Solvable: How Environmental Success Gives Hope for The Planet.

Lecturer: Dr. Susan Solomon, Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Science, MIT
Monday, 25 April, 2022

Humans have faced a series of national and global environmental challenges in the past half-century, including ozone depletion, smog, lead in gas and paint, pesticides and much more. This talk reveals how combinations of science, public policy, industry participation, and the engagement of citizens succeeded in addressing two past environmental challenges. Finally, I probe how the lessons learned help us understand how to better manage today’s pressing environmental problem: climate change.

Susan Solomon has been a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2012, and was the Founding Director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative. Prior to that, she was a scientist at NOAA in Boulder, Colorado and an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado from 1982-2011. She is well known for pioneering work that explained why there is a hole in the Antarctic ozone layer. She is also the author of several influential scientific papers in climate science, including the understanding of how the ozone hole influences southern hemisphere climate. She received the 1999 US National Medal of Science (highest scientific award in the US), as well as the Grande Medaille (highest award of the French Academy of Sciences), the Blue Planet Prize in Japan, the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Volvo Environment Prize, and the Crafoord Prize of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society in the UK. Time magazine named Solomon as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008. A glacier in Antarctica has been named after her, Solomon Glacier.