Online MIT symposium explores the role of universities in climate action
November 3, 2020
In the fifth of six symposia in the Climate Action series, held Oct. 20, an online panel of MIT experts, including Joe Higgins, vice president for campus services and stewardship, discussed the role of research universities in tackling climate change. Research universities like MIT provide critical technology and policy innovations, the speakers said, but can also act as role models for other institutions.
The 170 acres of the MIT campus and its affiliate programs are a kind of living laboratory and testbed for climate solutions, “to demonstrate the technology and the choices that we as people make to move the campus forward,” said DMSE Professor Krystyn Van Vliet.
Climate solutions must include more than just advanced science and technology capabilities, said Melissa Nobles, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and professor of political science.At MIT, she notes, classes on the ethics of climate change, theJ-PAL King Climate Action Initiative,and Charlotte Brathwaite’s “Bee Boy” theater projectare some examples of how the social sciences and arts can be brought to bear on climate issues.
“As I see it, the more that research institutions can invent practical ways for these various forms of knowledge to intersect, blend, and become mutually informing, the more quickly we can generate effective climate solutions,” Nobles said.
At the same time, universities should remember that climate change policy is only one of several issues, including global health, poverty, and racism, “which deserve and command our attention,” said Institute Professor Emeritus John Deutch. He also sounded a note of caution about how universities should engage in policy discussions. “They cannot speak out with one voice, or should do so very rarely,” he said, because members of the university community often hold diverse opinions and points of view.
The final symposium in the series, “What is the World Waiting For? Policies to Fight Climate Change” will take place online Nov. 16.