All hope is not lost in the fight against the climate crisis

Dr. Stephen Luby (left) and Dr. Solomon Hsiang (right) interact with the audience in a Q&A session.

Photo by: Belle Long

In a crowded lecture hall, doctors, scientists, and students alike sit together, joined by one question: what can we do about climate change? Amid the intellectual chatter, one audience member finds clarity in the complexity, “We are destroying our planet.” It’s understood the damage we’ve inflicted upon our world is immense, some believing the harm is irreparable. Dr. Solomon Hsiang, however, says otherwise. 

The solution, he suggests, is to learn how to better manage global resources and understand how society and the environment work together. “Despite appearances, we are in an amazing time for scientific progress and technology,” says the keynote speaker and Stanford Professor of Global Environmental Policy, opening his Spotlight on Human and Planetary Health talk with instant inspiration for the Stanford-community packed audience of Shriram Room 104 on April 16th, 2025.

In celebration of Earth Month, Dr. Stephen Luby, director of the Center for Human and Planetary Health, invited Dr. Hsiang to speak on his work with the Climate Impact Lab, which aims to “push the frontier of the economics of climate change.” Dr. Hsiang explains that the lab mobilizes “data scientists, economists, and natural scientists that are integrating the best-in-class versions of the models for all of these fields to see what they say for what we can do about climate change.” The lab, in turn, collaborates with the Global Policy Laboratory which asks “what policies should be put in place” to address the evidence being created? Dr. Luby hopes to “build a community” on campus focused on climate health, looking to scientists like Dr. Hsiang to do so.

Dr. Hsiang guided the eager audience through his climate-focused research, touching on disciplines from psychology to economics. First exploring direct ways to quantify climate change, like the social cost of carbon, then turning to research on the long-term impacts of natural disasters like hurricanes, which he says, “was a disaster that was important, but we didn’t realize it was going to be as strongly influenced by climate change.”

Dr. Hsiang says it is crucial to now understand why these impacts are happening, explaining that the results from climate research can “inform how much we want to spend to address” these effects. This isn’t solely a climate issue. It also is an issue that needs to be approached through policy and other disciplines like economics and public health. However, research and policy work on different timescales. Researchers must anticipate future questions, prepare their findings ahead of time, and package information like “microwavable meals that need to be ready-to-go,” says Dr. Hsiang. This ensures that the results are available to policymakers when they need them.

As Dr. Hsiang concluded, question after question, the room came to life while also growing calm in conversation. Dr. Luby highlights that “There’s a lot of despair about where we sit with climate. One only needs to read the newspaper to have that sense of being demoralized.” His main goal, “was come together and say, ‘No! Let’s behave like a university. What are the core competencies of a university? Generating knowledge, communicating knowledge, and training students,’” a feat surely advanced by Dr. Hsiang’s Spotlight.