Dear reader,

A year ago, I announced the creation of a schoolwide initiative called Acting in Time, an interdisciplinary approach to confronting major challenges before they occur. Foreseeing potential catastrophes -- from government budget overruns to global flu pandemics to natural disasters -- helps diminish the catastrophic effects these problems create.

Climate change -- the subject of this issue of the Bulletin -- is the prototypical example of such a crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently presented irrefutable evidence of the urgency of this problem. In response to the November IPCC Synthesis Report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon MPA 1984 noted that "slowing -- and reversing -- these threats are the defining challenge of our age."

If we continue to follow the path we are on, say experts, allowing carbon emissions to rise to ever more dangerous levels, we will see changes to our environment, from heat waves to wildfires to rising sea levels, that could be impossible to reverse.

In this issue we feature some of our faculty, alumni, and students who are working around the world to help solve the extraordinary challenges posed by climate change. We talk to environmental scientist John Holdren, who has been sounding the alarm for many years about the urgency of climate change, and Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of the Kennedy School's Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, who is working with China’s automobile industry to help develop stricter fuel efficiency standards.

We also look at the work of economist Rob Stavins, who is helping lay the groundwork for a new global climate change treaty, and who last month, along with John Holdren, participated in the climate change conference in Bali. And we report on the efforts of several of our faculty who are exploring the emerging biofuels industry and its potential for creating a more energy sustainable future.

Our alumni are also working on climate change, and in these pages you will read about Vicki Arroyo MPA 1987, who oversees climate change initiatives for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and Laura Ledwith Pennypacker MPP 2004 of Conservation International, who is helping preserve forests and keep carbon emissions levels down in countries around the world.

The individuals featured in this issue of the Bulletin are examples of people who are "acting in time," who, by acting sooner rather than later, are helping to prevent climate change’s ever-mounting and devastating consequences. Acting now requires fundamental change from all of us. I believe the Kennedy School community, through leadership and example, is helping lead the way.

Dean David Ellwood
January 2008

photo: Kent Dayton