From Live Earth to “We can solve it,” Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Cathy Zoi Th’85 leads the charge for change.
By Julie Sloane ’99
Americans pay good money to sit in the dark, watching a superhero or rogue secret agent save the earth from the doom du jour: killer aliens, nuclear holocaust, maybe a planetary death ray. In Hollywood, saving the earth is everyday business-strictly fictional, of course. But for Cathy Zoi Th’85, saving the earth is literally her daily, all-consuming job. Her story line may unfold from a low-key, nondescript office building in Silicon Valley, but her mission is decidedly dramatic: she’s got three years and a $300-million budget to convince the American public that climate change is an urgent and solvable problem that our lawmakers must address now to avoid catastrophic consequences.
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Nine alumni experts outline the challenges and opportunities.
By Lee Michaelides
Energy and climate change are two of the most pressing problems in need of engineering expertise. Numerous Thayer School alumni are working on a wide range of intersecting and complementary solutions. We’ve asked nine of them to share their expertise on technologies both old and new. Their verdict: Technology, economics, and public policy all play vital roles in the quest for more and greener energy.
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Biofuels don’t have to compete with food.
By Nathanael Green and Professor Lee Lynd Th’84
Biofuels were riding a wave of popularity only a few months ago, but now suddenly they’re being roundly condemned in light of rising food prices and recent studies showing that biofuel production can exacerbate climate change. While these concerns should motivate greater efforts to do biofuels right, we must not throw the biofuels baby out with the bathwater — especially given the dearth of viable alternatives to power a sustainable and secure transportation sector. Rather than retreating from current policies, which do more for smart biofuels than many realize, the nation should follow California and Massachusetts in building on this foundation.
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