The Future of Global Warming
In this studio students will use systems thinking to explore whether we should be concerned about global warming. We will start by looking at the evolution of humanity’s energy use, and how we use resources globally. We will explore the concept of time delays in a system, and use this to understand the effect of our current behaviors.
Then, we will explore what the future will look like, through visualization and maps. For example, what will Boston or New York look like in 50 years time?
Ideas:
Ice melting in Greenland has improved the economic circumstances of sheep herders and farmers. The growing season has lengthened, allowing vegetables such as potatoes to be sown there.
David Quinn
Phd, Building Technology, MIT
David Quinn is a PhD student in the Building Technology department in the School of Architecture, MIT. He previously trained as a civil engineer, and his current research focuses on understanding the urban metabolism of cities. He is interested in the application of complexity theory, so that emergent patterns of material and energy can be identified and simulated. His master’s thesis was focused on housing resource flows in New Orleans, as the city recovered after Hurricane Katrina. As part of this work, he was also involved in developing a sustainability plan for New Orleans with the local government.
Daniel Wiesmann
PhD, Sustainable Energy System, IST Lisbon, MIT Portugal Program
Daniel Wiesmann is a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Lisbon within the MIT Portugal Program. Before joining the MIT Portugal Program, he obtained a masters degree in Physics from ETH Zurich. For his master thesis he developed a particle decay reconstruction analysis method. He worked for a research group of CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN Geneva. In his PhD Daniel is closely working together with David to assesses resource consumption in the built environment. The methodologies applied are statistical analysis and geographical information systems.
