the Future of the Planet The Future of the Planet Global warming. Exhausted natural resources. Species extinctions. Overwhelming pollution. These and other predictions of looming environmental disaster are all too familiar.
They used to seem so far off—issues for someone to face someday, but certainly not us. Certainly not now.
Above: The Arctic Between 1960 and 2000, the Earth’s Time is running out. Some consequences of inaction—a summer could be ice- free by mid-century. population doubled. By 2050, more warming planet, species loss, poor air quality—are already Courtesy NASA than 9 billion humans will share upon us. Others, from rising sea levels to shifting patterns this world. Cover (top photo): of infectious disease, threaten to fundamentally change how Earth’s thin Without action, climate change may atmosphere as humans live. The risks to human life, social order, and the viewed from space. reduce global GDP by as much as global economy have never been more tangible. Courtesy NASA 5 to 20 percent this century. Cover (bottom): California agriculture Average temperatures in California Solutions are within reach—but only if the best information, depends on a are expected to rise between 30 most innovative ideas, and most passionate minds can be predictable climate. and 10o F this century resulting in Courtesy Photoshare marshaled toward our common goals. flooding, wildfires, air pollution, reduced snow-pack, agricultural At UC Berkeley, we have assembled a powerful model for losses and heat-related deaths creating solutions: the Berkeley Institute of the Environment Up to 20 percent of all living species (BIE). Because what’s at stake is nothing less than the future could become extinct in the next of the planet. 30 years
A Vision of Success
At UC Berkeley, we envision a planet where: • energy is renewable and • economies thrive • communities are healthy, clean • resources are preserved equitable, and sustainable • technology improves lives for future generations • environmental stewardship and protects the Earth respects diverse cultures We believe this future is possible, and we are striving to make it a reality.
university of california, berkeley The Opportunity Now at UC Berkeley Right now, UC Berkeley scientists are using microbes to create The BIE grew out of an initiative by clean, renewable energy. Berkeley economists and lawyers faculty and deans from the following are shaping policies to guide corporations and consumers. schools and colleges: Berkeley architects and planners are designing carbon-neutral sustainable neighborhoods. Berkeley engineers are developing College of Engineering improved cookstoves, water treatment technologies, and public College of Environmental Design transportation systems. These and other research initiatives College of Natural Resources are proving the power of UC Berkeley’s potential to confront Boalt Hall School of Law environmental challenges. Goldman School of Public Policy As a California land grant university, UC Berkeley has always Haas School of Business had public service as its mission. The Berkeley Institute of the Environment continues and expands this tradition. School of Journalism School of Public Health Unique among environmental institutions and programs, UC Berkeley is home to: Letters & Sciences: Biological Sciences • 300 of the world’s leading environmental scholars, seven Letters & Sciences: Physical Sciences Nobel Laureates and over 130 members of the U.S. National Letters & Sciences: Social Sciences Academies • 86 undergraduate and graduate academic degree programs with foci on the environment • 87 environmental research centers • 60 campus environmental organizations comprised of stu- dents, staff and faculty Now is the time to leverage these collective intellectual re- sources for global environmental action. By integrating this incredible community of scientists, engineers, and scholars, the BIE is developing effective new approaches for addressing environmental problems.
Above: Six UC Berkeley Nobel Laureates say averting world’s climate crisis requires urgent action.
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Putting ideas into practice UC Berkeley is redefining what a great research university can be.O ur best ideas are not locked up inside an ivory tower. Instead, we are committed to delivering results that work in the real Above: BIE research world. Through the BIE we engage directly with governments, industry, NGOs, and individual programs fall into three interconnected, communities. We seek out projects where issues are most urgent and where solutions can multi-disciplinary provide the highest social returns on investment. themes. Existing projects are provided as examples under BIE research programs fall into three interconnected, multi-disciplinary themes: sustainable each theme. communities; environment and society; energy and climate change. Each program may Below: students in the contain several research projects that will grow and change over time. BIE research themes Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program reflect the intrinsic relationships between human settlements, ecosystems, and climate: at UC Berkeley learn low-cost techniques to sustainable communities depend on healthy ecosystems and both human and natural systems monitor river quality. rely on a stable climate.
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S Sustainable Communities Chengdu, China has The BIE’s Urban Sustainability Initiative, supported with seed money by the Gordon and Betty won international recognition for its Moore Foundation, is incubating innovative demonstration projects in cities around the world. Two efforts to clean up projects under this program are described below. Others, in areas including water and sanitation, the FuNan River air and water quality monitoring, health, green buildings and lifecycle assessment, are currently seeking funding. In Cape Town, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania USI researchers are collaborating with local partners on sustainable energy and wastewater treatment.
Sustainable Neighborhood Demonstration Project in China WHAT’S NEXT?
With one year of seed funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Conduct life cycle cost assessment of green Foundation, urban design pioneer Harrison Fraker and collaborators building options from Tongji University and Beijing University are overhauling the Develop design principles for replicable models of standard inefficient “superblock” neighborhood design in China. sustainable urban development Teams of UC Berkeley and Chinese researchers are working Initiate green neighborhood construction in Jiaxing, Qingdao, and Chengdu to design, build and monitor a replicable transit-oriented sustainable neighborhood which generates all of its energy from on- site renewables, processes all of its sewage, food, and green wastes and recycles all of its water. The incorporation of biogas, wind, and solar technologies, combined with innovative design, will realize the first carbon-neutral community of its kind that can be replicated on a massive scale.
Integrated Public Transit Systems in China WHAT’S NEXT? Researchers from the Institute of Transportation Studies are Design and implement a feeder leveraging seed funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore bus system that integrates with Foundation to help planners in Chengdu link its “bus rapid Chengdu’s BRT and Metro systems transit” (BRT) system to passengers’ homes and jobs through Identify a set of sustainability met- a “first and last mile” transit service. By providing whole-trip rics to monitor Chengdu’s public service to passengers, the program aims to temper Chengdu’s transportation system rising car dependence and address critical greenhouse gas and air quality problems.
The Berkeley Institute of the Environment http://bie.berkeley.edu Right: Networks of low-cost wireless motes enable BIE scientists to monitor climate conditions in natural environments- Motes sense environmental parameters at high frequency and transmit these readings to the Internet.
Environment & Society The Life Cycle of Water Good decision-making requires information. Atmospheric scientist WHAT’S NEXT? Inez Fung has teamed up with engineers, ecologists, hydrologists, Develop low cost wireless sen- and computer scientists to study the life cycle of water. Supported sor networks for natural, agri- by the W.M. Keck Foundation, the HydroWatch project is designing a cultural and urban systems new framework for quantifying incredibly complex pathways of water Predict changes in California’s water cycle and impacts on and pollutants. By designing advanced new sensors that can monitor the California’s economy water above, within, and below plant canopies as well as in soils and Inform public policy and plan- streams, the team has a prototype system that can readily be repli- ning frameworks for California cated to investigate the effects of climate change and urban develop- and beyond ment on freshwater supply.
Energy & Climate Change Energy Efficiency andT echnology Development UC Berkeley is leading the way towards a low carbon economy. Together with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we boast the largest group of energy experts on the planet, and have embarked upon two of the most significant energy research efforts ever undertaken. The Helios Project aims to convert sunlight to carbon-neutral energy sources WHAT’S NEXT? and transportation fuels, while the new Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership with the energy company BP Model the environmental and socio-economic implications of scaling-up energy systems proposed by UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois, will develop agricultural and researchers, including the Helios and EBI initiatives microbial sources of clean, renewable bioenergy. The BIE, Work with city, state and national governments, NGOs and through the leadership of Co-director Dan Kammen, is the private sector to ensure that sustainability concerns working to design, disseminate and assess secure energy are at the forefront of future energy decision-making technologies that minimize environmental impacts.
university of california, berkeley Environmental Prediction Above: The distribution of global energy Berkeley climate scientists, ecologists, economists, policy experts, computer scientists, and consumption was mathematicians are collaborating on a new generation of an integrated earth system model to powerfully captured by this NASA image of link global environmental predictions to regional and local the world and night decisions. The initiative, spearheaded by Bill Collins of LBNL WHAT’S NEXT? and the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, will be Link energy supply and demand, the water cycle, air quality, useful for assessing risk as well as for prioritizing policy and climate modeling into an integrated system and investment decisions. Michael Hanneman is one of the Use the model to predict altered weather and air quality pat- many campus economists focusing on the environment terns associated with changes in climate and climate change. He is exploring the impact of climate Model the economic cost of a changing environment on prop- change on agriculture, water and urban communities. erty values, risk of natural disasters, and health outcomes.
Cradle-to-grave Assessment Tools for a Low Carbon Future Every dollar spent by consumers leaves an environmental footprint. What is the impact of man- ufacturing, shipping, and selling an automobile, television, or gallon of milk? What consumer choices make lighter environmental footprints than others? We have developed a way to pro- vide information on the “carbon footprints” of over 1,100 types of goods and services—anything anyone can buy—and we are pursuing new partnerships to bring this information to retailers, consumers, and city governments.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Improve lifecycle assessment tools for products, households, busi- nesses and communities Disseminate information and options to consumers at point of sale and through multi-media applications Build partnerships with businesses and city governments to monitor their environmental impact Left: BIE Co-Directors Inez Fung and Dan Kammen
The Berkeley Institute of the Environment http://bie.berkeley.edu The BIE Approach The Berkeley Institute of the Environment takes a three-pronged approach:
1. Innovating Solutions for the Future We assemble the brightest minds from disparate fields into focusedT hink Tanks and Do Tanks to cultivate and implement new approaches and solutions to environmental problems. These working groups are empowered to spin off new research projects and propose innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental problems.
Some of the big ideas we have engaged include: • Designing and choosing new transportation fuels • assessing the environmental implications of • selecting climate change mitigation and adap- nanotechnology tation strategies in large technical systems • incorporating local knowledge and cultural val- • responding to challenges presented by natural ues into environmental practices disasters • understanding the role of science, society and • incorporating the value of ecosystem services the media on environmental policy and con- into public policy sciousness
2. Putting Ideas into Practice The BIE advances projects that go beyond research to deliver real solutions to the world. Our goal is to create innovative technologies and best practices that not only improve lives in individual communities, but also scale up approaches so they can be adapted in appropriate ways around the globe.
Current demonstration projects include: • sustainable neighborhood demonstration proj- • Wireless technology to monitor the lifecycle of ects in China, South Africa and Tanzania water in California • an integrated public transportation system in • technology to estimate the “carbon footprints” of China products, households, and communities in the U.S.
3. Training Tomorrow’s Environmental Citizens and Leaders We are greening the UC Berkeley curriculum by adding environment-themed minors and specializations for students all across campus, in addition to the many existing majors with an environmental focus. We are also providing opportunities for students to launch their own research, get involved in on-the-ground learning experiences, and intern with the most effective environmental organizations around. The BIE further participates in campus-wide efforts to green the U.C. Berkeley campus through initiatives by students, faculty, and staff.
Recent student projects funded by the BIE have included evaluating zero waste technologies for the City of Berkeley; developing a text messaging carpooling demonstration project for the Bay Area, and designing a project to allow downstream users of water resources to pay upstream users not to pollute rivers in China.
The Berkeley Institute of the Environment 341 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, California 94720-1250 e-mail [email protected] tel 510-643-5048 fax 510-642-0225 www.bie.berkeley.edu