2020 Jul 09
Europe's Green Recovery
9:00am to 10:00am
Location: 
Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center—Online
Mauro Petriccione (Director-General for Climate Action, European Commission) will discuss approaches to ensuring that Europe’s economic-recovery packages advance a green agenda—reduced greenhouse-gas emissions, reduced air and water pollution, and long-term sustainable development on the basis of a circular economy.
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2020 Jun 17
The Bridge: Natural Gas in a Redivided Europe
12:30pm to 1:30pm
Location: 
Online Event
Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet empire, the West faces a new era of East-West tensions. Any vision of a modern Russia integrated into the world economy and aligned in peaceful partnership with a reunited Europe has abruptly vanished. Two opposing narratives vie to explain the strategic future of Europe, one geopolitical and one economic, and both center on the same resource: natural gas. In The Bridge, Thane Gustafson, an expert on Russian oil and gas, argues that the political rivalries that capture the lions share of media attention...
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2020 Feb 11
What Makes Chocolate "Good?"
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The social and environmental values underlying artisanal chocolate production have become increasingly important in its marketing. Good taste is paramount, of course, but how does one measure "social goodness," and what additional value does it add for the consumer? Chocolate makers’ interests often diverge from those of cacao producers, and industry stakeholders have not clearly addressed these concerns. Carla Martin will examine the cacao-chocolate industry and highlight the often conflicting goals that can create gaps in social and environmental responsibility.
A...
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2019 Dec 04
Civilizing the Internet of Things
4:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge,
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a deeply interconnected ecosystem of billions of devices and systems that are transforming commerce, science, and society. IoT technologies can be used to disrupt, exploit, bias, bully, and intrude as well as to make our lives safer, more efficient, and more convenient. Join Francine Berman, Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in an exploration of the larger social and environmental ecosystem needed to develop an IoT that maximizes benefits, minimizes risk, and promotes individual protections...
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2019 Oct 30
The Peril and Promise of Solar Geoengineering
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Solar geoengineering research aims to reduce the impacts of global climate change. One possibility is to put aerosols into the stratosphere to alter Earth’s energy budget. This emerging technology entails risks and uncertainties, along with serious challenges to global governance. The greatest threat, perhaps, is that it will be used as a technical fix and encourage people to avoid the emissions cuts that are fundamental to curbing long-term climate risks.
Lecturer David Keith will describe the simple physics underlying the climate’s response to stratospheric aerosols, the...
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2019 Oct 18
Aging in [a] Place: Planning, Design & Spatial Justice in Aging Societies
1:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins, Room 112, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge
Today, public discussion and policy focuses on “aging in place” as a way to improve quality of life and reduce costs. However, in part because of socioeconomic differences and structural inequalities, not all older adults can live in or move to age-supportive communities, neighborhoods, or homes that match their values and needs. Differences in access to places to age well can take the form of spatial inequalities, such as inadequate market rate housing for older adults on fixed incomes.
'Co-sponsored by the Harvard Joint Center for...
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2019 Sep 18
The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Ancient Maya civilization—known for its cities, monumental architecture, ceramics, hieroglyphic writing, and advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy—suffered a major demise between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The causes continue to be investigated and debated. Paleoenvironmental research over the past twenty years has revealed that the demise coincided with a prolonged intensive drought that extended across the region, providing compelling evidence that climate change played a key role in the collapse of the Maya.
In this lecture, Billie Turner will examine...
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2019 Apr 18
Lecture: Romy Hecht, "The Green Ideal: Botanical Practices and the Creation of Santiago’s Civic Landscape"
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a lecture delivered by Romy Hecht.
Romy Hecht is a Professor at the School of Architecture, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), where she gives courses and research seminars on historical narratives and design theories of nineteenth- and twentieth-century landscapes. As an author and recipient of National Grants and research fellowships, Hecht has developed a fundamental task in the studies of landscape architecture in Latin America. She has focused on constructing a comprehensive history of Chile’s landscape...
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2019 Mar 11
Lecture: Kenneth Helphand, “Lawrence Halprin”
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Join us for a lecture from Kenneth I. Helphand FASLA, a Philip H. Knight Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus at the University of Oregon where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory and design since 1974. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (1968) and Harvard's Graduate School of Design (MLA 1972). Helphand is the recipient of distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He is also the author...
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2019 Mar 04
Aga Khan Program Lecture: Rania Ghosn
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Rania Ghosn DDes '10 is Associate Professor of architecture and urbanism at MIT and founding partner of DESIGN EARTH with El Hadi Jazairy. Her research engages the geographies of technological systems to address the aesthetics and politics of the environment.
The work of DESIGN EARTH has been exhibited internationally, including Venice Biennale (2018, 2016), Oslo Triennale (2017), Seoul Biennale (2017), Sharjah Biennale (2016), and MAAT (Lisbon, 2018), Sursock Museum (Beirut, 2016), Times Museum (Guangzhou, 2018) and collected by MoMA. Her honors include Architectural League...
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2019 Feb 19
Daniel Urban Kiley Lecture: Dilip Da Cunha, “The Invention of Rivers”
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Separating land and water is not just an act of division; it is also an act of creation. It creates land and water from ubiquitous wetness, defining them on either side of a line. It is one of the first acts of design, setting out a ground of habitation with a line that has largely been naturalized in features such as the coastline, the riverbank, and the water’s edge. These features are subjected to artistic representations, scientific inquiry, infrastructural engineering, and landscape design with little awareness of the act that brought them...
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2019 Jan 12
Nature Journal Workshop
1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Join botanical artist, Regina Gardner Milan, in this Nature Journal Workshop. Participants, ages 8-12, will develop observational skills while learning a new awareness of their environment. Seed pods, pine cones, and other plant material will be available for observation and drawing. If weather permits, you will go on a short walk to collect more specimens. Milan will do demonstrations of drawing and documenting important details, and then you will try your own hand at creating a personal nature journal....
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2018 Nov 14
Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new...
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2018 Nov 13
Anna Heringer, “Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives”
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
HGSD, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
“The vision behind, and motivation for my work is to explore and use architecture as a medium to strengthen cultural and individual confidence, to support local economies and to foster the ecological balance. Joyful living is a creative and active process and I am deeply interested in the sustainable development of our society and our built environment. For me, sustainability is a synonym for beauty: a building that is harmonious in its design, structure, technique and use of materials, as well as with the location, the environment, the user, the socio-...
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2018 Nov 08
Thomas Woltz, “Threatened Landscapes: Designed Countermeasures of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects”
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium 105, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Public parks are a source of civic identity for the communities they serve – inclusivity and authenticity are crucial. Similarly, memorials are bastions of democratic exchange and act as repositories of our cultural past and evolution. Thomas Woltz will present projects from the portfolio of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) that demonstrate the power of the firm’s research-based design to reframe our relationship with civic, ecological, and cultural systems within the public realm. Lastly, Thomas will present NBW projects that...
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2018 Nov 07
The Secret Lives of Roots
2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
The Arnold Arboretum is full of spectacular specimens from around the world that any visitor will appreciate. However, what they observe is only half the story. How a tree uptakes water and nutrients, stays grounded in place, stores energy, and sometimes even propagates itself, is all thanks to its roots. Join horticulturists Andrew Gapinski and Conor Guidarelli as they unearth these questions and more during an exclusive look into the extraordinary world of roots.
...
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2018 Oct 15
Can Baby Corals Improve the Reefs of Tomorrow?
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Aaron Hartmann, 2017–2018 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Visiting Fellow in Conservation Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Coral reefs are one of Earth’s most biodiverse and imperiled ecosystems. Corals form the foundation of this ecosystem. Substantial effort is being invested to help adult corals survive environmental degradation, but less attention is paid to their offspring and how they establish themselves on the seafloor. Unlike adult corals, baby corals move about in the water column, perhaps allowing them to...
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2018 Oct 04
Conserving Biodiversity: A Global Priority
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Biodiversity is the sum total of life on Earth and a living legacy to future generations. Sadly, it is declining almost everywhere on the planet. Russell A. Mittermeier, recipient of the 2018 Indianapolis Prize, is a biologist and lifelong conservationist who has traveled across 169 countries and discovered more than 20 species in his quest to save biodiversity hotspots. Focusing on nonhuman primates—our closest living relatives—...
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2018 Oct 02
How to Increase Bipartisan Leadership on Climate Change
12:00pm
Location: 
Kresge Building, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
Join us for the next “Voices in Leadership” event of the fall semester, featuring Rep. Bob Inglis, former U.S. Representative for South Carolina. Rep. Inglis was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, having never run for office before. In 2011, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason University in July 2012. In the fall of 2014, E&EI rebranded to become republicEn.org. republicEn is a growing grassroots community of over 5,000 Americans educating the country about free...
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2018 Sep 20
Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises
6:00pm
Location: 
TBD
Jeremy Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Senior Scientist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution
...
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