At the Atkinson Center, we know that planetary health doesn’t encompass just one ecosystem or one species, and that sustainability solutions cannot be limited to one field of inquiry. That’s why we empower question-asking, creative-thinking, risk-taking researchers from all disciplines to be part of the innovation conversation.

Founded by a generous gift from David and Pat Atkinson, the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future empowers faculty to think outside of their departments and across disciplines when it comes to tackling the world's greatest challenge—creating a vital and resilient future for the global community. By providing start-up funding for cross-college collaborations, emergency research, and partnerships with non-profits, government, and industry, the Atkinson Center supports the pioneering risk-takers at the very heart of radical collaboration through multiple funds and fellowship programs.

Reposted from atkinson.cornell.edu - See Full Article Here

Are we all “bystanders” when it comes to responding rationally to the serious environmental crises faced by our civilization? How is our behavior shaped by that of those around us?

A special issue of Orion Magazine illuminating this moment in the relationship between people & nature. A Kickstarter Project of Earth.

Where does the body end and nature begin?

What does water mean to women at Standing Rock?

MEGAN THOMPSON: This summer, when President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate accord — a voluntary pact to cut emissions of gases that cause global warming — some opposition came from what is perhaps a surprising place: big business.

Donald Trump visited a hurricane-stricken Houston and promised the “best ever” government response, before pumping his fist from the steps of Air Force One as he departed.

he rapid succession of Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey is unusual, say scientists, who add warming oceans are likely to make such storms increasingly common in the coming decades.

China will set a deadline for automakers to end sales of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, becoming the biggest market to do so in a move that will accelerate the push into the electric car market led by companies including BYD Co. and BAIC Motor Corp.

Daimler Trucks is presenting the Mercedes-Benz Electric Truck in Stuttgart, as the first fully electric truck with an admissible total weight of up to 26 tonnes.

INDIANAPOLIS -- There aren't many people who'd mention 98-year-old engine maker Cummins in the same breath as tech darling Tesla. But Cummins is trying to change that.

Sometimes progress is easy to see. Such is the case with clean energy, as wind, solar, and energy efficiency programs continue to grow and expand.

But where exactly is the progress happening? Which states are driving clean energy, and in what ways?

There is no single path to corporate sustainability. Two multinational companies, Mars and Pfizer, illustrate two very different approaches to going green.

Doing well by doing good is a modern mantra. If it becomes action instead of just words, it’s a key pathway to merging profit and sustainability in a company. Two of the world’s top companies — Mars, one of the world’s largest food companies (McLean, VA), and the Pfizer pharmaceutical company (New York, NY) — invest deeply in this concept, and it’s working.

The U.K. became the latest European country to mark the end of the line for diesel and gasoline fueled cars as automakers such as Volvo race to build electric vehicles or face the consequences of getting left behind.

In London, the government said it will ban sales of the vehicles by 2040, two weeks after France announced a similar plan to reduce air pollution and become a carbon-neutral nation. For some in the auto industry, the plans are too much too soon while environmental campaigners say exactly the opposite.

While publicly-held American corporations are responsible to shareholders to maximize profits, a growing group of businesses say they’re approaching their enterprises differently, with an eye toward environmental sustainability and workers’ rights.

The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980, and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a sweeping federal climate change report awaiting approval by the Trump administration.

How do people in Asia live with climate change now? How will its impacts shape their future, and how will they, in turn, shape their environment? What are the most effective ways to support people to adapt to climate change, and how best can the media, governments, organisations and businesses communicate with them? These are the questions behind Climate Asia, the world’s largest study of people’s everyday experience of climate change. The project surveyed 33,500 people across seven Asian countries – Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Canada believes that investments in clean technology, agriculture, sustainable forestry and climate-resilient infrastructure can assist in green economic growth.

As part of Canada’s climate-change actions, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, today announced an investment of $200 million to establish a second phase of the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia. The Parliamentary Secretary made the announcement while meeting with Takehiko Nakao, President of the Asian Development Bank in Yokohama, Japan.

Frustrated by President Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, several governors have joined together to create the United States Climate Alliance.

The alliance is the brainchild of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Jerry Brown, the first three states to join last week. All three are Democrats.

Victory: Ruling: Trump administration shortcut environmental review; Court seeks additional briefing on whether to shut down pipeline

Washington, D.C. — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a significant victory today in its fight to protect the Tribe’s drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access pipeline.
A federal judge ruled that the federal permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock reservation, which were hastily issued by the Trump administration just days after the inauguration, violated the law in certain critical respects.

Years before Janice Nolen began keeping tabs on the nation’s air quality for the American Lung Association, her mother used to tell her about air pollution in her native Nashville that was so bad that people brought an extra shirt to work so they’d have a clean one to change into.

CEO reiterates target of selling one million electric cars and hybrids by 2025

For Volvo the internal combustion engine has run its course.