Technological advances can be harnessed to complement and enable approaches for addressing issues of climate, sustainability, and human development. Satellites can monitor atmospheric changes, peer through layers of earth, and map whole swaths of land while drones can offer real-time data for scientists in the field and provide near-field remote sensing capabilities, including in nonpermissive environments. Land restoration could be accelerated by the use of engineered biological organisms and water harvesting apparatuses could be used to alleviate drought. The tools and approaches modern technology can offer are boundless and can be critical in providing solutions to our most pressing sustainability, environmental, and human development challenges.
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Project Plastic develops technology to combat marine microplastics
Project Plastic is the brainchild of two Princeton Architecture students, Nathaniel Banks and Yidian Liu, who sought an innovative solution to the problem of aquatic plastic pollution. Since their launch in 2021, they have accumulated various awards and commendations such as: People’s Choice Award at the Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network Startup Pitch Competition, 1st place at…
Inside a Solar Energy Company
Written by Molly Chaney Finding an internship as a Ph.D. student is hard. Finding one at a company you have legitimate interest in is even harder. In search of a more refined answer to the dreaded question, “so what do you want to do after you get your Ph.D.?” I started looking for opportunities in…
Integrating Renewable Energy Part 2: Electricity Market & Policy Challenges
Written by Kasparas Spokas The rising popularity and falling capital costs of renewable energy make its integration into the electricity system appear inevitable. However, major challenges remain. In part one of our ‘integrating renewable energy’ series, we introduced key concepts of the physical electricity system and some of the physical challenges of integrating variable renewable…
Integrating Renewable Energy Part 1: Physical Challenges
Written by Kasparas Spokas Meeting climate change mitigation targets will require rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, which is responsible for a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The prospect of electrifying other sectors, such as transportation, further underscores the necessity to reduce electricity emissions to meet climate goals. To address this,…
Carbon Capture and Sequestration: A key player in the climate fight
Written by Kasparas Spokas and Ryan Edwards The world faces an urgent need to drastically reduce climate-warming CO2 emissions. At the same time, however, reliance on the fossil fuels that produce CO2 emissions appears inevitable for the foreseeable future. One existing technology enables fossil fuel use without emissions: Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS). Instead of allowing…