Please join us Thursday, February 2, 2023 for our Winter Seminar Series with our guest speaker: Minghao Qiu.  A special thanks to the department of Earth System Science for bringing this speaker to us for this seminar.

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE

SEMINAR SERIES WINTER 2023

IN-PERSON EVENT  

12:00 - 1:20pm

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Mccullough Building  (Room 115)

Minghao Qiu - Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Earth System Science and Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (faculty advisor: Marshall Burke)

"Mitigating air pollution and disparities under a changing climate: the role of the electricity system"

Air pollution and climate change are interconnected planetary and human health challenges. Efforts to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change can also improve air quality, but a changing climate can also create new challenges for managing air pollution. This talk will present two studies that focus on the role of the electricity system in these challenges. In the first study, we examine the impacts of wind power on air quality and pollution disparities in the US. We find wind power development significantly improved overall air quality, yet it does not reduce the disparities between different population groups. In the second study, we find significant increases in fossil fuel usage in the western US under severe droughts, and empirically quantify the consequent effects on emissions and air quality. Under future climate, these drought-induced impacts likely remain large due to increasing drought risks, and we find that even rapid expansion of renewable energy has limited ability to curb these impacts.

Biography 

Minghao Qiu is a Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Earth System Science and Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (faculty advisor: Marshall Burke). He is interested in understanding the impacts of air pollution and climate change on humans and society, and policies that could address these environmental challenges. He received his Ph.D. degree from MIT, and bachelor's degree from Peking University.

Website: 

 https://mhqiu.github.io/