Energy & Environment

Energy & Environment Community, started in Fall 2011, aims to bridge the gap between energy and environmental issues by providing a fresh and fact based platform for energy enthusiasts, scholars, policy makers and experts in the field.

With increasing developments and availability of alternative energy technologies, resolving uncertainties related to the environmental risks and benefits has become a non-trivial scientific challenge. Estimations of costs and benefits based on models suffer from inconsistencies due to dissimilar underlying assumptions and lack of sufficient data. As researchers continue to come up with novel ways to harvest energy from various resources, many questions regarding their long term sustainability and environmental implications remain to be answered. Material availability (solar), biodiversity concerns (off-shore wind), unaccounted for greenhouse gas emissions (biofuels) and ozone depletion (hydrogen), radioactive  fallout (nuclear), disastrous spills (oil) and mercury pollution (geothermal) are just a few examples of environmental risks, and illustrate the complexities introduced by proliferating energy solutions. Yet, the very same solutions also provide evident benefits from energy independence and security, to creating local jobs and fostering economic growth.

Energy & Environment Community undertakes the role of addressing these issues within the existing MIT Energy Club framework in the most neutral and critical fashion. To this end, the Community organizes lectures, panels and debates representing opposing findings, views and claims by various scientific and interest groups.

Please contact Ece Gulsen for questions and comments.