A new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that methane lingering in the Earth’s atmosphere could cause sea levels to rise for hundreds of years after emissions have been curbed, reports Chelsea Harvey for The Washington Post. “The study underlines the importance of curbing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible,” Harvey explains.
Boston Globe reporter Jim O’Sullivan writes about a speech Sec. of State John Kerry delivered at MIT on the perils posed by climate change. “If we don’t go far enough fast enough, the damage we inflict could take centuries to undo — if it can be undone at all. We don’t get a second chance on this one,” Kerry said.
During a speech at MIT on climate change, Sec. of State John Kerry urged researchers to continue developing clean energy technologies, reports Scott Malone for Reuters. Researchers and innovators will create "the technological advances that forever revolutionize the way we power our world," he noted.
Current tax laws do not encourage U.S. corporations to invest foreign profits in this country, writes senior lecturer Robert Pozen in the Boston Herald. Senator Paul Ryan’s plan to make all U.S. exports exempt from corporate taxes is “a bold effort to reform corporate taxes in a way to keep more facilities and jobs in the U.S.,” Pozen writes.
Robert Gebelhoff writes for The Washington Post about a study by Prof. Tavneet Suri that shows mobile-money services helped reduce poverty in Kenya. The study “offers good evidence that having a place to put money that’s safe and easily accessible can make the lives of poor people considerably more efficient than cash-reliant economies,” Gebelhoff explains.
Forbes correspondent Hilary Brueck writes about Prof. Eric von Hippel’s research exploring the burgeoning maker movement in industrialized countries around the world. Von Hippel and his colleagues found that “5.2% of adult consumers are developing products for their own use – that’s 16 million people making new or modified products the rest of the country has never seen.”
Nurith Aizenman reports for NPR on a new study that shows mobile banking can help lift people out of poverty. Prof. Tavneet Suri says she was “blown away” by the study’s results, which showed that women-led families with access to mobile-money services, “set aside 22 percent more in savings between 2008 and 2014.”
Popular Science reporter Kate Baggaley writes that a new study by MIT researchers shows that mobile money services helped two percent of households in Kenya rise out of poverty. “Women especially have benefitted from the spread of mobile money, which has helped many move from farming into business,” writes Baggaley.
Prof. Tavneet Suri has found that mobile money services helped lift almost 200,000 Kenyan households, many headed by women, out of poverty, reports Neda Wadekar for Reuters. Suri explains that when mobile payment systems “came to an area, women shifted their occupations and their savings went up."
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Daron Acemoglu examines how a new administration in Washington, D.C. could impact Turkey’s growth. While the implications “are likely to be dire for the Turkish economy,” Acemoglu adds that “even modest attempts towards a more inclusive economy can spearhead rapid and relatively high-quality growth.”
Prof. Fotini Christia and grad students Elizabeth Dekeyser and Dean Knox write for The Washington Post about how they surveyed religious Shiites from Iran and Iraq concerning their views on religion, politics and more. The authors write that the survey, which was conducted during an annual pilgrimage, “presents a unique template for surveying hard-to-reach populations in an increasingly mobile world.”
Over 1,500 Fulbright recipients, including a number of MIT fellows, penned a letter in The Huffington Post about the U.S. election. The authors “stand for the tradition of tolerance, free expression, and inclusivity that has made the United States a beacon of hope.”
Writing for The Huffington Post, Peyton Fleming spotlights MIT alumna Kate Cincotta’s efforts to improve drinking water in northern Ghana. Fleming writes that through her startup Saha Global, Cincotta aims to empower “local women in extremely poor villages like Yepala to treat the contaminated water - and make a little money in doing so.”
CNN reporter Katie Pisa spotlights alumnus Obinna Ukwuani’s dedication to opening a STEM school in Nigeria. Ukwuani says he was inspired by his time in Nigeria after years of studying in the U.S. "In the U.S., if you work hard, you'll be fine in this life. So I had that moment where I knew I wanted to improve things in Nigeria."
Law enforcement officers, terrorism experts, and the parents of people who have carried out attacks, gathered for a two-day National Security Conference at MIT, reports Milton Valencia for The Boston Globe. The first day of the conference included a presentation by Lisa Monaco, assistant to President Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.