8:30 am - 8:55 am

Midweek Review

Dr. Marta Vicarelli, Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale University Climate and Energy Institute, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts
 

9:00 am - 10:30 am

National infrastructure planning: perspectives and challenges
Special focus on transportation, sustainability, and economic-development in US megaregions

Petra Todorovich, Director of "America 2050", the national infrastructure planning and policy program of Regional Plan Association, Assistant Visiting Professor at the Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.

Unlike most other industrialized nations in the world, the United States population is growing, with a projected increase of over 100 million people by the year 2050. Yet the United States lacks a concerted strategy to repair its deteriorating infrastructure, or invest in the capacity needed to support future population and economic growth. National and regional strategies must consider important spatial trends, such as the emergence of "megaregions," large networks of metropolitan areas like the Boston-Washington corridor, and population demographic trends, likethe aging of the baby boomer generation. Infrastructure investments, such as high-speed rail to connect the nation's megaregions, will be discussed.

Suggested Readings

Dan Schned, Demographic Trends in America, 2012.

www.america2050.org

Presentation Materials

Slides: National infrastructure planning: perspectives and challenges
 

10:30 am - 10:45 am

Coffee Break
 

10:45 am - 12:15 pm

Energy & Environmental Economics and US Politics

Gernot Wagner, Economist at the Environmental Defense Fund, adjunct faculty teaching Economics of Energy at the Columbia School of International Affairs, and author of "But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Change the World" (Hill & Wang, 2011)

Ideal policy solutions to many an environmental problem have long been clear. The key question is how politics interacts and interferes. We will discuss the history of economics in U.S. environmental legislation, current politics, and prospects—in particular vis-à-vis climate policy.

Suggested Readings

Gernot Wagner, Making the Case for the Value of Environmental Rules.

Additional Readings

But Will the Planet Notice? (Hill & Wang/Farrar, Strauss & Giroux 2011)

Presentation Materials

Slides: Energy & Environmental Economics and US Politics
 

12:15 pm - 1:45 pm

Lunch at the Columbia University Faculty House
(Ivy Lounge and Coffee Bar - Garden Level – 1st floor)
 

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Sustainable Energy & Carbon Capture and Storage

Prof. Jürg M. Matter, Lamont Associate Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Affiliated researcher at the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy

Anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions continue to increase despite efforts aimed at curbing the release of such gases. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to significantly reduce these emissions. The present reliance on fossil fuels and the slow deployment of carbon-free renewable and nuclear energy resources require widespread adoption of CCS as a climate change mitigation technology. We argue that CCS has to be implemented on a large scale, complemented with air capture, which is the removal of CO2 directly from the atmosphere, and which can deal with emissions from mobile dispersed sources (automobile, airplanes). Large scale CCS also requires large scale storage options. Geological formations, such as deep saline aquifers and depleted oil-and gas reservoirs are potential repositories for anthropogenic CO2. However, the long-term safety and permanence of storage will depend on physical and chemical controls within the storage reservoir.

Suggested Readings

Jürg M. Matter and Peter B. Kelemen, Permanent storage of carbon dioxide in geological reservoirs by mineral carbonation, 2009.

Klaus S. Lackner, et al., The urgency of the development of CO₂ capture from ambient air, 2012.

Presentation Materials

Slides: Sustainable Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage
 

3:00 - 6:00 pm

Manhattan architectural tour:
Sustainability Among the Skyscrapers: East Forty-Second Street, New York's Avenue of Monuments

Tony Robins, Architectural historian and writer

The short stretch of East 42nd Street from the East River to Bryant Park offers a remarkably varied introduction to New York's monumental architecture, including many buildings that address issues of sustainability. The United Nations complex, among the first major developments of post-World War II New York, includes the Secretariat Building, Manhattan's first major post-war International Style skyscraper, directly across First Avenue from the Tudor City complex (Fred F. French, 1925-27), which imported suburban Tudor style and park-like landscaping to the dense heart of the midtown business district. The Ford Foundation headquarters (Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates, 1963-37) - its very design an act of philanthropy - modeled urban environmentalism by wrapping its twelve stories of offices around an interior garden occupying most of the site. The Daily News Building (Raymond Hood, 1929-30) brought Midtown the stark color and geometric massing that would become the hallmark of urban Art Deco modernism, while the Chrysler Building (William Van Alen, 1928-30) - first skyscraper taller than the Eiffel Tower - still helps define the Manhattan skyline. None of these structures would exist were it not for Grand Central Terminal (William WIlgus, Reed & Stem, Warren & Wetmore, 1903-1913), which not only connected suburban districts with the city by rail, but also sank its train yard deep underground to reclaim 16 blocks of Park Avenue and create a new dense urban center to compete with Wall Street. The renovation of the once derelict Bryant Park at Sixth Avenue restored Midtown's public park - and recently inspired One Bryant Park Tower (Cook + Fox Architects, 2009), the word's first Leeds Platinum skyscraper.

Official Reports From the Landmarks Commission

Tudor City: Tudor City, Tudor City Place and 42nd Street
Ford Foundation: Ford Foundation and Ford Foundation Interior, 321 East 42nd Street
Daily News Building: Daily News Building Interior, 220 East 42nd Street
Chrysler Building: Chrysler Building and Interior, 405 Lexington Avenue
Grand Central Terminal: Grand Central Terminal, and Interior 42nd Street at Park Avenue
Bryant Park: Bryant Park, 42nd Street at Sixth Avenue

Additional Readings

NYC

Tudor City

The Ford Foundation

Chrysler Building

Grand Central Terminal

Bryant Park

 

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

French Consulate in New York

Meeting with Bertrand Lortholary, Consul General of France in New York