News + Media
Commentary
Washington Post | Jun 22, 2017
Washington Post: MIT Joint Program-affiliated EAPS Prof. Kerry Emanuel co-authors op-ed critiquing the EPA administrator's call for opposing teams to debate climate change science
By Benjamin Santer, Kerry Emanuel and Naomi Oreskes June 21 at 1:08 PM
Commentary
Around Campus
MIT News | Jun 22, 2017
Funding will establish MIT professorship and support low-carbon energy and climate initiatives
Emily Dahl | MIT Energy Initiative June 21, 2017
Press Inquiries
In The News
FactCheck.org | Jun 20, 2017
FactCheck.org: The 0.2 C figure “reflects only the incremental effect of Paris when built upon all the previous commitments made through the UNFCCC,” and “assumed no further strengthening of national commitments in years after 2030,” says MIT Joint Program Co-Director John Reilly.
By Vanessa Schipani
Posted on June 14, 2017
President Donald Trump and his top environmental official said the Paris Agreement would reduce the global average temperature by only 0.2 degrees Celsius. Former Vice President Al Gore said that’s “not true.” Who’s right?
In The News
MIT Energy Initiative / Energy Futures | Jun 20, 2017
Energy Futures: John Reilly and colleagues in the MIT Joint Program used a comprehensive set of linked models to demonstrate how dramatically the world’s energy system needs to change—within the next few decades—to prevent excessive global warming by 2100
An MIT analysis of the Paris climate agreement finds that—even if all the participating nations meet their pledges—global warming will exceed the 2°C maximum targeted for 2100 as early as 2050. To determine what else is needed, researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of...
In The News
New York Times | Jun 14, 2017
New York Times: MIT Joint Program-affiliated CEEPR Executive Director John Parsons comments
Over the last decade, a glut of cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracturing has driven hundreds of dirtier coal plants in the United States out of business, a big reason carbon dioxide emissions fell 14 percent from 2005
Student Spotlight
MIT News | Jun 09, 2017
Amanda Giang models a pollutant’s pathways and assesses mitigation policies
Dispersal of mercury into the air has risen substantially since the industrial revolution, leading to increased deposits in water and soil, where it gets transformed by bacteria into methylmercury, a highly toxic form of the naturally occurring heavy metal that can affect neurological and immune...
Researcher Highlight
MIT News | Jun 09, 2017
Kenneth Strzepek applies models to help decision-makers advance food security and sustainable development in a climate-compromised continent
Almost 25 percent of the world’s malnourished population lives in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where more than 300 million people depend on maize (corn) for much of their diet. The most widely produced crop by harvested area in SSA, maize is also highly sensitive to drought. Because maize in this...
News Release
Global Changes - Spring 2017 Newsletter | Jun 09, 2017
IN THIS ISSUE: Future of forests under climate change / More extreme storms ahead for California / Charting a better future for Africa / Monitoring mercury
Commentary
Washington Post | Jun 08, 2017
His administration cherry-picked my group's findings to help make their case.
As scientists concerned with the very real impact of human activity on climate, my colleagues and I certainly hope our research reaches policymakers at the highest levels of government — which, apparently, it did, when White House officials cited our work to justify President Trump’s decision to...
Commentary
Wall Street Journal | Jun 07, 2017
Joint Program co-directors to Wall St. Journal: Your editorial references our research to draw what we consider to be the exact wrong conclusion about the importance of the Paris Agreement to addressing climate change.
In a letter to The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Ron Prinn and John Reilly, co-directors of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, explain why their research shows the importance of...