Happy 2021?...

Today, communities are going through major transformations in infrastructure with smart cities and transportation technologies. The last major infrastructure transformation was the introduction of the highway system that created inequities: neighborhoods were divided and disrupted, and low income and minority groups were disenfranchised. Although these were not the intended outcomes, we continue to experience the consequences today....

Recently, a group of us wrapped up a $20 million NSF proposal that includes 40 researchers and educators from Ohio State, nine other universities and 25 community partners. If funded, we would study Great Lakes water pollution through a coupled human-natural systems lens with a focus on environmental justice and broadening the participation from impacted communities....

Since the formation of the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State in 2019, a vision and strategic initiatives have been developed for the Healthy Air, Land and Water (HALW) research program area. With well over 150 researchers at Ohio State performing active research in related fields, the competency and expertise at the university is truly impressive. The vision of this program area of SI is to ensure that healthy air, land and water is available to all through Ohio State-led research....

Scientific evidence demonstrates that our reliance on fossil fuels – about 70% of the energy that fuels our economy -- results in air and water pollution that affects the climate and us, and we must transition to more benign systems. Wind and solar technologies are attractive: They lack the emissions when operated, over the last decade their deployment has accelerated, and in some circumstances they can now provide electricity at costs below those of fossil fuels....

Sustainability is fundamentally about justice. It seeks a just intergenerational distribution by constraining current activities so that future generations can flourish, or minimally meet their own needs. Ensuring that environmental impacts and natural capital (environmentally derived goods and services) are distributed justly within the current generation — i.e., intragenerational equity — is also critical....

Spring came quietly to our campus this year. While I have missed seeing the telltale signs on a university campus — students shedding their winter garb early at the first hint of warm weather, tulips blooming in front of the Faculty Club, and a stroll across the Oval while dodging Frisbee players — I have enjoyed watching nature spring to life in my backyard outside the window of my dining room/home office....

Cloistered in my upstairs office at home and feeling incredibly lucky to be able to work and live a relatively normal existence, I have been wondering what a post-COVID-19 outbreak world will look like. I’m sure you have been, too. We are living in the midst of a colossal disruption that not only is one of the largest public health threats we’ve faced as a nation but also is wreaking economic havoc, upending daily lives and transforming social norms. To what extent will we be able to “bounce back” and resume our normal lives?...