Starting March 1, 2020, New York’s ban on single-use plastic bags will take effect. Just this week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation released its final regulations to govern the ban. Mildred Warner is a professor of city and regional planning and an expert on how to promote environmental sustainability at the local level says while New York’s hybrid model for banning plastic bags with a fee on alternatives is key, if there are loopholes – such as thickness requirements – the plastic bag manufacturers and retailers will take advantage. 

New York State

Law and Policy

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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Timur Dogan, an architect, building scientist, and a faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, comments on New York City legislation that would set greenhouse gas emission caps for buildings.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

Architecture, Art and Planning

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Cornell University experts are available to weigh in on political and industry developments that signal a shift to a clean energy economy.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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Catherine Kling, an environmental economist, and Amanda Rodewald, a conservation scientist, comment on the Trump Administration's plans to remove environmental protections for streams and wetlands.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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Noliwe Rooks, professor of American studies at Cornell University and author of the book “Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and The End of Public Education,” comments on international school strikes, at which students from around the globe demand political action to combat climate change.

Arts and Sciences

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

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Aaron Rice, a research associate with the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, comments on a decision by the Trump administration to allow five companies to conduct seismic tests that could harm thousands of whales and other marine life.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Lab of Ornithology

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This week is New York state’s sixth annual Invasive Species Awareness Week (ISAW). Carrie Brown-Lima, director of the New York Invasive Species Research Institute at Cornell University, is an expert in invasive species issues. She says hydrilla and the hemlock woolly adelgid are some of the most problematic invasive species in New York and by making efforts to help stop the spread of the species we can reduce damages they cause.

Agriculture and Life Sciences

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

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Paul Mutolo, a chemist and director of External Partnerships for the Energy Materials Center at Cornell University, comments on the world's first hydrogen-powered trains, which began service in Germany.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

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Sriramya Nair and Kenneth Clark Hover, professors of civil and environmental engineering, comment on efforts to develop alternative to cement, which is responsible for high levels of carbon emissions.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Physical Sciences & Engineering

Engineering

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Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University and a faculty fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future comments on the Trump administration's plans to make it easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

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