Susan Subak

Here is my short list of topics and challenges that I hope striking students (Middle School and High School) will take on (in some cases continue to take on):

What is the energy consumption at my school?  Has it been changing over time? Will the utility company or schoo...

Green Community Connections is an environmental organization based in Oak Park host to the One Earth Film Festival.

Green Community Connections interviewed Susan on some of the topics in her book, including how she has lived the “five-ton life,” how everyone c...

While the Green New Deal seeks to greatly reduce US greenhouse gas emissions, it also seeks to provide millions of quality jobs. The new jobs are more likely to materialize if the GND acknowledges a wider range of relevant actions and policies than outlined in their or...

“Trip a Little Light Fantastic” sing the merry streetlamp lighters as they dance around the posh neighborhood of the Banks family. I saw this bright, eye-popping film with a couple of teens over the holiday. Of course, the film’s explicit theme has nothing to do with c...

This essay appeared as a guest column at UNP's blog, Behind the Book, on August 20, 2018       

Summertime is the traveling season and this month thousands of tourists are visiting the places I describe in my book, The Five-Ton Life.  These are low carbon comm...

 Unpublished August 8, 2018 Letter to the New York Times

To the Editor,

As a young researcher at Harvard’s climate change history project convened at the JFK School in the summer of 1989, many of the scientists and advocates in Nathaniel Rich’s article, “Losing Eart...

1.   Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel can be credited with which of the following quotes:

a. “..it makes a lot of sense for us to move to congestion pricing to…really restrict some of these greenhouse gases that are released in the urban corridor.”

b. “Our vibrant, histor...

The Merry Month of May in the Mid-Atlantic USA, we are in the thick of tick season.  After a long 

dry spell, we have been experiencing a deluge, so those ticks and mice better hang on tight! 

A new book by Mary Beth Pfeiffer calls Lyme Disease "the first epidemic"...

This weekend was the biggest science event of the year for DC High School students, the annual STEM Fair. Yeah!  I had a first hand view as a judge for the MIT prize.

A memorable metro ride landed me in Deanwood, a mish-mash of factories, vacant lots and wooden hou...

I always find Steven Pinker’s books to be a great read, witty and thought-provoking. His latest book, Enlightenment Now, is no exception.  It includes what I believe is his first public writing on the subject of energy and climate change.  In these 20 pages he tries to...