April 2023

From the Institute Executive Director

It's April in the Upper Valley, and all signs are pointing to spring: crocuses, spring peepers, the return of migrating birds, students on the Green, and plenty of mud! As we celebrate nature springing back from winter's dormancy, it is fitting that this is also the month that we celebrate Earth Day.

Earth Day 2023 has a particularly urgent tone. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report painted a stark portrait of the consequences of a warming world. It also outlined many achievable pathways toward avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.  

Thinking about the report and Earth Day brought me back to a short talk one of our Dartmouth climate experts, Earth Sciences Professor Erich Osterberg, gave at our fall 2022 Faculty Symposium on Climate and Energy. Professor Osterberg's talk, "Climate Urgency Without Hopelessness," outlined the problem of people – and particularly young people — falsely believing that catastrophic warming is unavoidable, leading to hopelessness and inaction. Climate change is urgent, Professor Osterberg said, but we have many opportunities to avoid catastrophe. Part of the challenge in effective climate communication, he said, is to "convey a sense of urgency that leads to a sense of agency and positive action."

At the Irving Institute, we are committed to helping our students and entire community feel prepared and empowered to make positive change and to feel connected to solutions. Among the pathways to a sustainable climate future, the IPCC report stressed the importance of accelerated and equitable investment, the rapid scaling up of technologies like carbon removal, and other strategies for stabilizing global temperatures and adapting to the impacts that are already present. Dartmouth has more than 150 faculty and researchers working on creating and deploying just these kinds of solutions and who are training the next generation of leaders in energy and climate. The problem is urgent and solutions are within reach. We are grateful to be working with such a committed and hopeful community as we do our part to advance a sustainable future for all.

~ April M. Salas

"India Can Lead the World in Carbon Sequestration:" Dartmouth Professor Mukul Sharma Publishes Op-Ed in Hindustan Times

Earth Sciences Professor Mukul Sharma presents on his carbon removal research at CERAWeek 23 in March.

Earth Sciences Professor Mukul Sharma recently published an op-ed in the Delhi, India-based Hindustan Times, a publication with a daily readership of 7.9 million, on the promise of carbon removal in helping India meet and exceed its Nationally Determined Contributions as pledged in the Paris Accord. Professor Sharma argues that carbon removal solutions that emulate natural processes can help reduce atmospheric CO2 and can improve soil quality. He notes that Dartmouth is at the forefront of developing these kinds of high-impact carbon-removal strategies. "Our work has shown us the importance of thinking broadly and creatively about possible solutions to slow the relentless rise of atmospheric CO2."
 

Read more

Institute Advisory Board Member Rose Mutiso ’08, TH’08 Wins Second Annual McGuire Prize

Dartmouth Study Ties Spike in Major League Baseball Home Runs to Climate Change

Spring Break Appalachia Energy Immersion Trip Highlights

Revers Fellows Share Energy and Climate Career Perspectives with Dartmouth Undergrads

On Thursday, April 13, Tuck Revers Center for Energy, Sustainability, and Innovation Fellows Cara LoPiano, Stephen Sandford, Annette Jatto, Mitch Jacobs, and James Jumper shared their diverse and fascinating personal career journeys in energy with more than 35 Dartmouth undergrads in the Irving Institute Project Hub. The Tuck students offered advice on how to get the most out of your first years in an energy career, urging students to keep an open mind, develop "power skills," and to be ready when opportunity arises.

The Irving Institute is Coming to San Francisco...

The Irving Institute will be hosting our external Advisory Board meeting in San Francisco in early May, and we would love to connect with our Bay Area alumni! Join our team, Advisory Board, and other Dartmouth representatives for an Alumni Reception in San Francisco on May 4 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at INSEAD (224 Townsend Street). You'll get a chance to learn more about Dartmouth's newest institute as well as the College's expanding initiatives, programs, and leadership in energy, climate, and sustainability; hear about Dartmouth's newly launched West End Innovation District; and discover how Dartmouth is advancing research, teaching, learning, and innovation to support a sustainable future for all. Plus you'll have a chance to connect with other Bay Area alumni working in energy, climate, and sustainability. Light refreshments will be served. Please let us know by April 28 if you can make it!

... and Washington, DC!

Upcoming Public Events

April 27 | 4:30 p.m. ET
"Ayn Rand's Climate Movement: Libertarians, Juries, and the End of Fossil Fuels" Rutgers Professor David McDermott Hughes discusses his ethnographic study of the "unlikely bedfellows"of climate activists and libertarians.

May 10 | 12 -1 p.m. ET

New Energy Series: "In the Vault: The Roles of Green Banks in the Transition to Net Zero Emissions. Case Studies of Australia, New Zealand and the United States" with Chell Lyons, Australian National University

May 17 | 12-1 p.m. ET

New Energy Series: "Energy Justice from Below: The Role of Artivisms from the Sacrifice Zones for a Situated Political Ecology of the Energy Transition. Insights from La Guajira, Colombia and the Argentinian Patagonia" with Azucena Castro, postdoctoral researcher, Stockholm University and Stanford University. (This event is rescheduled from April 12!)

Dartmouth Energy News

Kate Yeo Fights To Drum Up Interest In Environmental Causes: Environmental Studies major and Energy Justice Clinic member Kate Yeo ’25 is featured in Her World for her climate activism.

Dartmouth Design Project Combines Fact & Fiction to Imagine Possible Futures: Thayer News covers a new Design Initiative at Dartmouth project that the Institute is co-sponsoring that aims to create a collection of human-centered fiction that draws on faculty research to illustrate what our future could realistically look, sound, feel, and even taste like.

Warming Climate to Affect Streamflow in the Northeast: Associate Professor of Geography and Institute Faculty Affiliate Jonathan Winter is senior author on a new study on how precipitation—including snowfall, winter rain on snow events, springtime snowmelt, and soil conditions—impacts streamflow.

Learning in the Interim: Spotlight on College-Sponsored Break Trips: The Irving Institute and Sustainability Office's recent spring break experiential learning trip to Appalachia gets a mention in this recent The Dartmouth story.

Community Power is an Opportunity for Climate Action: Dartmouth Energy Justice Clinic Research Assistants Sophie Edelman ’22, TH’23 and Sunnit Bindara ’23 share their perspective on the promise of community power in New Hampshire in The Dartmouth

Dartmouth College Builds Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society: The Irving Institute building is featured in Tradeline, an architectural journal.

Puny Snowmen? Biking in January? New England’s Winter that Wasn’t: Institute Faculty Affiliate Jonathan Winter is quoted in this Christian Science Monitor article.