Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

On September 20 and 27, 2019, the Fridays for Future movement has called for a global climate strike to demand an end to fossil fuels. We are responding to these calls from youth across the globe by convening an open conversation about the role of geography—and geographers—in responding to the climate crisis for the September 27 Coffee Hour.

Socioeconomic scientists are essential participants in many applied, transdisciplinary research projects. Transciplinary scientific teamwork includes scientists and scholars across diverse fields such as the arts, humanities, and social, natural, engineering, and computational sciences. They also include members from other sectors: industry; government; Tribal Nations; communities; and non-governmental organizations. Ideally, this teamwork results in deeply integrated research and outputs. However, this type of research is complex and difficult.

Penn State recently entered into an agreement with Lightsource BP to purchase solar electricity from what will be the largest solar farm in Pennsylvania. The Office of Physical Plant worked with many partners to arrive at this agreement, including the Sustainability Institute and the faculty in EMS! I will describe the process by which we arrived at the Power Purchase Agreement with Lightsource BP and the current status of the project.

In the past month, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a new daily natural gas production record of 92.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), despite relatively low spot prices. In 2018, US petroleum and natural gas production increased 16% and 12% respectively, becoming one of the largest absolute petroleum and natural gas production increases from a single country in history. Will these trends in production continue?

In 2019, a number of changes are underway to enhance the delivery of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) under the new 2018 Farm Bill.  As the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service develops new rules for RCPP, this discussion will examine how the first generation of RCPP (under the 2014 Farm Bill) impacted farms and the technical assistance providers working with them.

Since fossil fuel combustion is the primary contributor to both local air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHGs) a policy targeting either of these pollutants will impact the other, which will have welfare implications unless the correlated pollutants are priced appropriately. Empirical work on this topic tends to analyze GHG policies targeting stationary sources and finds that changes in the correlated pollutant leads to large co-benefits. In contrast, we study a local air pollution policy targeting mobile sources and uncover a mechanism, avoidance, that can increase GHGs.

On Tues., Sept. 24 the Huck is co-hosting the kickoff of a new initiative, in partnership with the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences. It's called the Communication, Science, and Society Initiative (CSSI). The goal is to foster new and innovative transdisciplinary research collaborations across the life sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Aerosol particles impact the climate system through their interactions with light and clouds while also impacting human health by causing inflammation in the lungs. The Freedman group focuses on laboratory studies of aerosol physical and chemical properties, and in recent years, we have begun incorporating materials chemistry into our studies of ice nucleation and phase transitions under confinement. I am looking for ways in which our research may be applied more broadly in materials science and for applications to human health.

Sustainability in the supply chain provides a win-win for every organization—it’s good for the environment and for profitability. This program will equip you with the latest tools, concepts, and business practices for managing an environmentally and economically sustainable supply chain.

Part of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus Initiative Fall 2019 Speaker Series—Claudia Ringler, Deputy Director of Environment and Production Technology Division

America’s Largest Seed Fund is Coming to University Park, PA. If you’re an innovator, entrepreneur, researcher, or small technology firm, don’t miss this opportunity. Gain an in-depth understanding of agency technology funding priorities, meet one-on-one with high-level decision-makers and connect with local support resources.

Municipalities wishing to meet MS4 requirements have many options: hire a consultant, do an education program for the public, test water coming from outfalls… but one of the most effective steps to take is to use existing resources, existing personnel, existing projects and property, to improve the quality of stormwater in local streams and bodies of water.

Three revolutions are underway in urban transportation around the world: vehicle electrification, automation, and shared (on-demand) mobility. How each of these unfolds, and how they interact, will have major implications for transportation patterns, energy use, and CO2 emissions over the coming decades. Recent trends and potential future directions suggest a wide range of possible impacts and a strong need to pursue policies that move these revolutions in societally optimal directions. This presentation covers a range of issues, trends and recent research in this area.

Project Drawdown is partnering with Penn State to hold the first international conference on Drawdown — Research to Action: The Science of Drawdown. Join the world’s foremost scientific experts in a critical discussion about the most innovative and promising climate change solutions and upcoming research.

Sleep is one of three “pillars of health” along with diet and exercise.  Adequate restorative sleep is important for mood, positive social interactions, productivity, safety, and healing, whereas insufficient or poor-quality sleep in the long term increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. But who has time to sleep?

The generalized claims about the inadequacies of the governmental response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, at both the local and federal levels, highlight a simple but often overlooked fact: disasters do not occur in a vacuum, neither societies that experience them are “blank canvases” or “clean slates” from which the reconstruction starts from scratch.  From macro-level abstractions such as the governance limbo brought by PROMESA, to th

Emily Bellis, PSU Biology will present “Evolution of intimate species interactions across complex environments" Ecology

Part of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus Initiative Fall 2019 Speaker Series

Direct and microbiome-mediated effects of plant defenses against insect herbivores

Annual start-of-the-semester lecture for first-year students in the Bellisario College. Jessica Myrick, an assistant professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, will present "Feeling Our Facts and Some Facts About Feelings: How Emotions Help Shape Our Mediated Lives."