Harold Ward, the father of the environmental studies program at Brown, passed away on in December 2024 at the age of 89.
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
IBES in the News
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April 23, 2025
News from Brown
Six Brown scholars elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
With their election to the prestigious honor society, six members of the Brown University faculty join the nation’s leading scholars in science, public affairs, business, arts and the humanities.
American Lung Association
2025 State of the Air Report: Air Quality Worsens in Providence Metro Area Due to Wildfire Smoke
Members of the IBES-housed Breathe Providence project offered commentary for this press release.
April 22, 2025
News from Brown
Staff Spotlight: Sowing more than seedlings, Nicholas Vasques cultivates learning and research
As Brown’s research greenhouse manager, Vasques tends the Plant Environmental Center run by the University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology.
April 22, 2025
News from Brown
Video: Brown biologist Stephen Porder on taking purposeful, planet-positive personal steps
This Earth Day, Brown University’s associate provost for sustainability offers strategies to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and help mitigate climate change.
IBES Affiliate Mark Blyth penned this opinion piece with Visiting Scholar Nicolò Fraccaroli.
Chemical & Engineering News
Scientists face deficiencies in leadership countering US policies
IBES and Sociology Professor Scott Frickel offered commentary for this article.
Brown Alumni Magazine
Bite-Sizing Climate Action
"Possibly" – IBES' podcast with the Public's Radio – fights climate-change overwhelm, one “let’s break this down” episode at a time.
The Washington Post
Trump’s new reason for canceling grants: ‘Climate anxiety’
“The answer to rising levels of climate anxiety is to meet the moment with robust and durable evidence-based solutions,” IBES Director Kim Cobb told The Washington Post. “It’s not to stick our heads in the sand.”
The Atlantic
America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era
Corwin Zigler — a biostatistics professor and IBES affiliate who served on an EPA scientific advisory panel on air pollution under the Biden administration — provided commentary for this article.
The Brown Daily Herald
What Brown experts, RI officials think about the EPA’s planned climate rollbacks
IBES Professors Kim Cobb, Scott Frickel, and Meredith Hastings offered commentary for this article, condemning the rollback of federal environmental oversight.
Kurt Pennell — an engineering professor, IBES fellow, and groundwater remediation expert — offered input during an October 2024 meeting to review the environmental impacts of the the Massachusetts Army National Guard's controversial proposal for a machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod.
With the help of an IBES Catalyst Research Award, affiliate faculty member Erica Walker and her Community Noise Lab will launch a free, self-paced online summer environmental health and science program for middle school students in Jackson, Mississippi.
March 24, 2025
News from Brown
New research helps reconstruct sudden, dramatic sea level rise after last ice age
By determining which ice sheets melted to create a colossal increase in sea levels 14,500 years ago, scientists hope to enable better predictions of how current ice melting will affect levels around the world.
IBES affiliate Jerome Robinson, an associate professor of chemistry, discussed STEM Day at Brown — an initiative he leads for local high schoolers.
Citizens' Climate Lobby
Can Talking About Climate Change Reduce Anxiety?
This episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio features insights from Kate Schapira, an IBES affiliate in the Department of English.
"Extreme weather events, made more frequent and intense by climate change, pose a clear and present danger to our education system," said affiliate faculty member Matthew Kraft.
March 13, 2025
News from Brown
Brown launches new master’s degree program in sustainable energy
Combining cutting-edge science, technology and engineering education with economic and policy instruction, the on-campus program will prepare students to be change-makers in the global transition to renewable energy.
Members of Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra's lab, including graduate affiliate Riley Havel, who was interviewed for this piece, identified a meteorite that landed in a carton of ice cream in Pennsylvania.
Swearer Center for Public Service
Trees, Heat and Human Health
This article highlights the engaged work that three ENVS concentrators are conducting to increase tree equity in Providence and bolster community health.
The Brown Daily Herald
What’s next for the economy? Billionaire Tom Steyer says it should be renewable energy.
IBES Director introduced Steyer as a “force of nature” in her opening remarks, describing him as “somebody who has taken all of their chips and gone all in on climate.”
Researchers from Brown, including IBES Associate Professor Tyler Kartiznel, contributed to a study that found giraffes' gut microbiome is more closely tied to the giraffe’s species than to the specific plants it consumes.
The New York Times
Hit by ‘Gut Punches,’ Scientists Band Together to Protest Trump
IBES and Sociology Professor Scott Frickel offered commentary about the tradition of science activism.
The Providence Journal
Can RI force fossil fuel companies to pay for climate change? Here's how.
IBES Professor Timmons Roberts noted that fossil fuel companies have "buried the negative impacts of their product like the tobacco companies did."
Kim Cobb offered commentary on the scientific evidence that climate change is harming people and the planet.
Uppsala University
Unexpected discoveries in study of giraffe gut flora
Past and present members of Associate Professor Tyler Karzinel's lab analyzed the link between diet and gut flora in three giraffe species.
National Parks Traveler
Working To Preserve Cashes Ledge, 'Yellowstone Of The North Atlantic'
IBES Fellow and Biology Professor Jon Witman, who has studied Cashes Ledge since 1977, offered commentary for this article.
“We really need an educated workforce who can understand what’s going on (and) how to transform from a historically carbon-based economy to a decarbonized economy,” said Nitin Padture, an IBES faculty affiliate and the director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy.
IBES and DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch offered commentary for this article.
IBES Director Kim Cobb acknowledged the grim reality of increasing global temperatures while asserting that "peak fossil fuel emissions are in reach, this year or next...if we keep our eyes on the prize."
IBES Professor Laurence C. Smith offered commentary for this article.
IBES and Sociology Professor Scott Frickel offered commentary about science organizing and activism.
IBES Director Kim Cobb offered commentary for this article, noting that a new study offers strong evidence linking recent global warming to the burning of fossil fuels.
The Boston Globe
Woburn startup could give US solar industry a second chance
This article includes commentary from Professor of Engineering Nitin Padture, an IBES affiliate, on the life expectancies of different types of solar collectors.
The Brown Daily Herald
The race against pollution: Air quality impacts marathon times, Brown study finds
New research from IBES Associate Professor Allan Just and Faculty Fellow Joseph Braun, both epidemiologists in the Brown University School of Public Health, suggests that poor air quality increases marathon runners' race times.
This article features forthcoming research from IBES Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra and Faculty Fellow Brad Marston, a professor of physics.
This article references research by and includes commentary from IBES Professor Timmons Roberts, who led a report that found links between think tanks and conservative donors who are known to block climate policy in support of fossil-fuel interests.
The New York Times
Did Christopher Columbus Jump-Start the Climate Crisis?
IBES Fellow Elizabeth Rush penned this book review of "Dark Laboratory" by Tao Leigh Goffe.
Heatmap queried more than 30 climate insiders, including IBES Director Kim Cobb, about the future of environmental policy.
Brown Alumni Magazine
Capitalism to the Rescue?
Ricardo Bayon ’89, an IBES advisory council member and founder of Encourage Capital, teaches the ever-popular course "Finance and the Environment" at Brown.
This article cites a report from IBES' Climate and Development Lab, which found many of New Jersey's anti-offshore wind groups are affiliated with a Delaware-based libertarian think tank that is aligned with fossil fuel advocates.
Epicenter Podcast
Exploring Commodity Frontiers
Myles Lennon, assistant professor in IBES and the Department of Anthropology, joined fellow scholars to discuss the expansion of capitalism and commodities, including renewable energy.
Jefferson Public Radio
They disagree on offshore wind, but they’re working together to fight disinformation
This article cites a report from IBES' Climate and Development Lab, which found that much of the funding behind offshore wind opposition groups comes from entities with close ties to the oil and gas industry.
Portland Press Herald
Opinion: Greenland must be regarded as a partner, not a prize
IBES and DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch co-authored this opinion piece.
The Daily Yonder
Q&A: Charting the Environmental History of the Arctic
IBES and History Associate Professor Bathsheba Demuth was interviewed about how the rural region between Canada and Russia has been transformed by colonialism and climate change.
Heatmap News
Are Anti-Renewables Activists Going Unchallenged?
IBES and Sociology Professor Timmons Roberts discussed why climate advocates should know "what strategies and the tactics are being used" by anti-renewables activists.
This article mentions a report by IBES' Climate and Development Lab on misinformation spread by anti-offshore wind interest groups.
NPR's Leila Fadel spoke with IBES and DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch about why president-elect Donald Trump is seeking to take control of Greenland and Panama.
The New York Times
Trump Wants Greenland and the Panama Canal. It’s About Climate.
Amanda Lynch, an IBES and DEEPS professor who has studied climate change in the Arctic for nearly 30 years, offered commentary about the dangers of new trade routes around Greenland.
"Preparation [for the effects of climate change] involves science and realism about the scale of the effects, who will be most affected, and what can be done," IBES Fellow Baylor-Fox Kemper commented.
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