Now more than half of the world's population currently lives in cities and we know that
cities face many environmental challenges that need to be solved we know that most
of the fossil fuel combustion that leads to climate change is happening in cities
we know that many people in cities are suffering from extreme heat waves perhaps poor water or
air quality and it's really important that we find ways to solve these environmental problems
so that we have an equitable and just society that's beneficial to everybody
BU Urban is a National Science Foundation supported graduate program
at Boston University that brings graduate students together from the department's Biology,
Earth and Environment, Math and Statistics, and Environmental Health
They work together to gain traditional skills in their respective doctoral programs and also
work together and with partner organizations to learn how to tackle urban environmental challenges
They do this through traditional coursework workshops as well as internships with our partner
organizations in government non-governmental organizations as well as the private sector
The BU Urban program I think brings a lot of new opportunities that PhD students don't
usually have especially in professional development skills and the internship
I myself am not interested in pursuing an academic career and really gaining those professional
development skills and those experiences outside of BU are critical for building your resume and
standing out as an applicant after graduation Most graduate programs are quite disciplinary
meaning they provide training to graduate students that give them an expertise in a particular topic
our hope in this program is that they both develop that expertise but that they also
learn how to apply it and that's where we really believe strongly that interdisciplinary training
is important so that the students learn how to work with people in different fields
so that they can actually solve environmental problems
I really feel connected with all of the students in the program and they do a great job of involving the staff and faculty as well
you learn so much about the faculty's career paths you learn so much about
what fellow students are doing for their own research and their paths to come to BU even
Additionally they have a lot of great connections with non-profits and other
professionals in various fields across the state across the country so having those people in our
network has been really beneficial especially in terms of helping us find an internship I
personally feel driven by improving the environment for a lot of different reasons
environmental justice and tackling the injustices associated with climate change is one of those
so my internship with City Councillor here in Cambridge Quentin Zondervan was to help
inform an ordinance to ban natural gas in new construction buildings in Cambridge and to
push electrification generally as a fuel source for buildings and residential homes
Jessica was looking at the impacts of fossil fuel combustion in buildings in Cambridge it turns out that 80
of our greenhouse gas emissions in Cambridge are due to energy use in buildings and so that's a
really important component of our climate action is to figure out how to reduce those emissions
Natural gas energy is a threat to the environment - leaking natural gas pipes have caused damage and
even deaths to street trees which is important to Cambridge they want to preserve a robust
urban canopy to benefit from all those ecosystem services of trees in urban spaces
Additionally there's research going on about how natural gas can be detrimental to indoor
air as well
gas stoves or older gas appliances can actually leak these combustion by-products which can cause a lot of different respiratory ailments
in people if you're breathing those in without proper ventilation
so banning natural gas in new construction projects in Cambridge is not only going to benefit the environment and help Cambridge achieve its climate action goals
in the coming decades it's also going to promote a lot of great public health benefits preventing
respiratory illnesses and helping to maintain and protect the urban canopy in Cambridge and lastly
it's going to create a lot of really exciting and new job opportunities for a lot of people
Working with Jessica was really great and she definitely is very focused on making
sure that we are protecting our most vulnerable in society and that was one of the many things that we connected on in this internship
I worked on writing three policy briefs
that basically summarized the state of the science on natural gas from three different
research perspectives the first being the public health impacts of natural gas second being the
job market effects and impacts of a natural gas transition and electrification and the third being the climate change impacts of natural gas fuel
It was a tremendous benefit to me to have
a BU graduate student with with this kind of expertise and passion work on this issue
you know as a policy maker I don't have the time nor the expertise to do that type
of in-depth research on a topic like this and so having her help was tremendously valuable in
both improving my understanding and helping me communicate that better to my colleagues as well
I learned a lot about what goes into making policy the slow and painful process
that it sometimes can be. I learned a lot of writing and communication skills from it and
I think living in Cambridge being able to take pride in the fact that it was my own city I was
helping to benefit was really exciting as well and I think skills that I built from this internship
as well as relationships that I have I'll take with me beyond BU additionally the community of
people and all of the different types of science and research that's going on within the Urban
program is constantly inspiring we all learn from one another so I would 100% recommend it
you