Description:
Beginning in summer 2007, the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF, a US-based NGO) in collaboration with local organizations will undertake a project to electrify the entire Kalale district of northern Benin with photovoltaic (PV) solar systems. Thanks for the randomized, single-treatment project design, the Kalele project provides an ideal laboratory and rare opportunity for comprehensive, rigorous testing of the economic, environmental, and sociopolitical impacts of sorl electrification. We propose to undertake a multidisciplinary stufy of SELF's Kalale project. Combining technical measurement equipment with cross-sectional and longitudinal household surveys, we will quantify the project's impact on the local environment, household and community income, resident nutrition and health, and community organization surrounding the provision and maintenance of public goods. Ultimately, we aim to quantify the overall sustainability of the project on these axes and to understand the potential for regional and

Description:
Reef-building corals and other carbonate-producing organisms are used extensively as proxies for past variations in global climate based on the elemental and isotopic composition of their skeletons and shells. Typically, biological processes offset the composition of the skeleton from thermodynamic equilibrium with seawater. It is therefore of wide interest to understand the degree to which biological versus inorganic processes control the chemistry of the coral skeleton. We will study the trace element and isotopic manifestations of biological processes in the coral skeletal mineralization process using state-of-the-art ion microprobe analytical equipment that has never before been applied to this important problem.

Description:
This proposal examines another possible consequence of fertilzer-dependent intensive agriculture, the worsening of infectious disease epidemics by microbes that live in the same aquatic habitats that also harbor algae and other compenents of this complex ecosystem. One such infectious agent is Vibrio cholerae, the cause of cholera, a devastating diarrheal illness that occurs as a seasonal epidemic in the Ganges Delta region of Bangladesh. This interdisciplinary team will explore the idea that the over use of chemical fertilizers might exacerbate cholera epidemics through their effects on algal ecology in the rural agrarian district of Bangladesh.

Description:
Forest conversion for agribusiness development has well-known impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, and regional and global climate stability. However, a profound feature of land conversion that has received less attention is its potential for altering the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including the emergence of novel infections. Southeast Asia represents a hotspot for recent disease emergence, including such well-known diseases as highly pathogenic avian influenza, SARS, and the lesser-known but equally virulent Nipah virus. Our mulit-disciplinary team will travel to the province of West Kalimantan to collect samples that will allow us to characterize the changing epidemiological environment of this remote and highly vulnerable center for biodiversity as a result of ongoing deforestation.

Description:
Developing nations are moving toward Western-style ways of living, resulting in land- and resource intensive development. What does the globalization of the American suburb mean for the global environment? This project addresses the question through quantitative and qualitative analysis of case studies from China, India and the U.S.

Description:
This research represents a new interdisciplinary collaboration at Stanford to investigate the behavioral underpinnings of indoor air pollution in the developing world and to estimate its impact on human health. Researchers will work with a number of public agencies, private companies and NGOs.

Description:
Quantitative ethical analysis has primarily focused on medical ethics, for instance determining the acceptable rate of sickness death due to an immunization program. But recent work in natural resource valuation provides a means to couple such quantitative rigor with environmental ethics, thereby grounding the ethical discussion with a realistic estimation of consequences. Our research will engage collaborators throughout the university to tackle a number of touch environmental ethics problems, basing the analysis on quantitative date that our research team will generate.

Description:
Researchers are conducting a broad feasibility study concerning the re-introduction of the Bay checkerspot butterfly to Stanford lands. This butterfly sub-species is federally listed as a threatened species and is restricted to serpentine soils, since the plants that it depends on cannot survive competition with Eurasian grasses on other soil types. The butterfly was the subject of extensive long-term studies at Jasper Ridge by Paul Ehrlich and his group from 1960 to the late 1990s, when it became extinct on the Ridge. The feasibility study is exploring options for the re-introduction.

Description:
Meat production is projected to double by 2020 due to increased per capita global consumption of meat and population growth. Most of this increase in production will come through industrialized animal production systems. These trends will have major consequences on the global environment. Vast transfers of "virtual" energy, water and nutrients will occur among nations that will have large impacts on local and distant environments. A full accounting of these trends and projections will give us the capacity to propose policies to ameliorate the negative aspects of these developments and position us to address the multiple consequences of industrialized animal production systems.

Description:
As rapid technological innovations continue to require the development of high-performance chemicals, we envision implementing a more interdisciplinary and precautionary approach in developing new chemical products by invoking smart chemical design to avoid the unwanted chemical properties of long-term environmental persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity. We will develop chemical design criteria for a class of perfluoropolyether surfactant compounds, widely used for surface coatings, polymers and lubricants. Collectively, we will design candidate materials and assess how changes in the chemical structure of these model compounds reduce environmental persistence and toxicity without adversely affecting functional performance. The result will be a set of design criteria specific to this class of chemicals that integrates functional performance, biodegradation potential, environmental fate and biological toxicity information.

Description:
This project's overarching goal is to make conservation economically attractive and commonplace on land that is managed largely for human enterprise -- "countryside." Researchers propose to develop the scientific, economic and institutional basis for achieving this goal. We aim to characterize the potential conservation value of countryside in terms of biodiversity and vital ecosystem services, such as the provision of fertile soil, productive forests and climate stability. We also seek to help private landowners and societies realize this potential by characterizing the ecological, economic, legal and other social tradeoffs associated with alternative patterns of land use. We will strive to make our conceptual framework and analytical approaches generalizable by working in two contrasting and exceptionally biodiverse systems that already serve as models for the world: Hawaii and Costa Rica.

Description:
Our research will focus on evaluating bio-composites, a new class of construction material that has reduced energy costs and pollution from production as well as greater resource potential after demolition. With our combined expertise in structural engineering, environmental engineering and composite materials, we will investigate a variety of bio-composites in terms of biodegradability and mechanical performance. We will identify where bio-composites can best be used in the building industry today and what fundamental advancements are needed to facilitate more widespread application of these clean, energy-efficient and resource-rich construction materials.