AU professors are available to comment on a broad range of issues related to the intersection of environmental policy, national and local politics, public health, and global security.

WHEN: April 15, 2016 – ongoing

WHERE: Skype, in-studio, on campus, by email, or by telephone

Climate finance and policy

Eve Bratman, assistant professor at the School of International Services, researches sustainable development politics and environmental governance. Her projects focus on environmental policy, infrastructure, agriculture, and human rights in the Brazilian Amazon. An avid beekeeper, Bratman also formed the AU Beekeeping Society and has developed a research interest in the intersections between bees and international affairs. Bratman can discuss issues related to Brazilian environmental politics, honeybees and pollinators, and urban sustainability.

Alexander Golub teaches in the environmental science department. Golub has 25 years’ experience in environmental and natural resource economics, including in the areas of energy and climate change focusing on climate economics, policy instruments and environmental finance, application of cutting-edge instruments for risk analysis and innovative financial tools for building global environmental markets.  

Todd Eisenstadt, professor in the School of Public Affairs, was a delegate to the 2015 and 2016 United Nations climate change summits. He teaches "Climate Change Politics," and has served on the Executive Committee of the Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Eisenstadt is a Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project Who Speaks for Nature? Indigenous Activists, Oil Drillers, Public Opinion, and Extractive Populism. He can discuss the politics and policies of change policies around the globe.

Eisenstadt says: "More than ever, we need to take time to reflect on the state of the planet and consider how policies can be implemented to mitigate the effects of climate change, and also adapt to those which are already in motion."

Dan Fiorino is the director of the Center for Environmental Policy and executive-in-residence in AU’s School of Public Affairs. He teaches courses on environmental policy, energy and climate change, environmental sustainability, and public management in the public administration and policy department. Fiorino joined American University in 2009 after a career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He can discuss environmental policy.

Fiorino says: “After 46 years, and despite considerable progress, the need for a day recognizing our dependence on the Earth is stronger than ever.”

Simon Nicholson, School of International Service professor, is director of the Global Environmental Politics program. He is co-editor of New Earth Politics: Essays from the Anthropocene (MIT Press, 2016) and Global Environmental Politics: From Person to Planet (Routledge, 2015). Nicholson can discuss domestic and international climate change politics, and is an expert on so-called "climate engineering" or "geoengineering" responses to climate change.

Urban water/ecology/Anacostia River (Washington, D.C.)/ oceans

Malini Ranganathan, assistant professor in the School of International Service, is a critical geographer with a special interest in postcolonial cities. Her scholarship is concerned broadly with the political economy of the urban environment and sits at the intersection of human and urban geography, cultural anthropology, and critical development studies. Ranganathan brings her insights from postcolonial cities to bear on urban space and inequality in the U.S. Her recently-launched project, “Tackling Urban Vulnerability: Lessons for Building Community Resilience and Climate Justice in Washington, D.C.”, aims to document and address the racial inequities and ecological risks faced by communities near the Anacostia River.

Stephen MacAvoy, associate professor of environmental science, researches in the areas of biogeochemistry and ecology. He researches the Anacostia River, Washington, D.C., and the efficacy of green roofs in reducing urban stormwater runoff.

Kiho Kim, chair of AU’s Department of Environmental Science, can discuss the ecological impacts of coral reef bleaching. Kim’s research focuses on the role of diseases in coral population ecology and the synergistic effects of environmental factors, such as nutrient pollution and ocean warming, in the decline of coral reefs.  

Karen Knee, assistant professor of environmental science, is a Fulbright scholar and former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Research Center. She researches hydrology, chemical oceanography and the relationship between land use and water quality.