As scientists learn more about how the environment responds to human activity, it has become an area of increasing concern to the global community. RAND research has helped inform policies and direct further studies of environmental issues, from building efficiency and natural resource management to risk management and decisionmaking in the face of deep scientific and economic uncertainties.
Research Brief
The composition of households in New Orleans made the city's families more vulnerable to breakup during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. Two-thirds of the city's households at that time saw at least one family member move away, an unusually high number even given the tremendous destruction of the hurricane.
Report
Geoengineering is risky, but could transform the portfolio of options for limiting future climate change. Some geoengineering approaches could prove fast acting and inexpensive and could be deployed by one or a few nations without global cooperation.
Past Event
Admiral Thad Allen will discuss his experiences leading the nation's high-profile responses to national emergencies ranging from the September 11th terrorist attacks to Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.
Report
U.S. power plants seek to diversify their fuel sources and biomass energy is a renewable resource that generally has lower life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions than fossil fuels. This model estimates the cost and availability of biomass energy resources from U.S. agricultural lands from the perspective of an individual power plant.
Journal Article
Paleolimnological research in mountainous regions of the Western United States provide baseline understanding of how these lake systems will respond to ongoing climate change.
Commentary
If it were really possible to explain millions of years of Earth data with a theory that doesn't also imply a recent human influence on the climate, some ambitious, self-interested team of scientists somewhere in the world would seek scientific renown by doing so, writes Robert Lempert.
Journal Article
Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that consumers do respond to changes in marginal price. Doubling marginal price leads to a 12% decrease in water use (500 cubic feet per bill) among high-use households.
Report
This paper explores how much British citizens might be willing to pay for carbon emissions reduction, and the implication of this for climate change policies.
Journal Article
There is no statistically significant evidence that the Mexico City smoke-free law had a negative impact on restaurants' income, employees' wages and levels of employment.
News Release
If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces.
Report
If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces. It makes more sense for the military to direct its efforts toward using energy more efficiently.
Journal Article
The authors present the concept of robust decision making (RDM), which draws on already-existing knowledge of practitioners to choose actions that are viable in both the short- and long-term.
Journal Article
The authors perform a technical and economic assessment and estimate the economic costs and net GHG reductions from U.S renewable electricity mandates. GHG emissions reductions from such policies could be as much as 670 million metric tons per year. Depending on technological development, economic costs are $13-$45 billion per year. Lower costs depend on favorable technological progress.
Report
Orbital debris represents a threat to the operation of man-made objects in space, such as satellite television and weather satellites. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of objects greater than one centimeter in diameter in Earth's orbit.
Report
To break the impasse over how to deal with spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants policymakers should focus on how various waste management strategies address societal priorities related to nuclear energy.
News Release
To break the impasse over how to deal with spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, policymakers should focus on how various waste management strategies address societal priorities related to nuclear energy.
Report
Testimony presented before the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future on November 15, 2010.
Report
A proposal for the federal government to support state-run catastrophe-insurance programs would increase the number of people buying earthquake coverage in California and modestly lower both uninsured losses and government assistance following a major quake.
News Release
A proposal for the federal government to support state-run catastrophe-insurance programs would increase the number of people buying earthquake coverage in California and modestly lower both uninsured losses and government assistance following a major quake.
Report
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, neither the federal government nor the private sector is any closer to developing effective solutions to the problems facing flood and windstorm insurance.
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