actions and solutions. The average person may not pay much mind to the science behind reducing carbon emissions but put in the context of how much taxpayer money is used to treat patients who have respiratory conditions exacerbated by polluted air from auto emissions, and it’s a different conversation.

Policymakers supporting the development of wetlands or sensitive barrier islands might be more inclined to rethink such plans if voters are provided with data on how much it is likely to cost when severe storms hit, in terms of increased taxes to pay for emergency relief, rebuilding, and higher insurance rates. Like the warnings and recommendations about COVID-19, climate change has become a deeply partisan issue, but preparedness for the long-term impacts of climate change is not “hysterics” or “alarmist” as some would argue.

Ignoring the impact of COVID-19 cost millions their lives, and billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost income. The economic cost of lost jobs and wages, as well as the cost of care of COVID patients, especially those who still have long-term health effects, has still to be tallied.

All the data are showing us what will happen if we are not ready. Science can deliver on the knowledge, but it will take genuine collective action to hone and sell the messages that can tread that fine line between preparation and panic.

Ditching Fossil Fuels in Favor of Renewable Energy

Solar panels in the foreground with a rise/setting sun in the background.

An energy expert discusses his thoughts on the future of energy in America, the importance of community engagement, and future smart grid technologies that could truly re-shape the global economy.

Published May 18, 2021

By Marvin Cummings Jr., PhD

Image courtesy of bilanol via stock.adobe.com.

Martin Keller, PhD, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and president of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, which operates NREL for the U.S. Department of Energy, has a bold vision for the future—complete decarbonization of the United States energy sector by 2050—and he is charting an aggressive course for NREL toward this goal. We recently got a chance to sit down with Director Keller to discuss his thoughts on the future of energy in America, the importance of community engagement, and future smart grid technologies that could truly re-shape the global economy.

As the US transitions away from fossil fuels to a more sustainable energy economy, how do US efforts compare with those of other developed nations around the world?

If you look at the clean energy transition and towards deep decarbonization, the US is still at the forefront of innovations in this space. However, Germany is ahead of the US in the deployment of new renewable energy technologies. On-average, the percentage of renewable energy on Germany’s electric grid is significantly higher than what is available in the United States.

Japan is a little late to the game on renewable energy technologies like wind and solar, because historically, Japan put more emphasis on nuclear. There is a strong effort in the US to produce clean electricity by 2035 and completely decarbonize by 2050. So, the deployment of renewable technology will really accelerate over the next few years, especially since solar and wind are becoming the cheapest ways of producing electricity.

Over the next 30 years, is the US capable of transitioning to renewables?

NREL has conducted an interesting and comprehensive study with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is focused on this very question: What will it take to get to 100% renewable energy in the City of Los Angeles? The study modeled every LA building to understand where solar panels could be placed on rooftops.

It remodeled transmission lines, it modeled all future electric charging stations for transportation and worked with underserved communities to address issues around environmental justice. Results from this study show overwhelmingly that yes, a switch to 100% renewable energy can be done. It will be a challenge, but if the US commits to this effort and genuinely engages with local communities, I am optimistic this can be achieved on the timeline of 2035 or 2050.

There are a host of renewable energy technology solutions available. What will be the role of solar, wind, and other technologies in the future renewable energy economy?

What is clear is that there was once a time when just one energy solution—fossil fuels—met all of our energy needs. This period in history is clearly over. It will no longer be a single technology. It will be a mix of different solutions. To fully decarbonize the US economy, it will require a hard look at all clean energy technologies, including nuclear. Cost will be a major driver. Right now, solar and wind are by far the cheapest and nuclear is still very expensive. But small, modular reactors or micro-reactors could change this dynamic in the future as potential energy storage devices. This is an area where we need innovation.

Renewable energy solutions will also look different by region—California will look different from New Hampshire, and Texas will look very different from Ohio. These regional differences will determine what renewable energy technologies will be brought into the mix. If the US wants to do this successfully, it will need to have an integrated plan across the United States.

A successful transition to renewable energy will require seamless integration into the US electric grid. How must the grid change to accommodate renewables?

The US electric grid will require a completely different architecture that is driven by smart, autonomous machine learning processes, which are secure and resilient. The main pillar for the US’s future energy needs will be electricity. The new grid will be bi-directional with electricity generated by solar panels on your roof, which can then be sold to your neighbor. Electric cars will be plugged into the grid for storage or charging. Electricity will even be used to create other hydrocarbon fuels for use in airplanes and ships.

The future US grid will be powered by millions of electronic devices. This will not happen only because more renewables will be on the grid. This will happen because consumers demand more flexibility. Consumers will want smart homes. They will want to control the house thermostat from their cars, and will run this all with an app. This alone will require a radically different grid, governed by autonomous energy systems and smart algorithms. It will be more integrated, much more distributed and almost self-healing. If done right, the future US electric grid system will be ultimately more resilient and less expensive.

Also read: The Academy’s Century-Long History with Solar Energy

The Economic Imperative for Better Battery Technology

A married research duo are studying ways to better predict the feasibility and potential economic benefits of adopting battery technologies for renewable energy.

Published May 13, 2021

By Roger Torda

(Left to Right) Graham Elliott and Shirley Meng at the 2019 Blavatnik National Awards Ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History

What can we learn from a marriage of physical and social sciences?

Materials scientist and Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Finalist (2018, 2019) Shirley Meng, PhD, shares her answer to this question. She and her husband, economist Graham Elliott, PhD, combine their expertise in battery chemistry and economic modeling.

In an intriguing collaboration, they developed ways to better predict the feasibility and potential economic benefits of adopting battery technologies to integrate renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy, into energy grids. Together with their research team members, they published “Combined Economic and Technological Evaluation of Battery Energy Storage for Grid Applications” in the journal Nature Energy.

Meng is the Zable Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and Director of the Institute for Materials Design and Discovery at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Elliott is also at UCSD, where he is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics. We recently interviewed both to discuss this collaboration and what they learned through the process.

Can you tell us how this collaboration was initiated?

Meng: UCSD is a place where interdisciplinary and convergent research is not only highly valued but practiced. I founded the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (SPEC) at UCSD in 2015. SPEC reaches out beyond engineering and physical sciences to study economic and sociological issues that need to be addressed to create truly robust ecosystems for low-carbon electric vehicles and carbon-neutral microgrids. We won a competitive grant from the US Department of Energy, which provided the resources for this work.

Why did you choose to study batteries for energy grid applications? What question about batteries did you study?

Meng: With energy grids showing their age and continuing to distribute energy generated with high environmental costs, efforts that enable grids to distribute cleaner, renewable energy more efficiently would be a technological advance with a positive societal impact. While there have been exciting moves toward renewables, many problems lie ahead if we are to move from renewables being important to renewables being dominant.

Elliott: Grid energy storage remains a major challenge both scientifically and economically. Batteries, or energy storage systems, play critical roles in the successful operation of energy grids by better matching the energy supply with demand and by providing services that help grids function. They will not just transform the market for supplying energy but also transform consumer demand by lowering the prices of energy for households and businesses.

In this work, we studied the potential revenues that different battery technologies deployed in the grid will generate through models that consider market rules, realistic market prices for services, and the energy and power constraints of the batteries under real-world applications.

Bringing these together in an interactive way—examining the engineering and economic aspects as two parts of the problem together—allows for a complete look at the problem, and ultimately a better outcome for the economy.
Graham Elliott

What was the biggest finding of this collaboration? Were you surprised by your findings?

Meng: We found that while some battery technologies hold the greatest potential from an engineering perspective, the choice based on economics is less clear. The current rules of grid operations dictate which battery technologies are used for those particular grids—some of these rules may be out-of-date, and will be updated as the grids modernize. So even though we continue to see improvement in the energy/power performance of battery technologies and reduction in cost, policymakers are the ultimate decision-makers. Policymakers setting those rules have considerable influence on how fast and how successfully those battery technologies can be deployed, and therefore industry needs to work closely with policymakers to define the best practices for faster deployment of battery technologies.

We also found that there are a wide variety of factors that should be considered in choosing a battery technology. For instance, the battery recycling method is an important technical variable that determines the sustainability of a particular battery technology.

How could your findings eventually affect individual people and society? How can it help our economy?

Elliott: All gains in human welfare arise from what economists call productivity gains—people creating more with less effort, so there is more to go around. Technological advances in energy storage enable productivity gains. But for it to work, we need not only to be able to provide effective energy storage from an engineering perspective, but also it needs to be economically feasible. Different choices at the engineering stage mean differences in the economic feasibility, and how markets are arranged impacts engineering choices. Bringing these together in an interactive way—examining the engineering and economic aspects as two parts of the problem together—allows for a complete look at the problem, and ultimately a better outcome for the economy.

Meng: We are delighted to see to see that battery grid storage is starting to gain more momentum—policymakers are becoming informed about both economic and scientific, and engineering aspects of battery technologies.

A small-scale energy grid at the University of California San Diego, consisting of a network of solar cells with battery storage (Credit: University of California San Diego)

What did you learn from this collaboration? Are there any tips you would like to share with other researchers who would like to pursue similar collaborations between physical and social sciences?

Meng: Perhaps the most important thing for the collaborative team to do is to build a common vocabulary so we can truly understand each other. In our case, we started by explaining the most basic symbols and units in engineering, like the energy unit Wh (Watt-hour) and the power unit W (Watt). Without understanding the differences between these symbols, we will make mistakes in constructing important parameters in our economic modeling.

Elliott: Another thing we learned is that different fields have very different understandings of the big picture. Collaboration across fields helps focus everyone’s efforts. For example, engineers typically view markets as fixed, and the engineering problem is to find something that works for the market. Economists tend to think of products (such as batteries) as fixed and design markets that work for the available products.

There is a whole research area waiting patiently for economists to understand which parts of the engineering problem are important and for scientists and engineers to understand from their perspective which parts of the market design are important.

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How climate change can cause an increase in droughts and forest fires while also accelerating ice sheet melting and sea level rise;
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Speakers

William Anderegg, PhD
The University of Utah

Eric Rignot, PhD
University of California, Irvine

Fire and Ice: The Impact of Climate Change on Environmental Ecosystems

Eric Rignot, PhD

University of California, Irvine

Eric Rignot, PhD, combines satellite remote sensing, geophysical surveys, and numerical modeling to understand the impact of climate change on ice sheets and its repercussions on global sea levels. Dr. Rignot is a Donald Bren Professor at University of California, Irvine, a Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his Engineer Degree at Ecole Centrale Paris and PhD at University of Southern California. He joined University of California, Irvine in 2007.

William Anderegg, PhD

The University of Utah

William Anderegg, PhD, centers his research around the intersection of ecosystems and climate change. In particular, his research focuses on how drought and climate change affect forest ecosystems, including tree physiology, species interactions, carbon cycling, and biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. He received his BA and PhD at Stanford University and his postdoc at Princeton University. He joined the University of Utah in 2016.

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A married research duo are studying ways to better predict the feasibility and potential economic benefits of adopting battery technologies for renewable energy.

What can we learn from a marriage of physical and social sciences?

Can you tell us how this collaboration was initiated?

Why did you choose to study batteries for energy grid applications? What question about batteries did you study?

Bringing these together in an interactive way—examining the engineering and economic aspects as two parts of the problem together—allows for a complete look at the problem, and ultimately a better outcome for the economy.

What was the biggest finding of this collaboration? Were you surprised by your findings?

How could your findings eventually affect individual people and society? How can it help our economy?

What did you learn from this collaboration? Are there any tips you would like to share with other researchers who would like to pursue similar collaborations between physical and social sciences?

Overview

In this eBriefing, You’ll Learn:

Speakers

Fire and Ice: The Impact of Climate Change on Environmental Ecosystems

Eric Rignot, PhD

University of California, Irvine

William Anderegg, PhD

The University of Utah

Further Readings

Anderegg

Rignot