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Essay
The Time to Prevent Shortfalls in Critical Materials Is Now
China's domination of the rare earth market is a matter of economic and national security concern. Existing plans to diversify the market and help the United States break its reliance on China likely don't go far enough or fast enough, and the clock is running.
Mar 20, 2023
Commentary
Why Not Space Mirrors?
Space mirrors can reflect solar radiation away from Earth, potentially helping to address the effects of climate change. But decisionmakers need more information about this technology to determine if it's a viable option.
Oct 19, 2022

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Commentary
Debris Poses Increased Threat to Exploration
Every satellite launch and maneuver is carefully coordinated because some orbits are strewn with the space-based equivalent of blown tires, abandoned vehicles, loose gravel and, of course, other traffic. Earth's orbit is littered with hundreds of thousands of debris objects.
May 16, 2014
Commentary
Weather Forecasts, and Our Trust in Them, Need to Improve
When scientists predict extreme weather that never materializes, lay people tend to wonder what went wrong. This is a natural tendency that is not tied to a failure of the science, but rather to differences in the way scientists and lay people view predictions about extreme events.
Oct 8, 2013
Commentary
Removing Road Blocks to Climate Change Adaptation Planning
Despite increasing interest and investments in climate adaptation science, the implementation of adaptation plans through institutional policies or other actions designed to reduce health vulnerabilities has been slow. Institutionalized assumptions are an important roadblock.
Oct 3, 2013
Journal Article
Using Scenario Elicitation Methodology to Map Possible Future Challenges to Mitigation and Adaptation
A new set of scenarios, referred to as Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), examines challenges to mitigation and challenges to adaptation. Developing SSPs with a
Sep 1, 2013
Journal Article
Managing Risk with Climate Vulnerability Science
Climate information alone cannot be sufficient for anticipating and reducing climate impacts.
Jul 1, 2013
Report
The Industrial Base for Carbon Dioxide Storage: Status and Prospects
If policies aimed at large reductions of carbon dioxide emissions are enacted, more carbon capture and storage will be needed. RAND researchers explored the ability of the industrial base to support the expansion of carbon storage.
Mar 18, 2013
Commentary
Satellite Collision Is a Reminder of Challenges Posed by Space Debris
Solving the problem of space debris isn't going to be easy because, like spilled petroleum products, debris can spend years lurking in an environment that is foreign to most people's daily lives, write Dave Baiocchi and William Welser.
Mar 15, 2013
Report
Outcome Evaluation of U.S. Department of State Support for the Global Methane Initiative
A RAND study evaluated U.S. Department of State contributions to the Global Methane Initiative, an international partnership to promote methane recovery and reuse. The study focused on the strategic contributions and program activities and outcomes.
Jan 30, 2013
Journal Article
Quantifying the Azimuthal Plasmaspheric Density Structure and Dynamics Inferred from IMAGE EUV
This study is the first to systematically analyze global images of the density structure of the inner plasmasphere by using data from the EUV imager on the IMAGE satellite.
Dec 1, 2012
Report
SMART TRASH: Study on RFID tags and the recycling industry: Executive Summary of Final Report (D6) in English, with German and French translations
Executive Summary in English, with French, and German translations. The study aims to assess the environmental impact of the RFID tags themselves as well as the environmental advantages that the use of RFID can provide to product lifecycle management.
Jul 11, 2012
Report
How the Recycling Industry Can Manage RFID Tags and Other 'Smart Trash'
This assessment of the environmental impact of Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags, which are increasingly embedded in a wide range of products, as well as the environmental advantages that the use of RFID can provide to product lifecycle management, aims to inform policymaking in the European Union.
Jul 3, 2012
Journal Article
Research Capacity Building in Africa: Networks, Institutions and Local Ownership
This paper focuses on the Wellcome Trust's African Institutions initiative, an example of the networked research capacity-building initiatives emerging in response to the need for research capacity growth.
May 1, 2012
Blog
Could Coal Mine Drainage Be Used for Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Extraction?
A recent RAND report examines the feasibility and challenges of using coal mine drainage for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.
Apr 27, 2012
Report
Could Coal Mine Drainage Be Used for Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Extraction?
There are large quantities of coal mine water in Pennsylvania—much more than could be used in the coming decade for hydraulic fracturing. Researchers and operators will need to further explore quantity and quality needs to confirm whether coal mine drainage sources represent a viable, large-scale alternative to fresh water.
Apr 16, 2012
Commentary
Evidence for Climate Change Is Overwhelming
In case after case, the theory that best fits the data is the one that also leads inexorably to the conclusion that human influence is one of the most important forces currently changing the climate, writes Robert J. Lempert.
Mar 7, 2012
Journal Article
Comparing Robust Decision Making and Info-Gap Methods for Climate Policy
An examination of Info-Gap and RDM finds that the two approaches reach similar but not identical policy recommendations and that their differing attributes raise important questions about their appropriate roles in decision support applications.
Jan 1, 2012
Journal Article
Investment Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty: Application to Climate Change
This paper summarizes the additional uncertainty that is created by climate change, and reviews the tools that are available to project climate change (including downscaling techniques) and to assess and quantify the corresponding uncertainty.
Jan 1, 2012
Report
Recommended Research Priorities for the Qatar Foundation's Environment and Energy Research Institute
The Qatar Foundation is establishing a national research institute to conduct energy, environment, and water research. This book recommends research priorities for the institute and reports on a survey of related research institutions in the region.
Sep 22, 2011
Journal Article
Some Thoughts on the Role of Robust Control Theory in Climate-Related Decision Support: An Editorial Comment
Any successful response to climate change--both the challenges of limiting the magnitude of future climate change and adapting to its impacts--will clearly involve policies that evolve over time in response to new information and that are robust over a wide range of difficult-to-predict future conditions.
Aug 1, 2011
Journal Article
Technology Interactions Among Low-Carbon Energy Technologies: What Can We Learn from a Large Number of Scenarios?
This paper uses a combinatorial approach in which scenarios are created for all combinations of the technology development assumptions that underlie a smaller, representative set of scenarios.
Jul 1, 2011

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RAND Topic:
Earth Sciences

Topic Synonyms:
Geochemistry;
Geosciences

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Researcher Spotlight

Susan A. Resetar

Senior Operations Researcher

Susan Resetar (she/her) is a senior operations researcher with over 25 years of public policy research at the RAND Corporation, working in the areas of strategic planning, climate and environmental policy, disaster management and recovery, climate change risks to critical infrastructure and…
Joseph C. Chang

Senior Physical Scientist

Joseph Chang is a senior physical scientist at RAND. He has more than 30 years of experience in diverse technical areas, including border security, immigration, chemical security, transportation security, infrastructure protection, risk assessment, operational analysis, analysis of alternatives,…

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