Society & policy
The health and economic impacts of environmental change, and the policies, technologies, and human behaviors influencing what happens next.
Disease ecology Economics Environmental justice Health and wellbeing Human behavior Mitigation Policy Social-ecological systems Sustainable development Technology Marine conservation Ocean governance
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Read an excerpt from Settling Climate Accounts on the emerging practice of Net Zero finance. The new book is an edited volume of essays by Stanford researchers that offers technical analysis wrapped in narrative accounts of climate action past, present, and future. (Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review)
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Our list includes a mix of favorites, high-impact stories and some of our most read research coverage from a year of uncertainty, adaptation and discovery.
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New research shows that physics measurements of just a small portion of reef can be used to assess the health of an entire reef system. The findings may help scientists grasp how these important ecosystems will respond to a changing climate.
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A team of researchers argues that AI enables a form of congestion pricing that could make everyone at every income level better off.
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In a series of recent papers, Stanford Graduate School of Business accounting professor emeritus Stefan Reichelstein and colleagues have argued that we should require corporations to disclose their CO2 emissions in their annual reports. (Source: Insights by Stanford Business)
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With feet and legs like a peregrine falcon, engineers have created a robot that can perch and carry objects like a bird. Possible applications include search and rescue, wildfire monitoring and environmental research.
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Decarbonizing global transportation requires building a huge quantity of batteries so fleets can convert to electric power. This will mean more mining to supply the lightweight metal lithium. So far, most lithium has come from Australia, South America, and China, but eyes are turning to deposits in the United States. (Source: Bill Lane Center for the American West)
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Water resources could be pushed beyond recovery in a region that provides about a quarter of the U.S. food supply.
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"Climate’s impact on health allows us to put our arms around a problem," says Michele Barry, director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health. "When you bring health into the equation, all of a sudden, people can focus on the impact – the very real impact – on their lives."
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Key ideas and proposals from an agreement between the hydropower industry and environmental community, facilitated through a Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment Uncommon Dialogue, have been included in the $1 trillion infrastructure package adopted by the U.S. Senate. (Source: Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment)
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Stanford experts discuss strengths and weaknesses of major pledges at the UN climate summit that target methane emissions and deforestation.
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Much of the debate around climate change and climate policy centers on the price tag of doing something. But the costs of inaction, in terms of overall livelihoods and economic well being, are far greater, explains Stanford environmental economist Marshall Burke. (Source: Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health)
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New data from the Center for Deliberative Democracy suggests that when given the opportunity to discuss climate change in a substantive way, the majority of Americans are open to taking proactive measures to address the global climate crisis. (Source: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies)
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International negotiators will meet in Scotland this Sunday for the latest UN Climate Change Conference. Stanford experts in a range of fields discuss their hopes for the talks as well as major themes likely to influence negotiations, keys to success and more.
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A new analysis finds that selling off stocks in corporations that don’t meet your values has minimal impact on their behavior. (Source: Insights by Stanford Business)
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Policy interventions to stop deforestation are most effective when enacted in a certain order, according to a new study. (Source: Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment)
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A mathematical model of the body’s interacting physiological and biochemical processes shows that it may be more effective to replace red blood cell transfusion with transfusion of other fluids that are far less in demand.
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Air pollution is known to harm children’s respiratory health, but its specific impacts on infection rates have remained unclear. A new analysis provides evidence of a link between the two in low-income settings, and indicates one industry may play an outsized role in the problem. (Source: Stanford News)
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Researchers found increased concentrations of air pollutants downwind from oil and gas wells in California, likely affecting millions of Californians who live near them.
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An oil spill from the FSO Safer could increase cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations and disrupt access to food and water for millions of people, researchers predict.
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Environmental law expert Professor Deborah Sivas discusses the spill and regulations surrounding off-shore oil drilling.
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California should use its $260 billion annual spending and $1 trillion pension funds to advance its climate agenda through climate risk disclosure requirements, according to a Stanford-led group of advisors appointed by Gov. Newsom. Two advisors explain how more disclosure can do that.
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Analyses lay out a blueprint for speeding development of methane removal technologies and modeling how the approach could improve human health and have an outsized effect on reducing future peak temperatures.
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A survey of more than 350 firms finds that resilience is an important byproduct of sustainability. (Source: Insights by Stanford Business)
