Act 1

I have chosen two gentlemen as my heroes to shadow. In 2004 two
Princeton academics, the physicist Robert Socolow and the ecologist
Stephen Pacala, came up with 15 “wedges” for mitigating climate change.
There were four separate strategies for efficiency, five for
decarbonisation of power, four for decarbonisation of fuel and two
strategies for forest and agricultural soils. The persuasive idea was
that there’s no silver bullet, but plenty of silver buckshot. (via
intelligentlife.com
I will be contacting my heros via email and snailmail.
Robert Socolow is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at
Princeton University. His current research focuses on global carbon
management and fossil-carbon sequestration. He is the co-principal
investigator (with ecologist, Stephen Pacala) of Princeton University's
Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), www.princeton.edu/~cmi/,
a fifteen-year (2000-2015) research project supported by BP and Ford.
Under CMI, Princeton has launched new, coordinated research in
environmental science, energy technology, geological engineering, and
public policy. Pacala and Socolow are the authors of “Stabilization
wedges: Solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current
technologies” (Science, August 13, 2004). Socolow is on two current
committees of the National Academies: “America's Energy Future” and
“America's Climate Choices” and was a member of the Grand Challenges for
Engineering Committee of the National Academy of Engineering. He was
the editor of Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 1992-2002. (
via http://www.princeton.edu/mae/people/faculty/socolow/)
Pacala is interested in the processes that govern ecological
communities, the interplay between community and ecosystem-level
processes, and the interactions between the global biosphere and
climate. His approach is to develop, calibrate and test mathematical
models that explain ecological structure and function (via http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei/pdf/facultybios/pacala.pdf)
The Carbon Mitigation Initiative utilizes the four stablization wedges
in four distinct groups\
The Science Group-
Collects data from the oceans, the atmosphere, ice cores, and the land
biosphere to study how natural sources and sinks of carbon have varied
in recent and ancient times, and how they will respond to future
climatic change.
The Capture group\
A****ses technologies for capturing CO2 emissions from fossil fuels used
in electricity, hydrogen, and synfuels production. Other research areas
include studies of alternative fuel combustion, renewable energy, and
energy storage.
The Integration Group
Synthesizes research discoveries and explores the policy implications of
carbon mitigation strategies. It also w
The Storage Group
Studies potential risks of injecting CO2 underground for permanent
storage. Models of subsurface carbon dioxide behavior and laboratory
studies of well cement degradation are helping the group evaluate that
risk. (via http://cmi.princeton.edu/)
Stephen Pacals contact information is as follows
Areas of Expertise
Ecology, climate change
Contact Information
101 Eno Hall
Tel 609-258-6885
Fax 609-258-6818
pacala@princeton.edu
Website: http://www.princeton.edu/eeb/people/display_person.xml?netid=pacala...
Stephen W. Pacala
Frederick D. Petrie Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ph.D., Stanford University, 1982
Robert Socolows contact information is
Office: 139 Guyot Hall and H214 Engineering Quadrangle (609) 258-5446
socolow@princeton.edu
B.A. (Physics) Harvard University (1959)

Assistant, Susan M. Allen smallen@princeton.edu (609) 258-5467

Curriculum Vitae

Carbon Mitigation Initiative

I have chosen these two social innovators for their partnership and
their important work to save the planet in a fun and efficient manner. I
will read and report all that they are doing to impr