Papers

Indoor air pollution from cooking on inefficient firewood cookstoves and open fires leads to 3.2 million premature deaths every year (World Health Organization, 2022). In Santa Catarina Palopó, Guatemala, women spend much of their time cooking and primarily use wood fuel, which disproportionately exposes them to air pollutants. An efficient, modular, user-friendly cookstove would improve the health, safety, independence, and cooking experience of women in the community while helping families save wood fuel. Through the Guatemala-based non-profit, Link4, women and builders in Santa Catarina co-designed, prototyped, and user-tested a cookstove that could be manufactured locally for community capacity building. A prototype was also produced in D-Lab to evaluate emissions and efficiency through burn testing. The resulting prototype was a horizontal-feed fiber-reinforced concrete rocket stove with perlite insulation and a plancha (flat stovetop), similar to but smaller than traditional Guatemalan stoves. The size and geometry was designed for modularity and portability, allowing multiple stoves to be used in various configurations, and to maximize thermal efficiency. A burn test at D-Lab demonstrated a thermal efficiency of 13-14%. A user test in Guatemala found that the stove heated up quickly and reduced fuel consumption but required more tending and was difficult to transport

Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) of typically sulfuric particles to increase albedo is a solar radiation management (SRM) proposal that is theoretically effective at reducing global average surface temperatures, but comes with environmental, social, and governance risk. Understanding the uncertainty associated with these risks, which have been demonstrated through computational models and understanding volcanic eruptions, will be crucial to assessing whether this technology should be considered as a climate solution, through what avenue, and to what extent. Recent literature was synthesized on the effectiveness, climate and environmental impacts, feasibility, and environmental justice concerns of SAI

The maritime sector currently contributes to ~3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Maritime shipping primarily uses heavy fuel oil (HFO) due to its high fuel density that allows ships to travel long distances without refueling. To achieve International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 levels, alternative fuels will play a key role, in addition to energy efficiency measures such as employing wind and solar and improving ship design. Alternative fuels that show the most promise include Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), bio- and synthetic fuels, hydrogen ammonia, and methanol and will be compared for decarbonization potential, cost, feasibility, and socioenvironmental impact. LNG and drop-in bio and synthetic fuels are limited in their decarbonization potential but cost-competitive and may be used as transition fuels while new shipping infrastructure is developed. Biofuels also pose sustainability and supply availability issues. Hydrogen and ammonia are currently more expensive but ideal for achieving net-zero goals in the long-term with increased availability of renewables in the grid, investments in ship infrastructure, and technological innovations.

Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic estuarine environments are dominated by in situ summer-time ice-free dissolved gas measurements due to the logistical ease of performing field observations in these conditions. Recent evidence in coastal Arctic environments, however, has demonstrated that dissolved methane (CH 4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are strongly seasonally variable, and at least one significant gas ventilation event occurs during the spring freshet. Whether the Arctic serves as a source or sink of greenhouse emissions has significant implications on modeling climate change and its feedback mechanisms. To enable higher resolution spatiotemporal measurements of dissolved gases in typically undersampled conditions, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) can be used to extract near continuous water samples below ice before and during the spring freshet. Here, we present a size, weight, and power-constrained (SWAP) underwater vehicle (UV) and novel geochemical sampling system suitable for taking under-ice geochemical observations and demonstrate the proposed system in a field-analog setting for Arctic estuarine studies.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has faced a long, legal battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which poses threat to their primary water source, Lake Oahe, and ancestral burying grounds. The pipeline has been operational since President Trump’s Executive Memorandum in 2017 despite pending an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) since the D.C. District Court’s decision in 2020. The current course of this process hinges on the efficacy of the EIS, as well as public pressure that could drive the Biden Administration to take executive action to halt operations. The Sioux Tribe has faced a long history of environmental injustice and violations to their sovereignty as a tribe, while corporate and political powers have financial interests, arguing for energy independenc

Understanding the state of environmental justice (EJ) in the U.S. is contingent upon the quality of available data and modelling techniques. Datasets on air and water pollution are identified and characterized by their spatiotemporal resolution and scale. Resolving spatiotemporal differences between datasets will be an important challenge in understanding both the current state of EJ and historical trends. Gaps and biases pertinent to current datasets and models are explored – including monitoring biases, cumulative risk, and combined impacts. Available literature has identified socioeconomic, especially racial, disparities in exposure to air and water pollution and proximity to polluting sources, which are driven by unequitable siting and sorting processes. This literature review focuses on VOCs emitted by oil & gas operations and how fracking and mining disproportionately impact Native Americans, with a discussion about the systemic violations to tribal sovereignty that lead to these EJ issues. This review on EJ issues associated with air and water pollution will contribute to a broader public EPA report on EJ.

Determining if cayenne and paprika are suitable for creating red paint can benefit the environment, the creativity of artists, and the accessibility of painting. Samples with five different mass fractions of pigment for both spices were evaluated. Spreadability—as defined as work of shear of the paint under compression—was measured using a conical rig on a texture analyzer, analogous to work exerted by a brush. Red color is represented as a ratio of the “R”-factor of the average RGB value from swatches of each sample. Properties for spice-based paints were compared to commercially available paint to inform how these paints can be adopted into regular practices. Paprika was found to be more red than cayenne at lower pigment concentrations. For both paints, 12% pigment concentration was most similar to commercially available paint in terms of work of shear and 12 to 30% in terms of redness.

In light of the current need to limit CO2 emissions, the use of public transportation is often presented as a favorable option to driving a personal automobile. However, limited work has been done to quantify the carbon emissions of different public transportation modes in comparison with automobiles. In this paper, the carbon emissions of public transportation systems in two cities, Boston and Phoenix, are compared using a common metric: carbon emissions per passenger-mile. It is determined that the carbon intensity of Boston’s rapid bus and commuter rail is about 1.3 and 1.6 times higher, respectively, than an automobile, and the carbon intensities of all types of buses in Phoenix are about 1.4 to 1.7 times higher than an automobile. Several ways to improve the carbon intensity performance of these two systems are proposed, including increasing ridership, modernizing the systems, and electrifying the systems, and opportunities for further research and improvement of the analysis are discussed.

These past few months, the Student Sustainability Coalition (SSC) has been working with around 30 undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs to elevate the voice of the MIT community about what MIT's priorities on addressing the climate crisis should be. MIT is creating a new Climate Action Plan, which was originally written 5 years ago. As an institution that serves as a role model for science and has a tremendous amount of power and privilege, it is vital that in 2021, MIT take much more ambitious action than before.

A greater focus on the potential impacts of climate change is motivating a shift toward sustainability in the construction industry that is outpacing current standards and certification programs. Two decades ago, LEED-certified buildings set the precedent for change. Marc Truant, founder of Marc Truant & Associates, a construction management firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, speculates that “20 years from now, there won’t be LEED because it will all be in the building code.”

In seeking a more sustainable, lower emissions energy future, solar panels have emerged as a prominent renewable energy source. Installed solar capacity in the U.S. alone has surged in recent decades with an estimated capacity of 64.2 GW of solar capacity or 1.47 million solar panels in 2018. These solar panels can offset nearly 70 million metric tons of carbon emissions compared to traditional energy sources each year1 . However, this surge in solar panel use, along with increasing electronic use, has led to an increasing need for the necessary component minerals. Deep sea mining has emerged as a potential solution to meeting this mineral demand. However, d

You have the ability to ensure that your values align with a company’s sustainability practices this fall career fair. In a collaboration headed by the Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), the new Career Fair Sustainability Initiative is sharing information with students about registered companies’ greenhouse gas emissions and their environmental commitments. By emphasizing the importance of climate-oriented corporate responsibility, ESI hopes employers’ sustainability commitments will appeal to more students, whether they're passionate about climate change or not.

After finishing your plastic bottle of juice, you walk over to the nearest bin, throw it in, and it’s gone from you. That is where our responsibility as consumers and generators of waste seems to end. However, by only considering actions up to that depositing point, we are prone to incorrect and ineffective waste disposal.