Climate Action through Centering Communities

Simon Bunyan — '23 MEM (he/him)
“Prior to coming to Yale, I worked for several federal agencies on energy and environmental policy. While those experiences were great, it was eye-opening to realize how mainstream environmental organizations, like ‘the Big Greens,’ have a history and active present of working against communities of color, low-income communities, and environmental justice communities on environmental policy."

At the Intersection of Food and Environmental Justice

“One of the great things about Doris Duke is that it exposes you to so much,” says Destiny Treloar ’23 MESc, who joined the program as a junior in college. She was, at the time, interested in environmental policy and politics; she planned to go into nonprofit work. Her first summer with Doris Duke, however, she studied food precarity among youth and became fascinated by the intersection of food and environmental justice. “And now my thesis at YSE is going to be on food — a subject that never would have occurred to me if you’d asked three years ago what field I’d be working in.”

Rehabilitating Ghana’s Forests

As the director of operations for Ghana’s Forestry Commission, Hugh Brown ’10 MF oversees the country’s commercial forest plantation development and land restoration. About 450,000 hectares are being rehabilitated under his guidance.

In 2020, Brown was given YSE’s Prospect Street Award, which recognizes a graduate of the last decade who has made a significant impact in their field. 

“Landscape restoration,’’ says Brown, “is a team sport.”

Insights from the Night Sky

Using data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite aboard NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite spacecraft, Eleanor Stokes ’18 PhD is mapping disaster impacts in vulnerable communities. As co-leader of Black Marble, NASA’s first nighttime light dataset, Stokes has helped FEMA and other relief organizations direct their boots-on-the ground operations after natural disasters. “Humanity is facing major global risks from extreme weather and rising sea levels,” she says. “It’s very important to have a satellite record that can speak to the human piece of the puzzle.”

Re-imagining Urban Tree Life

Cambium Carbon, a startup company founded by Ben Christensen ’20 MEM and Marisa Repka ’20 MEM, is re-imagining the urban tree lifecycle — and combatting climate change in the process. The company is building  “reforestation hubs,” a unique private-public partnership that restores city forests across the U.S. Cambium Carbon received its initial funding from the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale. It launched pilot reforestation hubs in four U.S. cities in 2021. It recently raised $3 million in seed funding that will allow it to reinvest in urban tree restoration and create local jobs.

Preserving China’s Biodiversity

As the executive director of the Shan Shui Conservation Center in China, Irene Xiangying Shi ’13 MESC is helping conservation efforts in the Tibetan Plateau and southern regions. The Center focuses its work on urban ecosystems and endangered species, such as giant pandas and snow leopards. 

“If we have the right incentives,” she says, “people will conserve nature in the best way." Her efforts have helped build a biodiversity conservation alliance, an information sharing platform on biodiversity, and long-term funding mechanisms to continue work on these issues.

Protecting An Underrated Resource — Soil

For Darya Watnick ’21 MEM and Abbey Warner ’21 MEM, soil is an underappreciated resource. So, they authored an innovative guide to help states craft community-driven policy guidelines for soil health. The guide, Soil Health Policy: Developing Community-Driven State Soil Health Policy and Programs, addresses topics from food production to drought prevention to climate resilience.

“We have a Clean Air Act, A Clean Water Act, but no clean soil act,” Watnick says. “To me, it’s just as important.”

Waste Warrior

As founding chair of the New York City Public Housing Authority Recycling Committee, DeNeile Cooper ’22 MEM is working to boost recycling efforts in public housing units.

Only 2% of waste from NYCHA units is recycled. Nationally, that rate is 32%.

“This work has been successful so far because it involves a variety of stakeholders who bring unique perspectives to create programs that work for everyone,” says Cooper, who is a member of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board.

Redefining Human-Wildlife Conflict

In the Tibetan Plateau, PhD candidate Yufang Gao ’14 MESc interviews, observes, and travels with Tibetan herders and Buddhist monks. He sets up camera traps and collects scat to analyze the diet of snow leopards. And he has hiked a mountainside 15,000 feet above sea level — all in pursuit of data for his dissertation that focuses on the quest for harmonious coexistence between people and large carnivores. What is needed for human-wildlife coexistence is a different perspective about conflict, Gao says. 

“Conflict,” he has found, “is part of coexistence.”

Keeping Bhutan Carbon Neutral

To make good on its constitutional mandate to be the first carbon neutral country for its entire existence, Bhutan relies heavily on its forest cover. Dechen Dorji ’01 MEM led the Bhutan for Life initiative, which raised more than $40 million to finance the protection of the country’s pristine network of protected areas.

Dorji continues to work on land preservation and protection of endangered species as the World Wildlife Fund’s senior director for the Asian Wildlife Program.

Tree Equity

Using income, age, ethnicity, health, and surface temperature data and tree canopy surveys, Ian Leahy ’21 MEM, vice president of urban forestry at American Forests, helped create a Tree Equity Score. Wealthy urban communities, it found, have 65% more tree cover than low-income neighborhoods where temperatures can range 10 degrees higher.

The issue is a matter of health, Leahy noted in a New York Times Op-Ed., and his efforts have led to more financial support for urban tree growth. “What we're trying to do right now,’’ he says, “is close the canopy gap to save lives.’’

Uniting Voices to Safeguard the Oceans

While at YSE, Humna Sharif  ’21 MEM worked on marine policy and coastal ecosystem projects, including crafting bilateral US-Canada Climate Change agreements. Today, as government relations manager for the National Ocean Protection Coalition, she is working toward three main goals: equitable access to nature, protecting 30% of the oceans by 2030, and safeguarding national marine monuments. 

“We all want to help the planet and have healthy oceans,’’ Sharif says. “I think the impact comes when we bring together all those voices and present a united front.”