Partners in Light

Written by Ryan McGuine // In January 2019, I found myself in Haiti's Toussaint Louverture Airport after having overseen the installation of a solar electricity system to provide an orphanage with constant lighting. As someone who made up the career "humanitarian energy engineer" for a job report in high school, I should have been filled with a huge sense of pride. There was indeed some pride, but in truth I felt somewhat more conflicted. Continue reading

Feeding the World: Population vs Technology

Written by Ryan McGuine // Today the world produces historically spectacular amounts of food. Despite this, around 12% of the world remains undernourished, and assuming current trends hold, the world's population is projected to reach 9.8 billion people around 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100, making the challenge of keeping everyone well-fed even more difficult. Technological progress has enabled the huge crop yields of today, but how to continue that yield growth, and whether that is the best way forward, remains uncertain. Continue reading

Closing the Infrastructure Gap

Written by Ryan McGuine // In 2017 the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that the world would need to spend $67 trillion by 2035, or $3.7 trillion annually on infrastructure in order to merely keep up with projected economic growth. This difference between current spending on infrastructure and the need for additional funding, commonly referred to as the "infrastructure gap," is present nearly everywhere, but is particularly detrimental to growth in low- and middle-income countries. Continue reading

The Elusive 1.5°C

Written by Ryan McGuine // In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report about preventing global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. While there is slim chance that the world will prevent 1.5°C of warming, taking action is not futile — the report clearly establishes that the combination of research investment and technology deployment can prevent warming, and that any warming prevented is worth pursuing. Continue reading

The Sustainable Development Goals

Written by Ryan McGuine // In the year 2000, the UN adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which established the Millennium Development Goals — eight goals related to economic development with a target completion date of 2015. They were replaced with the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of objectives designed to “end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all,” intended to be accomplished by 2030. Continue reading