In This Edition

Converging on the Environment

Part 1: Tackling Global Environmental Challenges

Part 2: Multidisciplinary Environmental Education

Part 3: Resources for Change

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Joanne M. Kauffman, PhD

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MIT Press's Environmental Cornucopia MIT Press lists hundreds of books and journals with environmental content including these recent titles:
-	Agency, Democracy, and Nature: The U.S. Environmental Movement from a Critical Theory Perspective
-	Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment
-	Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas, Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs, and Environmental Regimes

Converging on the Environment

Brown air blankets Mexico City, rural China chokes on its own coke production, and worldwide motorization gridlocks cities from Atlanta to Bangkok. Environmental health is a global issue requiring convergence of academic expertise, policy commitment, and industrial engagement. MIT's environmental research and education programs have taken on that challenge around the world through research projects and partnerships.

"We have created a world in which all nations have become, for all practical purposes, near neighbors, facing common problems and opportunities that transcend geographical and political boundaries," said President Charles Vest at the past Alliance for Global Sustainability annual meeting. The topic of that meeting, "Translating Knowledge into Action and Learning to Lead," provides a common thread for MIT's efforts.

OpenDOOR looks at three aspects of MIT's impact on environmental well being:

Tackling Global Environmental Challenges
Some projects focus MIT expertise on specific environmental problems, such as the Mexico City Case Study where researchers, headed by Nobel Laureate Mario Molina, are tackling severe air pollution. Other efforts are global partnerships such as the Alliance for Global Sustainability, a joint project of MIT, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, and the University of Tokyo.

Multidisciplinary Environmental Education
Complex environmental problems call for MIT's best interdisciplinary tools. Environmental course content is increasing across the board from urban planning to history. In fact, students in 18 courses and programs can take environmental courses geared to their disciplines.

Resources for Change
Everybody wants a healthy environment but how do you make it happen? The University of Toronto is cleaning up its in-house act, headed by an MIT alumnus. Meanwhile, MIT commits to reducing its own environmental footprint by decreasing waste and energy consumption.

Nepali Water Project Learn how environmental engineering graduate students work with families to improve water quality in Nepal where one in ten children die before age five, largely because of water-borne illnesses.

Choking China with Coke This project is studying industrial technology options for cokemaking and local households' interaction with pollution and energy consumption.