Daniel Jacob is the Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Caltech. His research covers a wide range of topics in atmospheric chemistry, from air quality to climate change. He has led the development of the GEOS-Chem global 3-D model of atmospheric composition, has served as Mission Scientist on eight NASA aircraft missions around the world and is a member of several satellite Science Teams. He is the #1 environmental scientist in the world according to research.com (H-index of 176 for 2014-2021 publications). Jacob has trained over 100 Ph.D. students and postdocs over the course of his career. The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series is coordinated by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute
Professor Patrick Devine-Wright’s expertise spans human geography and environmental psychology with a primary interest in the social acceptance of energy infrastructures, community engagement and place attachment. He is Director of the ESRC-funded ACCESS (Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science) leadership team for Environmental Social Science, and leads several research projects funded by UK academic funding organisations. He is a highly cited social science researcher (Web of Science, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022), an IPCC Lead Author in Working Group 3, and Chair of the Devon Net Zero Task Force. He received a Distinguished Visiting Scientist award from CSIRO, Australia (2012-2013) and is Adjunct Professor in Geography, Trinity College Dublin. He is a board member of several academic journals, including Global Environmental Change, Energy Research and Social Science, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology; has acted as an advisor to the UK government, and h
Abstract<br /> The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly visible in the form of more severe wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding. As the science linking these disasters to climate change has grown more robust, it has led to pressure on politicians to acknowledge the connection. While an analysis of U.S. Congressional press releases reveals a slight increase in politicians’ willingness to do so, many remain hesitant. Why? We hypothesize that climate change attribution can backfire, harming politicians’ popularity and undermining their ability to adapt to the visible manifestations of climate change. We conduct an original survey experiment on a representative sample of American adults and show that when a politician links wildfires to climate change, Republicans perceive the official as less capable of addressing weather-related disasters. In addition, Republicans become less supportive of efforts to protect against similar disasters in the future. Our findin
Shanti Gamper-Rabindran will discuss the major points from her new book, "America's Energy Gamble: People, Economy and Planet," which dissects the Trump administration's energy policy and how the country can return to an energy transition that benefits both the economy and the environment. How did the pro-fossil Trump administration entrench America's oil and gas dependency to the detriment of America's economy, public health and the environment? Its actions ran counter to even traditional bipartisan values of fiscal responsibility, environmental stewardship and rule of law. Despite the damage done, this book lays out how Americans can still change course and transition away from oil and gas dependency, while protecting workers and communities. Specially, she discusses her ongoing work on community solar in rural northcentral Appalachia and the just energy transition in the Ohio River Valley. The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Se
Over the past two years, passage of successive infrastructure-related bills by the U.S. Congress - Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, Chips+, Infrastructure, Investment & Jobs Act, and Inflation Reduction Act - equals historic levels of investment by the federal government in transitioning to a clean energy economy and upgrading infrastructure across the nation. Successful implementation at the federal agency, state and local level to execute the goals of these bills is still to be determined. This talk will provide an overview of the legislative process on how we got here, the provisions in each of the bills and discuss some of the implementation challenges for large-scale federal investment, specifically the Inflation Reduction Act. Bio: Alexis Segal currently serves as Senior Policy Advisor for Environment and Natural Resources for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Her portfolio includes public lands, oceans, infrastructure, climate change, toxics and chemicals and landscape scale restor