Global Warming

Since 2014, total campus emissions have dropped by 7 percent. Ninety-seven percent of the Institute’s emissions are associated with the operation of labs, offices, residences, and other building facilities across campus.

Campus greenhouse gas emissions down 7 percent since 2014

MIT releases results of its second campus-wide inventory.

January 11, 2017

Researchers report that warming from short-lived compounds — greenhouse gases such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons, that linger in the atmosphere for just a year to a few decades — can cause sea levels to rise for hundreds of years after the pollutants have been cleared from the atmosphere.

Short-lived greenhouse gases cause centuries of sea-level rise

Through warming effects, methane and other gases impact rising seas long after leaving the atmosphere.

January 9, 2017

MIT scientists have found that extreme precipitation events in California should become more frequent as the Earth’s climate warms over this century.

Study finds more extreme storms ahead for California

New technique predicts frequency of heavy precipitation with global warming.

January 3, 2017

MIT oceanographers have found that some small marine organisms — mostly bacteria — have a surprisingly low limit to the amount of oxygen they need to breathe.

New study sets oxygen-breathing limit for ocean’s hardiest organisms

Bacteria can survive in marine environments that are almost completely starved of oxygen.

December 19, 2016

MIT Energy Initiative report provides guidance for evolving electric power sector

Experts call for regulatory, policy, and market transformation to realize potential of distributed energy technologies.

December 15, 2016

MIT Climate CoLab's Laur Hesse Fisher (third from right) speaks at a Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance COP 22 side event on Nov. 15.

How online tools and open innovation can support implementation of Paris Agreement goals

MIT Climate CoLab presents an innovative approach at the UN international climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco.

November 29, 2016

Left to right: Robert Stoner, deputy director of the MIT Energy Initiative and director of the Tata Center for Technology and Design; Maria Zuber, MIT vice president for research; Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab; and John Fernandez, professor of architecture and director of MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative.

Forging ahead on climate action

At UN Climate Change Conference, MIT researchers share insights on implementing climate commitments.

November 22, 2016

At forum, MIT community tackles tough ethical questions of climate change

Why is it so hard for human beings to address climate change? What can motivate effective action?

November 21, 2016

Professor Emeritus Jay Forrester, digital computing and system dynamics pioneer, dies at 98

The inventor of an early form of RAM had an outsized influence on organizational dynamics, supply chains, and sustainability.

November 19, 2016

Seeking to inform India’s climate policy choices

Tata Center graduate fellow Arun Singh shares energy-economic modeling research at UN Climate Change Conference.

November 16, 2016

A silver-based catalyst material with a porous honeycomb-like structure, developed by the MIT team, can selectively transform carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO).

Turning greenhouse gas into gasoline

New catalyst provides design principles for producing fuels from carbon dioxide emissions.

November 15, 2016

This desalination plant in Israel, called Sorek, is currently the world's largest, producing 625,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day. Boris Liberman, chief technology officer of IDE Technologies, the company that built this and several other huge desalination plants in Israel and California, was among the speakers at MIT's Low Carbon Desalination Workshop, which explored the potential for redu...

How to achieve “green” desalination

Workshop explores ways to reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of seawater desalination plants.

October 19, 2016

While climate change may boost crop yields in some “breadbasket” regions, extreme heat and drought linked to a changing climate are likely to increase the frequency of major crop failures. Water stress is expected to increase in most regions due to pressures from population and economic growth as well as from climate change.

Even if the Paris Agreement is implemented, food and water supplies remain at risk

Report projects impacts of 2015 Paris climate agreement, identifies emissions paths/technology advances needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

October 4, 2016

The Low Emission Roadmap Roundtable featured (left to right) Valérie Quiniou-Ramus, co-chair of the OGCI Low Emission Roadmap work stream and vice president at Total; Vidar Helgesen, minister of climate and the environment of Norway; John Reilly, co-director of the MIT Joint Program; Henry Jacoby, event moderator and MIT Joint Program co-director emeritus; Bjorn Otto Sverdrup, senior vice preside...

Engaging industry in addressing climate change

At Climate Week conference, MIT Joint Program lays out the 2 degree Celsius challenge for oil and gas producers.

September 29, 2016

“The ocean has been the only true sink for anthropogenic emissions since the industrial revolution,” says MIT graduate student Sophie Chu, pictured here. “Right now, it stores about 1/4 to 1/3 of the anthropogenic emissions from the atmosphere. We’re expecting at some point the storage will slow down.”

Study finds increased ocean acidification due to human activities

More anthropogenic carbon in the northeast Pacific means weaker shells for many marine species.

September 7, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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