Measuring Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Science in Global Environmental Politics

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This fellowship supports training in science and technology studies and research on the science of greenhouse gases and its relationship with national and international politics. The fellowship recipient is an electrical engineer whose work has focused on the science of greenhouse gases. With this award, he will take coursework and directed readings under the guidance of a scholar on the comparative politics of science and technology. This assistance will continue as he undertakes field studies and document analysis exploring the science of greenhouse gases in three contexts: measurements of methane emissions from agricultural sources by academic scientists, estimation of a national inventory of U.S. agricultural methane emissions by Environmental Protection Agency scientists, and the standardization of an international methodology for compiling methane inventories by scientists working with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The fellowship will address the influence of politics on the science of greenhouse gas emissions, the role of greenhouse gas scientists in international climate change negotiations, and the role of scientific knowledge in shaping our understandings of the global environment. This fellowship will help the investigator to integrate science and technology studies scholarship into his future scientific and engineering research and teaching, to incorporate social and environmental issues into engineering curricula, and to improve the ability of non-technical people to make informed public policy decisions regarding science and technology.