News Archive

April 8, 2026 Connecticut Public Radio

How fossil fuels shape US foreign policy

IBES affiliate Jeff Colgan, professor of political science and international and public affairs and director of the Climate Solutions Lab, offered guest commentary on this podcast.

April 2, 2026 Jackson Advocate

Brown University and Tougaloo College install air quality monitoring station in Jackson

Brown’s Community Noise Lab — led by Erica Walker, an IBES affiliate and Catalyst Research Awardee at the Schoo of Public Health — and Tougaloo College have installed a high-tech air quality monitoring station on Tougaloo’s campus in Mississippi.

April 2, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

Revolution Wind begins to deliver power to New England grid

IBES faculty affiliates Jeff Colgan (Professor of Political Science and Director of the Climate Solutions Lab) and Brad Marston (Professor of Physics) offered positive commentary about energy from a new Rhode Island offshore wind farm.

April 1, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

How a network of environmental sensors aims to help people better understand their communities

A dashboard recently launched by the RI Network for Environmental Sensing and Technology—part of a larger IBES-based initiative on coastal climate resilience—provides real-time data on water levels, air quality, and temperature to better inform stakeholders.

March 30, 2026 Eos

Ancient Maya Wetlands Reveal Settlement That Thrived Amid “Collapse”

IBES affiliate Shanti Morell-Hart, an associate professor of archaeology and anthropology, provided commentary on new research about how an ancient Maya settlement in Belize appears to have outlasted droughts by relying on local wetlands.

March 26, 2026 Alumni & Friends

Investing in climate solutions—and future changemakers

Matt Severson ’11 found his purpose at Brown and learned how to work and collaborate across areas. Now, he’s leading a successful career in sustainable finance. His next project: helping current Brown students do the same.

March 25, 2026 News from IBES

IBES faculty members win University teaching and mentorship awards

The Brown community recognized Professors Meredith Hastings and Myles Lennon for their outstanding support of students in the classroom, the lab, and beyond.

March 23, 2026 ecoRI News

Growing Legislative Contingent Supports Renewable Energy Program Cuts

Professor Timmons Roberts questioned legislators about proposed cuts to climate and energy programs in Rhode Island.

March 23, 2026 The Boston Globe

As R.I.’s weather intensifies, Brown University’s free real-time dashboard warns residents when flood waters hit

Sol Cooperdock, a research associate on the Community-Driven Coastal Climate Research & Solutions (3CRS) project, discussed the launch of a new network of environmental sensors that monitor flood conditions, air quality, and weather data across Rhode Island.

March 22, 2026 News from IBES

Brown’s first Climate Week, led by IBES, sparks campus-wide climate conversations

What does it take to confront the climate crisis, and where do we all fit in? This March, Brown students, faculty, staff, and community members came together across the campus to explore a wide range of answers.

March 18, 2026 News from IBES

IBES welcomes Melissa VanSickle as Program Manager for key campus-wide climate initiatives

VanSickle brings expertise in climate, health, and community engagement to support Equitable Climate Futures and the Academic Climate Leadership Group.

March 18, 2026 Grist

Big Oil has moved on from ‘greenwashing.’ Here’s the new playbook.

Visiting Professor Robert Brulle offered commentary on energy security and fossil fuel companies' PR tactics.

March 17, 2026 ABC News

Could a global economy dependent on renewable energy see less war? Experts explain

Professor Stephen Porder offered commentary on solar power as a viable alternative to oil.

March 11, 2026 Mother Jones

Thanks to Trump, Petro-Imperialism Is Back

IBES affiliate Jeff Colgan, a professor of political science and director of the Climate Solutions Lab, discussed the role of oil in recent U.S. military actions and the national security advantages of solar and wind energy.

March 11, 2026 News From Education

Where Climate Meets the Classroom: RI Leaders on Sustainable Schools and the Future of Environmental Education

As part of Brown Climate Week, practitioners from across Rhode Island explored how education policy, school leadership, and environmental partnerships shape climate learning in schools.

March 11, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

New study advances modeling of ocean’s finer details

IBES Fellow and DEEPS Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper co-authored a recent study showing how small-scale ocean processes have substantial effects on global model results.

March 10, 2026 News from Brown

New sensor network makes real-time flooding, air-quality data available to Rhode Island communities

Data from flood sensors that track coastal and roadway flooding, along with air-quality readings and weather information, are freely available to the public through a new dashboard.

March 10, 2026 National Geographic

These frog mating calls may also serve as weather reports

Voss Postdoctoral Researcher Luke Larter offered commentary on the implications of a new study that suggests female frogs listen for changes in the male calls as a signal for when it’s warm enough to mate.

March 9, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

The tropics may be getting even hotter than expected, Brown researchers find

Former Voss Postdoc and current IBES instructor Lina C. Pérez-Angel authored a recent study which found that tropical warming may be occurring to an even greater degree than previously expected.

March 8, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

Students host seventh annual conference on sustainable investing

Students, policy experts, and industry professionals in finance and sustainability gathered on campus for the student-run Future of Sustainable Investing Conference, part of Brown Climate Week.

March 6, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

Brown’s first-ever Climate Week celebrates education, innovation

The Herald spoke with Climate Week organizers and participants to understand how different industries and corners of academia can contribute to climate solutions.

March 6, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

Ancient plant wax preserved in lakes reveals insights into climate patterns

Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra coauthored a study that investigates ancient plant waxes preserved in sediments from two Utah lakes.

March 5, 2026 News from IBES

WATCH | Thea Riofrancos on the political ecology of the energy transition

As a featured speaker in the Brown Seminar Series on Environment and Society, Providence College's Thea Riofrancos examined the political ecology of the energy transition, drawing on extensive fieldwork and research across Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

March 4, 2026 The Guardian

Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the environment. Where’s the pushback?

This opinion article quotes IBES Visiting Professor Robert Brulle, an expert on climate obstruction.

March 3, 2026 News from IBES

WATCH | John Fullerton on regenerative economics and the future of finance

John Fullerton, founder of the Capital Institute and former JPMorgan managing director, joined IBES' Professor Ricardo Bayon for a fireside chat.

February 27, 2026 Communications Sustainability

Large language model reveals an increase in climate contrarian speech in the United States Congress

IBES and Sociology Professor J. Timmons Roberts William Kattrup '25 contributed to this study.

February 26, 2026 The 74

Millions of U.S. Students Attend Schools Near Environmentally Hazardous Sites

Professor of Education and IBES faculty affiliate Matthew Kraft conducted a nationwide assessment of U.S. PreK-12 public and private schools’ proximity to known environmental hazard sites.

February 25, 2026 The Brown Daily Herald

Brown researchers examine ‘climate realism,’ an attempted bipartisan solution to climate change

IBES Affiliate Jeff Colgan, a professor of political science and international studies and director of Brown's Climate Solutions Lab, co-authored a recent paper that assesses the merits and weaknesses of climate realism, which favors long-term climate investments over near-term solutions.

February 24, 2026 SDPB

Reimagining how fossils from Lakota treaty lands are displayed and interpreted

With the help of an IBES Catalyst Research Award, Associate Professor of History and IBES Faculty Affiliate Lukas Rieppel has teamed up with Oglala Lakota scholar Craig Howe to help people further understand the Earth’s history.

February 20, 2026 Geophysical Research Letters

Representation of Surface Mixed-Layer Eddies Affects the Large-Scale Ventilation of the Global Ocean

DEEPS Professor and IBES Fellow Baylor Fox-Kemper co-authored this study, which reveals how small-scale ocean processes have substantial effects on global model results.

February 20, 2026 JAMA Network

Tropical Cyclone Exposure and Psychoactive Drug–Related Death Rates

IBES and Epidemiology Professor Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou is among the co-authors of a recent study that links tropical cyclones to spikes in drug-related deaths for months after impact.

February 20, 2026 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Invisible Harms: Drug-Related Deaths Spike After Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

IBES and Epidemiology Professor Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou is among the co-authors of a recent study that links tropical cyclones to spikes in drug-related deaths for months after impact.

February 20, 2026 News from IBES

IBES faculty bring climate expertise to the Rhode Island State House

Professors Stephen Porder and Timmons Roberts offered research-driven perspectives on climate change, energy policy, and equity during recent testimonies to state policymakers, urging them to stay the course on Rhode Island’s climate commitments.

February 12, 2026 News from IBES

A week of climate collaboration across Brown

Brown Climate Week, March 2–7, 2026, will spotlight Brown’s climate research, career exploration, and sustainability leadership through talks, conferences, networking events, and more.

February 9, 2026 ecoRI News

Proposed Climate Superfund Act, Seeking Restitution from Polluters, Is ‘Basic Kindergarten Ethics’

IBES Professor Timmons Roberts expressed support for a proposed bill that would hold fossil fuel companies financially responsible for their emissions.

February 2, 2026 EcoRI News

Act on Climate Law, State’s Energy Mandates Under Scrutiny

Testifying before the RI House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, IBES Professor Stephen Porder discussed how the state could electrify the economy to meet mandates outlined in the Act on Climate.

February 2, 2026 Capital News Service

Climate action moves forward despite Trump’s policy rollbacks. Will it be enough?

Baylor Fox-Kemper, an IBES Faculty Fellow and Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, offered commentary on the clean-energy economy and climate change.

February 2, 2026 News from Brown

Parts of the tropics may warm more than expected as CO2 rises, study finds

A reconstruction of temperature in Colombia during the Pliocene, when CO2 levels were similar to today, suggests that parts of the tropics might soon experience more dramatic warming than previously expected.

February 2, 2026 University of Colorado Boulder

Some tropical land may experience stronger-than-expected warming under climate change

A new study led by former IBES Voss Postdoc Lina Pérez-Angel used lake sediments from the Colombian Andes to reveal that, when the planet warmed millions of years ago under carbon dioxide levels similar to today’s, tropical land heated up nearly twice as much as the ocean.

February 2, 2026 PNAS

Evolution of Pliocene-Pleistocene tropical terrestrial Andean temperature amplification

Former Voss Postdoc Lina C. Pérez-Angel authored this article, which found that the tropics are warming more than expected.

February 2, 2026 Jackson Advocate

Brown University collaborates with local students to examine environmental comfort in state

Erica Walker, an IBES Faculty Affiliate and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, discussed her new research project, for which students in Mississippi will be trained to collect air quality, noise, and light pollution measurements.

February 2, 2026 Brown Bookstore

2025-2026 Brown University Book Award

"Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait" by IBES and History Associate Professor Bathsheba Demuth has been selected as the 2025-2026 Brown University Book Award.

January 31, 2026 EdWorkingPapers

U.S. Schools’ Proximity to Environmental Hazard Sites: A National Analysis

Professor of Education and IBES faculty affiliate Matthew Kraft and members of his SustainableED team conducted a nationwide assessment of U.S. PreK-12 public and private schools’ proximity to known environmental hazard sites.

January 30, 2026 News from Brown

Childhood lead exposure associated with increased depressive symptoms in adolescence

A federally funded study led by Brown University researchers links increased childhood blood lead concentrations with increased depressive symptoms in adolescence, with larger increases when exposure occurred later in childhood.

January 29, 2026 Rhode Island House of Representatives

Stephen Porder Testifies to RI House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources

"There is no way to comply with the Act on Climate and continue to rely on gas and oil," IBES Professor Stephen Porder testified at the Rhode Island State House.

January 29, 2026 AGU Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology

Plant Wax Isotopic Reconstructions Reveal Thermodynamic Drivers of Hydroclimate Over the Last Two Glacial Cycles at Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah

Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra is coauthor of this study.

January 29, 2026 Flatwater Free Press

Citing study, OPPD said its Omaha coal plant poses no ‘significant’ health threat. That’s misleading, experts say.

Corwin Zigler, a professor of biostatistics and an IBES affiliate, was consulted as an expert for this reporting.

January 28, 2026 Social Problems

“Let them eat kale!”: Appeals to class-based resentment in American conservative opposition to climate change solutions

IBES Assistant Professor Rachel Wetts and coauthor Loredana Loy reveal that "appeals to class-based resentment against cultural elites are one prominent strategy to urge publics to reject climate mitigation strategies."

January 23, 2026 News from IBES

IBES launches STEP Program to expand student professional development opportunities in climate, sustainability and the environment

The new suite of student offerings includes a 500% increase in paid internships and research opportunities as well as professional development workshops, alumni networking, and an annual Climate Career Fair.

January 23, 2026 News from IBES

Find your place in the climate space: Brown's first Climate Week is March 2-7, 2026.

With IBES as the lead sponsor, Brown’s first-ever Climate Week is an open invitation for students, faculty, alumni, and community members to come together to explore how research, policy, and practice intersect to drive meaningful climate solutions.

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