Interviews / Q&As

As the debate about healthy forests, logging, and climate change gets more heated, The Forest School's Mark Bradford and Joe Orefice explain why cutting trees, when done appropriately, can lead to more resilient forests while yielding renewable forest products.

From clean electricity investment credit to funding to restore coastal ecosystems, YSE faculty offer insight into how the Inflation Reduction Act may help us meet urgent environmental challenges — and where there’s still work to be done.

YSE’s Rob Klee, former Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, examines the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision limiting the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. 

Recently elected to one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, YSE Professor Karen Seto talks about how cities can be a catalyst for generating solutions to climate change, what she is hoping to bring to the academy, and her role in developing the new Yale Center for Cities and Climate Solutions.

For Earth Day, Dean Indy Burke joined Yale University President Peter Salovey on his monthly Yale Talk podcast for a conversation covering a wide range of environmental issues.

The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, gives a stark of the effects of climate change globally and is a clarion call for action. Professor Daniel Esty discusses the key messages.

A grant from the U.S. Department of Energy has YSE Professor Ken Gillingham examining what influences the decisions Americans are making regarding solar energy and electric vehicles.

In a short Q&A, YISF Co-Director Todd Cort addresses the progress that has been made in sustainable financing, as well as some of the ongoing challenges.

Renowned environmental authors recently took part in a Yale-led discussion that celebrated the release of Old Growth,  a collection of essays and poems about the rich inner lives of trees.

In an interview, F&ES Prof. James Saiers describes the health concerns historically associated with fracking and how a new Yale research project could provide important insights into whether there is a link between unconventional drilling and adverse birth outcomes.

Xuhui Lee, a professor of meteorology at F&ES, says that it’s difficult to link climate change to two recent hurricanes that devastated parts of the U.S. and the Caribbean. But decades of scientific research do suggest that weather extremes such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will become more common — and cities will pay a steep price.

In an interview, new F&ES Prof. William Lauenroth discusses the challenges facing the western drylands, the changes he has observed during four decades of research, and strategies that could help protect remnants of a vanishing U.S. West. 

A new survey on public perceptions of the COVID-19 crisis found a national consensus that protecting public health should come ahead of opening the economy. But that dynamic could change quickly as the issue — like climate change — becomes increasingly politicized, Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications, says in an interview.