The Duke University community is mourning the loss of Peter M. Nicholas, the visionary and philanthropist who became synonymous with the university’s commitment to environmental education and solutions. Nicholas died May 14 at his home in Boca Grande, Fla. He was 80 years old.

“Pete understood Duke University’s potential to accelerate environmental progress, and he was relentlessly committed to realizing it,” said Brian Murray, interim director of the recently merged Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Duke University Energy Initiative. “Thanks to Pete’s foresight, advice, and support, the Nicholas Institute has leveraged Duke’s expertise and convening power to achieve remarkable impacts at the local, national, and global levels. We will miss his guidance, even as we continue striving to fulfill his vision.”

This virtual event brings together two members of Congress who are working across party lines to advance a national climate resilience strategy. Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) will discuss prospects for further action on resilience in Congress and in cooperation with the Administration. This event will also preview Resilience Roadmap's 2022 updated recommendations for strengthening America's federal resilience policies and programs.

The discussion will be moderated by Jainey Bavishi, senior advisor, Office of the First Deputy Mayor, City of New York.

The event is free and open to the public. It is hosted by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Resilience Roadmap, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. 

In 2018, the Nicholas Institute’s Water Policy Program launched the Internet of Water (IoW) project to facilitate the opening, sharing, and integration of water data and information. Over the past three years, the IoW project has focused on building state and local capacity, developing essential technologies and resources, and creating a network of water data users, producers, and decision makers across the United States.

In March, the IoW scaled up to a coalition of organizations working together with federal, state, and local government partners to enact the vision of the Internet of Water—equitable, sustainable, and resilient water planning, management, and stewardship enabled by shared and integrated water data and information. The Internet of Water Coalition is a multi-sector collaboration co-led by five non-profit organizations: the Nicholas Institute, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Center for Geospatial Solutions, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc., the Water Data Collaborative, and the Western States Water Council’s Water Data Exchange.

The Aspen Institute–Nicholas Institute Roundtable Series on Water Affordability convened U.S. water leaders through the fall and winter of 2021 and into January 2022 to address one of the nation’s most pressing water challenges: ensuring that water services are affordable for all households and communities. With almost 50,000 community water systems across the U.S., developing systemic solutions is no easy task, but it can and must be done. 

While the current approach to providing water services in the U.S. is working for many households and communities, it is failing others. These failures are tied up in issues of public health, aging infrastructure, poverty, and environmental justice that must be addressed. Experts from the roundtable developed a series of actions and recommendations aimed at creating a national water affordability strategy. Prioritizing this issue is critical as the costs of providing water services are only rising and will continue to exacerbate affordability challenges in the future.

As rising sea levels cause marshes to move inland in six mid-Atlantic states, the coastal zone will not continue to serve as a carbon sink but release more carbon into the atmosphere, a new modeling study led by researchers at Duke University finds.

Earlier estimates focused on the potential for an expanded area of coastal marshes to capture more carbon, removing it from the atmosphere where it acts as a greenhouse gas in the form of carbon dioxide. But as coastal marshes invade low-lying forests and freshwater wetlands, the loss of trees and decomposition will release more carbon into the air than can be captured by the marshes, further contributing to global climate change.

“This research and our conversations with the states raise lots of questions about options for managing coastal landscapes given these changes, and emphasizes the importance of reducing greenhouse gases and sea level rise overall, because that's the main driver of all of this,” said lead author Katie Warnell, a policy associate at the Nicholas Institute.

Taking the High Road: Strengthening Coastal Flood Resilience of Transportation Infrastructure

This webinar examined the steps that governments are and could be taking to make sure that new transportation investments are resilient to risks posed by coastal storm flooding and rising sea levels.

• Director, Energy & Climate Policy
• Just Environments Policy Associate
• Post-Doctoral Associate, Data Science + Energy
• Staff Assistant
• Policy Associate

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