Maxwell School News and Commentary

The Maxwell School professor talked about the effects of climate change and importance of geographical knowledge during her remarks for the Voices from the Global South series.

Playing into those politics are gasoline prices, which have become a partial barometer of economic security, says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and environment. He also notes that that the oil and gas industry has history of funding research that contradicts climate science.

“This is a massive flooding event...and the floods were quite rapid in their onset. There are over 5 million people who are marooned or stranded and devasted across 11 districts, 23 reported deaths now but those figures will rise and relief cannot reach many people,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

Shana Gadarian, professor of political science, notes that while rising temperatures may not shape vote choice directly in the United States this year, they will likely increase the salience of climate as an issue. “This will especially be the case for candidates on the left, where voters name the environment and climate as issues they care about,” she says.

“If we can’t find a way to do decarbonization and climate policy, in addition to materially improving working people’s lives…I really do fear that a lot of working people aren’t going to be that sympathetic to the climate agenda,” says Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“There is a quite substantial lag between addition of atmospheric carbon due to wildfire and the eventual removal of at least some of it by the regrowing forest. So, over the course of those decades, the net impact of the fires is a contribution to climate warming,” says Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment. 

“Now this is where we reached this impasse where if we really want to totally restructure the grid, totally grow it in ways that can serve decarbonization, and AI...then perhaps this sort of more integrated, more central planning, more coordinated and socialized investment model could be more useful than this very scattered and sort of fragmented system we have now,” says Matt Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“The turn to a ‘politics of building’ is a welcome change in environmental thinking, but the green Left is still at odds in important ways with the labor movement, which better understands what is needed for deep decarbonization and, most importantly, has the power to help bring it about,” writes Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment.

“We try to explain the environmental, economic and social benefits as well as possible unintended consequences and risks of the net-zero transition to decision makers,” says Jay Golden, founder and director of the lab and the Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance in the Maxwell School.

“Globally, safe water access for all can be achieved only by involving Indigenous and local communities in water governance and climate planning. People are not voiceless, they simply remain unheard. The way forward is through listening,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.