Program for the Human Environment

Our vision is harnessing technology to lighten the human footprint, spare land for nature, and restore the oceans.

Our mission is developing and communicating knowledge about the physical and living environment.

Our research focuses on long-term trends relevant to the environment, including changes in population, transportation, energy, land use, and industrial materials, as well as past, present, and future states of plant and animal populations on land and in the oceans. See our Areas of Research.

Our approach is anchored in statistical analysis of time-series datasets using models of growth and diffusion, particularly Lotka-Volterra dynamical systems. We apply these methods to examine changes in the human environment over the last 10,000 years, and to look ahead to the next 1000.

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Areas of Research