As 2023 comes to a close, Yale Sustainability is counting down our most-read stories from the past year—a period that saw significant progress in advancing academic leadership on climate solutions and on-the-ground wins for campus sustainability.
From Yale’s efforts to build a bird-friendly campus to Black environmentalists who are leading conversations about climate change and justice (including several from Yale), here are our most-read stories of 2023.
5. How Recycling Works at Yale—and How to do it Better
Recycling is a linchpin of Yale’s waste management strategy, but it can be hard for the average person to keep track of what goes into which bin. For this Q&A, Yale recycling experts Lindsay Crum and Jim Reid discuss helpful tips for recycling and explain how it works at Yale—from the deskside bin to the processing plants where recycling gets sorted and sold as new material.
4. Yale Experts Explain Climate Lawsuits
Youth climate activists won a major court ruling last summer in Montana, potentially paving the way for other parties to use lawsuits as a means to combat climate change and hold those responsible for it to account. In this Q&A, Yale Law School’s Doug Kysar breaks down the basics of climate lawsuits and which cases may have the best chance of success.
3. 15 Black Environmental Leaders to Follow
There’s a long, sad history of Black Americans being marginalized within the environmental movement and systematically excluded from participation in outdoor activities. For Black History Month in February, we spotlighted 15 Black thought-leaders and activists who are leading important conversations and redefining what it means to be an environmentalist and nature lover in the 21st century.
2. Building a Bird-Friendly Yale, with Campus as a Living Lab
With funding from Yale Planetary Solutions, the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative is working to address a serious biodiversity challenge: the more than 1 billion birds killed by window collisions every year in North America. With deep expertise from faculty and a dedicated group of student research assistants, the project is collecting data on where bird strikes occur on campus to help generate recommendations for protecting these vital species.
1. Yale Experts Explain Climate Anxiety
Our most-read story of 2023 dealt with the rising tide of anxiety that is washing over the American public, as natural disasters fueled by climate change continue to accelerate. Two Yale experts who have studied the topic deeply—Anthony Leiserowitz from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and Sarah Lowe from the Yale School of Public Health—discuss what climate anxiety is and isn’t, and why a little bit of worry can be a good thing.