By the end of the 20th century, the United States had about 15,000 wastewater treatment plants and 13,000 landfills. These systems were designed to prevent environmental harm and to protect public health. Other factors, such as energy costs and climate change, were not a consideration. Waste and wastewater were collected, transported to centralized facilities, treated to remove harmful agents, and the effluents and residuals discharged. Now these systems have reached their design life and are in need of revitalization. Energy costs, climate change, and demand for secure supplies of water, food and materials provide powerful incentives for technological innovation through the creation of circular markets. In such markets, wastewater becomes a resource for local production of freshwater and nutrients, and organic waste becomes feedstock for local production of energy and biomaterials. Many groups around the world are now developing technology to enable such innovation.

• bio-fuel
• clean tech
• climate change
• energy and climate policy
• environment
• greenhouse gases
• nanotechnology
• renewable energy
• sustainable built environment

In little more than a decade, carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from point source emissions and sequestration in deep geological formations has emerged as one of the most important options for reducing CO2 emissions. Two major challenges stand in the way of realizing this potential: the high cost of capturing CO2, and gaining confidence in the capacity, safety and permanence of sequestration in deep geological formations. Building on examples from laboratory and field-based studies of multiphase flow of CO2 in porous rocks; this talk addresses the current prospects for CO2 sequestration.

Which formations can provide safe and secure sequestration? At what scale will this be practical and is this scale sufficient to significantly reduce emissions? What monitoring methods can be used to provide assurance that CO2 remains trapped underground? What are the long-term risks of geological sequestration and how can they be managed? The status of each these questions will be discussed, along with emerging research questions.

• carbon sequestration
• clean tech
• climate change
• coal
• energy and climate policy
• environment
• geoengineering
• greenhouse gases
• impacts

The talk will focus on the "clean energy triangle" -- technology, policy and finance -- with a particular emphasis on the role that policy and finance have in driving the development and deployment of a broad array of clean energy technologies, from efficiency and renewables to advanced fossil and nuclear. This will include a discussion of the "Valley of Death" -- the looming chasm that often sits between the early government and venture-funded development of an energy technology and its full-scale commercial deployment. The talk will also cover the important intersection between energy technology and information technology and the current stalemate in energy policy in Washington, D.C.

• clean tech
• economics
• energy and climate policy
• energy policy
• environment
• renewable energy

In recent years, observers have speculated that the American public has become increasingly skeptical about the existence and potential threat of climate change and that the public desire for action by government on this issue has declined. In this talk, Jon Krosnick will present new survey evidence tracking public opinion in the nation and in Massachusetts to explore what changes have occurred in the entire population and in population subgroups. In addition, Dr. Krosnick will present the results of a new study examining whether candidates' positions on climate change policy have influenced their electoral success, using three methods of investigation: (1) analysis of the relation of candidate website statements on climate with the victory rates of Congressional candidates in 2010, (2) experiments embedded in surveys describing a hypothetical candidate running for a Senate seat, and (3) a statistical analysis predicting votes in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election using data collected from survey respondents before and after the election. The findings paint a portrait of the likely role of climate change in the upcoming elections.

• climate change
• energy and climate policy
• energy policy
• environment
• greenhouse gases
• social change