Tag Archives: climate

Hooray! Entirely Virtual APA Central Meeting in February

climate, justice, philosophy, travel, , , ,

As a member of Philosophers for Sustainability, I’m so excited that our APA 2+1 Campaign is bearing fruit! This February 20-22 & February 27 – March 1, the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division Meeting will be held entirely online, via Zoom.

Among other benefits, the fully virtual conference will:

  • Substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions (no flying!),
  • Be much more affordable for participants (no hotels or flights to pay for!),
  • Be more accessible to students, folks with various disabilities, health conditions, caring responsibilities, and others (no uncomfortable ballrooms!)
  • Try out new session formats (read-ahead sessions, fully public sessions, optional watch parties for student groups, and more), and
  • Allow for access to recorded sessions for a whole year (finally – I need not miss out when interesting sessions are scheduled concurrently)!

The program has just been published, and a lot of people have put a lot of work into making this fully virtual conference a reality. I’m very grateful to them all.

Let’s make the experiment a success by registering, showing up, participating, thinking critically, and giving constructive feedback en masse!

We’ll be doing one of three annual APA conferences virtually in 2026 and 2027 as well, so we’ve got opportunities to improve based on what we learn this time around. As a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Virtual Meetings, I know that I’ll be giving a lot of thought to this, so feel free to get in touch with me if you’ve got ideas we should consider trying.

10 Haiku for My Portable Induction Burner

climate, food,

You heat stuff so fast
I need not practice patience
Induction burner

Unmatched cooking speed
No hunger emergency
Dinner is ready

When I must clean you
A simple wipe is plenty
Induction burner

Steadfast excellence
Energy efficiency
We venerate you

Magnetic power
Awesome induction burner
A wonder machine

My budget is tight
A hundred dollars well spent
Induction burner

No yucky odors
Nor invisible poisons
You protect our health

Induction burner
You came with us when we moved
Renters’ trusty friend

A dish cloth or hand
Brushes your hot surface but
They do not get burnt

Like something magic
The future is induction
Just imagine it

Video: Reducing Emissions from Buildings in Chicago

Chicago, climate,

Since about 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago come from our buildings, I’ve been leading a small team of Climate Reality Project volunteers with the goal of helping bring those building emissions down over time. That will take lots of work, but thankfully, we’ve got many wonderful coalition partners at the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (and the clean buildings working group in particular)!

Last week, my teammates and I gave a presentation to the general membership of Climate Reality’s Chicago Metro Chapter about what building decarbonization is, why it is so important, what our team has accomplished over the last year, and the projects we’ve currently got in the pipeline. Consider taking a look at that presentation, and let me know if you want to get involved or form some sort of partnership with our team!

(The main presentation starts about 10 minutes in – after some intro material from our chapter chair.)

Chicago Higher Education Buildings Need to Decarbonize

Chicago, climate,

Recently, my team over at the Climate Reality Project’s Chicago Metro Chapter released a report that draws connections between existing citywide energy benchmarking policies and climate goals, energy usage and emissions on college and university campuses, and strategies for working toward emission reductions. 

Check out the report “Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Chicago Campuses” or just get the highlights through the coverage by Illinois PIRG and The Columbia Chronicle.

Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Chicago Campus Buildings: A Report

Chicago, climate, justice, , ,

With about 70% of climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago coming from buildings, it is important to know which ones are among the highest emitters, so that we can make the changes necessary to meet the goals in Chicago’s Climate Action Plan. 

As I learned while working with my team at the Climate Reality Project’s Chicago Metro Chapter, university buildings are among Chicago’s top emitters of climate-warming gasses per square foot. Seven university buildings ranked among the top ten most emissions intensive buildings in the city in 2021!

We recently released a report, Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Chicago Campuses, which relies on data from electrifychicago.net. That website allows users to get specific, publicly available energy usage and emissions information for individual large buildings that owners are required to report to the city under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance. The website also helps users rank and group buildings to allow for better understanding of the data.

Using that excellent resource as a starting place, we identified a number of college and university campus buildings that are making outsize contributions to the climate crisis, as well as multiple institutions of higher education that have failed to comply with the benchmarking ordinance in recent years. We also uncovered a systemic failure on the city’s part to enforce the ordinance – foregoing as much as $30 million in potential fines.

We issued the report to spur universities to decarbonize their buildings by improving energy efficiency and by moving away from fossil fuels like methane gas. The report also highlights actions at the state and city level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provides strategies for students and others concerned about climate change to work toward emission reductions.

The Climate Reality Project’s Chicago Metro Chapter is an all-volunteer group of Chicago area activists working to catalyze local solutions to the climate crisis since 2017.

Moral Courage, Environmental Style

climate, philosophy, , ,

Around the country, professors are hard at work creating and updating syllabi for fall, which can be both exciting and exhausting. Thankfully, Philosophers for Sustainability is here to help!

They’ve just posted a new section on their website, called Teaching Modules, with resources that can easily be slotted into existing courses, used to create new courses, or shared and discussed in philosophy clubs.

The first module is called “Moral Courage, Environmental Style,” and it contains a bunch of materials to accompany an article I published (gulp, 10 years ago) called “Courage as an Environmental Virtue.” We’re talking: a 15-minute summary video made by yours truly, a set of slides, an hour-long video conversation between myself and Dr. Nora Mills Boyd, video transcripts, discussion questions, activity prompts, and a list of related resources.

These free materials may be particularly useful in courses that discuss virtue ethics, activism, sex & gender norms, courage in military contexts, and climate change.

I had a lot of fun working with both Nora and Sadie Warren on this project and I’m hoping that this module will be the first of many shared there, so if you have an idea or a request for other materials of this general sort, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Nora at nboyd@siena.edu.

To improve our electric grid, transportation system, and buildings, I support the ICJC platform.

Chicago, climate, justice, , ,

This week, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition announced a comprehensive legislative platform to boldly and rapidly accelerate the state’s climate, equity, and clean energy goals.

The platform is a set of bills (the Clean and Reliable Grid Act, the Clean and Equitable Transportation Act, and the Clean and Healthy Buildings Act) that will lower greenhouse gas emissions, create green jobs, and improve health and safety in our communities. Together, these bills would be transformative in helping us work toward climate stability, financial security, fairness across communities, and health statewide.

If you live in Illinois, I invite you to join me in supporting the ICJC platform.

Ror folks who don’t live here, with your help, the ICJC’s work can serve as a model for related efforts elsewhere!

DePaul student Charlie LaBerge’s “Future of Chicago Climate Change” Podcast

Chicago, climate,

Recently, Charlie LaBerge, a student at DePaul University taking a course in climate change communications, interviewed a couple of my fellow Climate Reality Project volunteers and me about our chapter’s work – our past, present, and future efforts to respond to the climate crisis locally here in Chicago.

I really got a kick out of the experience – working with students is something that I miss, and it was a great opportunity to reflect on our collective efforts!

Charlie used that interview, along with some other materials, to create an impressive podcast for his class project, and was generous enough to share it publicly, so you can listen here to check it out.

Building Decarbonization on Chicago Campuses

Chicago, climate,

This past week, as a team leader for the Chicago Metro Chapter of the Climate Reality Project, I hosted a Zoom event about building decarbonization for various student groups around the city. Since about 70% of greenhouse gas emissions in the city come from our buildings, we simply must reduce emissions from buildings in order to meet our climate commitments!

It was great to be able to share what my team has been learning with folks from multiple universities, and to help energize and support the students’ own campaigns for greater on-campus sustainability. We’re in the beginning phases of some collaborative efforts, and here’s hoping for many fruitful interactions to come!

If you want to watch the presentation, you can find it on our chapter’s YouTube channel.

Supporting DePaul Students’ Climate Activism

Chicago, climate,

As part of my volunteer work with the Chicago Metro Chapter of The Climate Reality Project, last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Rose O’Keeffe, a student journalist at DePaul University.

The short version of the story is that, in response to learning about some of the high-emitting and energy-intensive buildings on their campus, the student government leadership at DePaul has called on the university president to direct the development of a campus climate action plan. I’m delighted to have been able to play a small role in pushing DePaul’s decision-makers in a more climate-friendly direction, but more importantly, I’m really impressed with what the students are doing under their own steam and I look forward to supporting them in any way I can!

Take a look at Rose’s article here.