BU Now » environment

BU environmental expert on impact of oil spill

Kira Jastive — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:48:26 +0000

Cutler Cleveland, professor of Geography and Environment, lays out the short and long-term environmental effects of the BP oil spill.

Contact: Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-7552, cutler@bu.edu

Copenhagen boycott ended

Dick Taffe — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:23:22 +0000

Poor nations ended their boycott of the global environment talks in Copenhagen on being assured rich countries aren’t softening their commitments to cutting greenhouse gases. Professor Adil Najam, director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, is with a delegation of BU students at the Copenhagen talks. Najam, an author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, says the ghost of Kyoto hangs over Copenhagen.

“The fact of the matter is that while the U.S. withdrew itself from Kyoto, the countries that did stay in – including the European nations – really did not live up to the spirit of the promises they had made at Kyoto. That has meant that these countries want to run as far away from those commitments as they can, but the developing countries feel cheated and are unlikely to buy into any future promises if the past promises are not honored.”

Contact Adil Najam, 617-353-4002, anajam@bu.edu

“Hidden” costs of energy

Dick Taffe — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:43:18 +0000

The National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council reports that there’s about $120 billion in “hidden costs” – including environmental and public health damage — from energy production and consumption every year. Professor Ian Sue Wing of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies was a member of the NRC committee which conducted the study.

“Although questions of health and environmental policy are not the focus of the report, its conclusions point to the need for measures to better internalize these hidden costs into the market price of energy.”

Contact Ian Wing, 617-353-5989, isw@bu.edu

Obama calls for tighter tailpipe emissions and 35.5 mph fuel average

Ron Rosenberg — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:41:09 +0000

Cutler J. Cleveland, Professor of Geography and the Environment and on the faculty of the Center for Energy & Environmental Studies can discuss President Obama’s proposal for tough standards on tailpipe emissions and higher fuel efficiency targets to 35.5 miles per gallon for new vehicles by 2016 — four years earlier than required under the 2007 energy bill.

Contact Cutler J. Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu