Elizabeth Sawin, PhD
Articles and Op-eds
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 August). Climate Paralysis? Try Multisolving. Nation of Change.
Cassandra Breeze Ceballos and Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 January). COVID-19 Recovery Spending Could Catalyze Transformative Change, But Time is Running Out in Resilience Matters: Reimagining the Future in a Tumultuous Year. pg 193-196. Island Press.
Cassandra Breeze Ceballos and Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 December). COVID-19 Recovery Spending Could Catalyze Transformative Change, But Time is Running Out. The Hill.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 November). Multisolving Our Way to COVID-19 Economic Recovery. The Revelator.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 July). How Can a Coronavirus Response Reduce Inequity and Protect the Climate? Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 April). Why We Can’t Ignore the Link Between COVID-19, Climate Change and Inequity. US News & World Report.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 April). Covid-19 Sucks but it Could Teach Us How to Avoid the Worst Consequences of Climate Change. Resilience.org
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 March). Steps to Re-invigorate the Economy Must Free Us from Polluting Fossil Fuels. The Daily Climate.
Elizabeth Sawin, Nathaniel Smith, and Tina Anderson Smith. (2020 January). Equity, Health, Resilience, and Jobs: Lessons from the Just Growth Circle in Resilience Matters: Acting in an Age of Uncertainty. pg 115-124. Island Press.
Elizabeth Sawin, Nathaniel Smith, and Tina Anderson Smith. (2019 August). Equity, Health, Resilience, and Jobs: Lessons from the Just Growth Circle. Nonprofit Quarterly.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2019 July). Softening as a Climate Adaptation Strategy. Resilience.org
Elizabeth Sawin and Nathaniel Smith. (2019 April). New Thinking for a New Year in Resilience Matters: Strengthening Communities in an Era of Upheaval. pg 2-4. Island Press.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2019 March). Individual Carbon Footprints or Collective Systemic Change? Both! Resilience.org
Elizabeth Sawin. (2019 February). Everyone Wants “Win-win” Solutions. Apolitical.
Elizabeth Sawin and Nathaniel Smith. (2018 December). New Thinking for a New Year. US News & World Report.
Brett Kencairn, Nicole Lurie, Sabrina McCormick, Elizabeth Sawin. (2018 October). Resilience and Climate Change in Advancing Health and Well-Being: Using Evidence and Collaboration to Achieve Health Equity. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2018 July). The Magic of “Multisolving”. Standard Social Innovation Review.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2017 June). Want to See US Climate Progress? Support City and State Leaders and the Grassroots Groups Who Hold Them Accountable. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2016 January). We Failed in Flint. Here’s How to Avoid Making the Same Mistakes in Climate Policy. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2015 December). 60% of Emissions Reductions Pledged in Paris Were Inspired by Pursuit of Benefits In Health, Well-Being Or Social Justice. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2008 July). Can Love Change The Wording of Laws? Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2008 June). $4.00 per Gallon Gasoline and Climate Change Both Call for the Same Solution: Collective Investment in Clean Energy. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2007 August). Overdosing The Earth. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2007 July). Climate Change: The Heart of The Problem. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2007 May). The First Step to Action on Climate Change is Facing Its Reality. Common Dreams.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2007 April). Climate Change: A Window of Opportunity. Common Dreams.
Papers, Journal Articles, and Reports
Elizabeth Sawin, Stephanie McCauley, Shanna Edberg, Grace Mwaura, María José Gutiéerrez. (2018 January). Multisolving at the Intersection of Health and Climate: Lessons From Success Stories.
John Sterman, Thomas Fiddaman, Travis Franck, Andrew Jones, Stephanie McCauley, Philip Rice, Juliette Rooney-Varga, Elizabeth Sawin, and Lori Siegel. (2014 January). World Climate: A Role-Play Simulation of Global Climate Negotiations.
John Sterman, Thomas Fiddaman, Travis Franck, Andrew Jones, Stephanie McCauley, Philip Rice, Elizabeth Sawin, and Lori Siegel. (2012 July). Climate Interactive: The C-ROADS Climate Policy Model. System Dynamics Review, DOI: 10.1002/sdr.1474. (translated into Chinese)
UN Environment Program. (2011 November). Bridging the Emissions Gap. Contributing Author
John Sterman, Thomas Fiddaman, Travis Franck, Andrew Jones, Stephanie McCauley, Philip Rice, Elizabeth Sawin, and Lori Siegel. (2011 September). Management Flight Simulators to Support Climate Negotiations: The C-ROADS Climate Policy Model.
UN Environment Program. (2010 November). The Emissions Gap Report. Co-Lead Author Chapters 2 and 5
Elizabeth Sawin and Andrew Jones. Climate Interactive: “Sims” for Improving our thinking About Addressing climate change. Reflections: The SoL Journal.
Elizabeth Sawin, Andrew P. Jones, Tom Fiddaman, Lori S. Siegel, Diana Wright, Travis Franck, Andreas Barkman, Tom Cummings, Felicitas von Peter, Jacqueline McGlade, Robert W. Corell, and John Sterman. (2009 March). Current Emissions Reductions Proposals In The Lead-Up To Cop-15 Are Likely To Be Insufficient To Stabilize Atmospheric CO2 Levels: Using C-ROADS – A Simple Computer Simulation Of Climate Change – To Support Long-Term Climate Policy Development.
Print Interviews and Articles Drawing on Dr. Sawin’s Work
Matt Simon. (2021 October). Deadly Heat is Baking Cities. Here’s How to Cool Them Down. Wired.
Whitney Bauck. (2021 August). Interconnected Problems Call for Interconnected Solutions. Atoms.
Naina Bajekal and Elijah Wolfson. (2021 April). These Women Are Transforming What Climate Leadership Looks Like. Here’s What They Learned From the Pandemic. (2021 April). Time.
Ashoka Fellows. (2021 April). Thinking Differently- Ideas for Action on Planet and Climate. Ashoka.
Pip Wheaton. (2021 February). How Our COVID Response Can Address Climate Change And So Much More. Forbes.
Matt Simon. (2021 February). So, Jeff Bezos, You Really Want to Fix the Planet? Wired.
Matt Simon. (2021 January). Climate Change Is Turning Cities Into Ovens. Wired.
Beth Gardiner. (2020 December). 2020 Was Supposed To Be Our Best Last Chance To Save The Planet. So How Did We Do? Huffington Post.
Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Kristina Karlsoon, Kitty Richards, Bracken Hendricks, and David Arkush. (2020 October). A Green Recovery: The Case for Climate-Forward Stimulus Policies in America’s COVID-19 Recession Response. Roosevelt Institute.
Matt Simon. (2020 October). Could Biden Rebuild the Economy by Funding Green Energy? Wired.
Matt Simon. (2020 September). Climate Grief is Burning Across the American West. Wired.
Kate Knuth. (2020 July). From Climate Change and COVID-10 to Racial Injustice, We are In a Period of Rapid Transformation. How Do We Make Sense of What’s Happening? Ensia.
Matt Simon. (2020 July). How a ‘Heat Dome’ Forms – And Why This One Is So Perilous. Wired.
Tara Lohan. (2020 July). Want to Design a Livable Future? Try ‘Multisolving.‘ The Revelator.
Sarah Kaplan. (2020 April). 50 Years Later, Earth Day’s Unsolved Problem: How to Build a More Sustainable World. Washington Post.
Beth Gardiner. (2020 April). Coronavirus Holds A Magnifying Glass To America’s Inequalities And The View Is Brutal. Huffington Post.
Ros Davidson. (2020 April). Stimulus Funds can Transition Economies Away from Climate Wrecking Activity. Foresight Climate & Energy.
Kate Ravilious. (2020 April). Life in a Carbon-neutral World. Physics World.
Beth Gardiner. (2020 April). The Lessons We Choose. Granta.
Beth Gardiner. (2020 March). Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change. Yale Environment 360.
Terri Hansen. (2019 September). Four Climate Scientists on How to Take on Climate Change Today. Yes!
Podcasts, Presentations, and Radio Interviews
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 September). Imagining the Future of Public Health. Public Health National Center for Innovations.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 September.) Systems Change, Multisolving, and the Power to Change Direction. Crowdsourcing Sustainability.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 August). Does This UN Report on Climate Change Force Us to Act on Climate Change? NewsTalk Radio.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 July). Multisolving: Jobs, Health, Equity, Biodiversity AND Climate Protection. On Deck Climate Fellowship Session.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 June). Multisolving. Biodiversity Funders Group.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2021 February). Multisolving Our Way Forward: COVID-19, Health, Justice, and Climate Protection. Spring Creek Project.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 November). The Crossroads Series, Episode 5: People. The NOVA podcast.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 September). What the Climate Crisis Can Teach Us About Fixing the Parenting Crisis. Labor Podcast.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 August). COVID-19 and Climate Change: Imagining a New Normal. Global Philanthropy Forum.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 August). “What the Pandemic has Revealed about Climate Change Views, Activism.” Minnesota Public Radio.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 August). “#84: Elizabeth Sawin, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Climate Interactive.” From ‘Bigger Than Us’ podcast by Nexus PMG.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 April). “COVID-19 and Climate Change.” From ‘Skimm This’ podcast by theSkimm.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 April). “Truth and Multisolving with Dr. Elizabeth Sawin.” From ‘With Love and Rage’ podcast by Extinction Rebellion NYC.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2020 February). EAS Micro-Pod: Beth Sawin. Eco-anxious stories.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2013 August). “Ideas Unbound: Helping Humanity Address Climate Change Through Systems Thinking.” Innovate Podcast.
Elizabeth Sawin, John Sterman and Drew Jones. (2011 December). “MIT’s ‘Climate Interactive’ Team: We are All in This Together.” Sustainability News & Entertainment.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2011 October). “Lessons from Irene: Facing the Impacts of a Changing Climate.” Vermont Bioneers Conference, Montpelier, VT.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2009 October). “Welcome to the Celebration.” International Day of Climate Action, Burlington, VT.
Elizabeth Sawin. (2008 June). “Can Love Change the Wording of Laws? Can Concern For the Future Change the Outcome of Votes?” Keynote address to the 2008 Sustainable Energy Summit, Amherst, MA.
Videos
Elizabeth Sawin presents “The Power of Multisolving for People and Climate” at TEDx Sun Valley, in Sun Valley, Idaho. After introducing multisolving, Beth takes the audience on a journey from 4.2°C to 2.0°C, the benefits of which balance out the costs. But how does one multisolve, exactly? Beth gives examples of people multisolving all around the world, and explains how we each can do the same.
Elizabeth Sawin speaks about doing what needs to be done to address climate and the many benefits that will come from it. Her presentation was given to students and members of the University of Massachusetts Lowell community at a workshop on climate change.
Elizabeth Sawin presents a 30-minute webinar briefing on the highlights of the UNEP’s “Emissions Gap Report”
This video explains The Climate Scoreboard, Climate Interactive’s embeddable widget that reports global temperature change in 2100 based on the proposals to the United Nations to address climate change. Click here for more information.
Elizabeth Sawin of Climate Interactive describing the Climate Scoreboard on the first day of the Copenhagen COP15 climate change summit hosted by the United Nations.
The Turning, a shadow puppet show written by Elizabeth Sawin and Jay Mead, is set in a future in which the climate crisis has been solved.
Blog entries
Climate Interactive – The Blog, posts by Beth Sawin.
Columns
Vermont Climate Scientist Sees Irene as Turning Point, Elizabeth Sawin, September 1, 2011. Burlington Free Press.
A Mother, a Daughter, a Graph, Elizabeth Sawin, December 19, 2007.
Overdosing the Earth, Elizabeth Sawin, August 29, 2007.
Acting at the Roots, Elizabeth Sawin, July 10, 2007.
What Can One Person Do?, Elizabeth Sawin, June 13, 2007.
Practical Visionaries, Elizabeth Sawin, May 25, 2007.
The First Step Toward Addressing Climate Change Is Facing Its Reality, Elizabeth Sawin, May 2, 2007.
Climate change: A Window of opportunity, Elizabeth Sawin, April 3, 2007.
Top Three Steps Towards Sustainability, Elizabeth Sawin, November 7, 2005.
Bringing Our Feelings Into The Work Of Changing The World, Elizabeth Sawin, October 20, 2004.
Thirty Years Later the Idea of Limits to Growth Is More Important Than Ever, Elizabeth Sawin, September 2, 2004.
A Different Vision of the Path To International Security, Elizabeth Sawin, March 20, 2004.
A Sane System Wouldn’t Have Mad Cows, Elizabeth Sawin, January 20, 2004.
Climate Change Hits The Oil Industry, Elizabeth Sawin, September 4, 2003.
Seeing Possibilities, Elizabeth Sawin, July 6, 2003.
Speeding Through a School Zone, Elizabeth Sawin, June 4, 2003
Community and Sustainability – A Powerful Combination, Elizabeth Sawin, May 1, 2003.
Between the People and the Government there is a Huge Ethical Gap, Elizabeth Sawin, April 1, 2003.
Searching for Our Untapped Sources of Power, Elizabeth Sawin, March 19, 2003.
Our Burdened Bodies, Elizabeth Sawin, March 3, 2003.
Petitioning a Government That Does Not Yet Exist, Elizabeth Sawin, February 3, 2003.
Questions to Shape the Future, Elizabeth Sawin, January 15, 2003.
We Are Vulnerable but not Powerless, Elizabeth Sawin, December 2, 2002.
Ending The Race To The Bottom, Elizabeth Sawin, November 1, 2002.
Dead Zone Economics, Elizabeth Sawin, October 1, 2002.
New Shoes, Elizabeth Sawin, September 2, 2002.
Moving In, Elizabeth Sawin, August 1, 2002.
Up is not Down, Black is not White, Elizabeth Sawin, July 1, 2002.
Healthy Systems Need Good Feedback, Elizabeth Sawin, June 2, 2002.
It Will Be A Great Adventure, Elizabeth Sawin, May 1, 2002.
Economics for Four-Year-Olds, Elizabeth Sawin, Mar. 31, 2002.
A Truly Sophisticated Economy Would Pursue More Than One Goal, Elizabeth Sawin, Mar. 1, 2002.
Taking On The Erosive Cycle of Money and Political Power, Elizabeth Sawin, Feb. 4, 2002.
The Perversity of Farm Bills, Hal Hamilton and Elizabeth Sawin, Feb. 1, 2002.
Why Does Farm Income Keep Disappearing?, Hal Hamilton and Beth Sawin, Jan. 1, 2002.
Imagine A Human Species Intent On Enriching The Earth, Elizabeth Sawin, Jan. 1, 2002.
I’m Dreaming of a Solar Powered Christmas, Elizabeth Sawin, Nov. 31, 2001.
Homeplanet Security, Elizabeth Sawin, Oct. 31, 2001.
Living Up to My Beliefs — For My Children and The Children of Afghanistan, Elizabeth Sawin, Oct. 15, 2001.
Declare War on Escalation, Andrew Jones & Elizabeth Sawin, Sept. 15, 2001.
Enlarging Our Definition of Beauty With Some Help From Our Neighbors, Elizabeth Sawin, Sept. 1, 2001.
What Does It Take To Say “Better Safe Than Sorry”?, Elizabeth Sawin, Aug. 1, 2001.