You may already have a mounting summer reading list to further your education on a variety of topics. This summer, we’re offering a digital library of sustainability-related content from NYU faculty, including TED talks, videos, and podcasts.
Waste Studies
Robin Nagle: What I discovered about NYC trash
TED Talk | (7:41 mins)
Anthropologist and clinical professor Robin Nagel takes the TED stage to speak about New York City’s trash, an entity we all interact with and yet don’t realize. We also get to hear about an important, but often unasked question: who picks up after us?
Throw Away Culture
Video | (7:39 mins)
A significant portion of plastic winds up in the ocean, where it not only threatens marine life, but human health too. This mini-documentary featuring Dr. Ayana Johnson tracks the timeline of how we’ve become so addicted to plastic and looks at what we can do to break our addiction.
Coffee Lids, Explained
Video | (2:32 mins)
Gallatin professor Louise Harpman—designer and founding partner of Louise Harpman__PROJECTS—is the co-owner (with Scott Specht) of the world’s largest collection of disposable plastic coffee lids. In this video, Harpman outlines the practical challenges various coffee lid designers have attempted to address—and shows off her full collection, highlighting a few favorite and unusual models.
Architecture and Urban Research
Getting to know Mitchell Joachim, PhD- Co-Founder of Terreform One and Gallatin professor
Podcast | (57:43 mins)
Sean Lally speaks with Gallatin professor Mitchell Joachim about architecture’s future and conducting work previously unimagined within the field. The podcast engages a diverse range of perspectives to get a better picture of the events currently unfolding.
How Can Major Cities Reduce Automobile Congestion and Pollution
Video | (2:14 mins)
How can major metropolitan centers work to improve and reduce congestion and pollution? Wagner professor Zhan Guo talks about his research on public transit, pedestrian planning, and parking zoning.
Design Against Extinction: Biodiversity and the Future of Architecture with Prof. Mitchell Joaquim:
Video | (21:53 mins)
Spring Dialogues is the talk show about design and architecture, capturing the most intriguing events of the season, created, curated, and hosted by design historian Dr. Daniella Ohad. Mitchell Joachim, co-founder of Terreform One, speaks about the Monarch Butterfly Building and how architecture can promote conservation and protect biodiversity.
Art and Science to Create Culture: Understanding Architecture’s Role in Environmentalism
Video | (3:49 mins)
Gallatin professor Peder Anker speaks about the history of ecological design and offers fascinating lessons still to be learned as 2019 marked the Bauhaus Centenary.
Art
NYU Climate Action
Video | (3:13 mins)
NYU Gallatin faculty, students, and staff staged this demonstration of innovation and art in Washington Square Park. They made a human heliostat to “shine the light” on renewable energy. Sponsored by Global Design NYU founders Louise Harpman, Peder Anker, Mitchell Joachim.
Climate Change
Climate Wars Heat Up in Washington with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Podcast | (12:18 mins)
Dr. Ayana Johnson and climate scientist Michael Mannspeak with Ira Flatow for a round table conversation about climate politics, policy, and science activism.
Dimming the Sky
Podcast | (23:48 mins)
Given the grim reality of the climate crisis, some scientists are seeking to artificially manipulate the environment to limit the impacts of global temperature rise. Wagner professor Dr. Gernot Wagner and other experts discuss geoengineering and the arguments of the benefits and detriments of these methods.
From Climate Shock to Geoengineering
TED Talk | (18:00 mins)
Dr. Gernot Wagner discusses how solar geoengineering can be a major solution to climate change. He considers Carbon taxes versus carbon taxes and talks about the issue of uncertainty as we find creative, market-based fixes for our warming planet.
How Climate Change Affects Wildfires
Video | (2:53 mins)
Environmental Studies professor Dr. David Kanter explains how climate change is creating the perfect conditions for wildfires.
How Polar Vortexes are Linked to Climate Change
Video | (2:41 mins)
Dr. David Kanter explains the nature of polar vortexes and how their occurrence does not negate the global warming aspect of our current changing climate.
How to Save a Planet
Podcast | Series
Dr. Ayana Johnson and journalist Alex Blumberg discuss what we need to do to solve the climate crisis and how do we get it done by interviewing people who are making a difference.
Why extreme climate scenarios no longer seem so unlikely
Video | (7:54 mins)
Martin Weitzman and Dr. Gernot Wagner discuss the changing probabilistic consequences of climate change and what that looks like in various settings.
Engineering
Engineering Sustainable Synthetic Fabric
Video | (5:08 mins)
Learn how researchers use the engineering design process to create sustainable nylon in this video from SciTech Now. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering professor Miguel Modestino shares how he developed a process to make nylon production environmentally friendly by replacing petroleum, the current raw material for nylon, with plants and powering the production with solar power.
Food Studies
Marion Nestle: Changing the Food System
Podcast | (32:14 mins)
Joshua Spodek speaks with Steinhardt professor Marion Nestle about her role in leading research in the food industry. This conversation addresses the inextricable connection between food and the environment and how important vigilance is to seeking truth within food studies.
Ocean Conservation
How to use the ocean without using it up
TED Talk (6:32 mins)
Dr. Ayana Johnson, a marine biologist and policy expert, advocates zoning the ocean as we do land, applying a triage approach, and working with coastal communities, so we can stop—and in some cases, reverse—the alarming destruction of the ecosystem.
Reefs, Rubbish, and Reason
Panel Discussion | (1:12:39 mins)
This panel discusses whether science and art can work together to create a new ecological consciousness. The speakers include:
Professor John Burt at NYUAD: Marine Biologist
Margaret Wertheim: Co-creator, Crochet Coral Reef Project; Director, The Institute For Figuring
Lawrence Weschler: Author, Vermeer in Bosnia and Uncanny Valley; Director Emeritus, New York Institute for the Humanities, NYU AD