Category: "Energy"
What Apollo 11 and the Climate Crisis have in Common — and What They Don’t
July 23, 2019
By: TANJA SREBOTNJAK, Hixon Center Director Fifty years ago this month American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the moon—the magnificent and beautiful culmination of years of work by countless men and women, who made groundbreaking advances in science and engineering and, through their dedication and willpower, […]
Sustainability Focus Groups
June 16, 2019

By: TANJA SREBOTNJAK, Hixon Center Director During the spring the Hixon Center, with the help of CGU doctoral student Sara Hollar, conducted a series of focus groups on sustainability at Harvey Mudd College. The goal for the undertaking was to evaluate the work of the Hixon Center over the past 4+ years against people’s perceptions […]
Why Sustainability Ratings are Useful
May 3, 2019

By: TANJA SREBOTNJAK, Hixon Center Director Good news: Harvey Mudd College has just received a STARS Silver rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). This follows last year’s first-ever Bronze rating and reflects continued efforts to embed sustainability across all organizational units and processes and was bolstered by the […]
Biomass-To-Energy Study
April 23, 2019
BY: TANJA SREBOTNJAK, Hixon Center Director Claremont McKenna College graduate, Lauren d’Souza (’18), was deeply interested in understanding the obstacles and opportunities faced by Native Americans when it comes to tribal economic development, sovereignty, and sustainable energy generation. Under the guidance of Prof. William Ascher (CMC) and Prof. Tanja Srebotnjak she studied the feasibility of […]
The “Green New Deal” – Part 3: Will It Pass?
April 17, 2019

By: LOUIS SPANIAS, Sustainability Program Manager The past two segments of this blog series have covered a lot of ground on the “Green New Deal” Resolution. In the first segment, I explained what exactly the “Green New Deal” was: a blueprint by which Congress could legislate on the issues of climate change and economic injustice. […]
The “Green New Deal” – Part 2: Can Its Goals Be Achieved?
April 9, 2019

By: LOUIS SPANIAS, Sustainability Program Manager In the previous segment of the “Green New Deal” series, I provided an explanation of the Resolution co-introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). As I outlined in Part 1, the “Green New Deal” offers a strategic blueprint for Congress to act on the issues […]
The “Green New Deal” – Part 1: What Exactly Is It?
March 26, 2019

By: LOUIS SPANIAS, Sustainability Program Manager This past February, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the “Green New Deal,” a proposed package of programs and goals that aims to directly address climate change as well as economic inequality. It is named after and inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” of […]
There’s a New Electron in Town
February 25, 2019

By: TANJA SREBOTNJAK, Hixon Center director Have you heard of the Clean Power Alliance? You might have heard about it or received notifications in the mail: starting this month, approximately 3 million customers in 31 cities and communities in southern California are receiving electricity from the Clean Power Alliance (CPA), a new government entity founded […]
How did Energy, Climate, and Environment do in the Midterm Elections?
December 3, 2018

By: LOUIS SPANIAS, Sustainability Program Manager Leading into the Midterm Elections this past month, much of our attention was focused toward the candidates running for office – from local school board seats to the United States Senate. At the same time, citizens of every state were not just voting on the people who will represent […]
2030 or Bust? About the New IPCC Report
October 29, 2018

By: LOUIS SPANIAS, Sustainability Program Manager Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a Special Report (SR15), “Global Warming of 1.5°C,” which quickly grabbed headlines and found its way into our newsfeeds and newspapers. These headlines and accompanying op-eds painted a pretty dire picture. Just to reel off a few: “We […]