Cities & society

Montana is appealing a historic court ruling that found the state must consider greenhouse gas and climate impacts in its environmental reviews of projects. What impact would a win or loss have across the U.S.?

"As a kid I would go to construction sites with my dad, a civil engineer, and he’d show me plans for putting reinforcement inside concrete columns. Together, we would count that the right amount of steel was there to protect a structure."

Stanford research reveals the rapidly growing influence of wildfire smoke on air quality trends across most of the United States. Wildfire smoke in recent years has slowed or reversed progress toward cleaner air in 35 states, erasing a quarter of gains made since 2000.

Minghao Qiu, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science and a Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, discusses his work modeling how climate change might influence air pollution levels – and how increased air pollution from wildfires, dust, and the burning of fossil fuels might affect people’s health. 

Researchers show that their newly invented paints, which they produced in a wide array of colors, can reduce the need for both heating and air conditioning in buildings and other spaces, like trains and trucks for refrigerated cargo.

Climate change and human activity are enabling the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, like dengue fever, to new places. Stanford infectious disease experts and disease ecologists discuss what we know and how communities can protect themselves from these changing disease threats.

As sea levels rise and flooding becomes more frequent, many countries are considering a controversial strategy: relocation of communities. A Stanford analysis of planned relocations around the world reveals a blueprint for positive outcomes.

Stanford engineers Zhiye Li and Michael Lepech discuss the potential for reusing discarded plastic in infrastructure applications.

Switching from hydropower to fossil fuels during droughts has led to higher carbon emissions and cost 11 Western states tens of billions of dollars over the past two decades, Stanford research finds.

About 47 million homes use natural gas or propane-burning cooktops and ovens. Stanford researchers found that cooking with gas stoves can raise indoor levels of the carcinogen benzene above those found in secondhand smoke. (Source: Stanford News)

A growing number of projects are dedicated to finding solutions to urgent problems of planetary and human health. (Source: Stanford Medicine)

How scientists found the leading source of high lead levels in pregnant women in Bangladesh. (Source: Stanford Medicine)

Stanford’s Felicia Marcus discusses grand-scale climate adaptation projects with experts from three major urban areas: Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York City.

The May 25 U.S. Supreme Court decision Sackett v EPA "dramatically shrinks the authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to regulate wetlands," Stanford environmental law expert Deborah Sivas explains. (Source: Stanford Law School)

A new AI-driven analysis finds the most popular U.S. history textbooks used in California and Texas commonly misrepresent the scientific consensus around climate change. 

Water and natural resources expert Buzz Thompson discusses a recent tentative deal to reduce water use by entities drawing from the Colorado River, averting near-term potential disaster and predictions that the river could all but stop. (Source: Stanford Law School)

The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Naval Postgraduate School recently convened experts to discuss coastal resilience, water security, and energy security for communities and military installations along the U.S. West Coast.

Giulio De Leo and his collaborators have been testing an unconventional solution to a parasitic disease. (Source: Stanford Magazine)