Explore MEER's latest news, research, publications, podcasts, videos and educational resources. Everything in one place, organised for easy discovery.
Join scientists, innovators and thought leaders as they explore practical solutions to climate change, extreme heat and sustainable cooling. Catch up on our most recent talk while the next event is confirmed.
David Spratt, Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, examines whether climate risk is being communicated accurately by science and the media.
David Spratt, Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, examines whether climate risk is being communicated accurately by science and the media.
Beyond Carbon: Forest Cooling & Planetary Regulation
This month's newsletter highlights MEER's continued progress in turning climate adaptation research into practical, field-tested solutions for communities facing extreme heat.
Creative Strategies for the Climate Crisis
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The Green Mirage — Truth, Hope, and Survival
This month's newsletter reflects an important moment in MEER's journey.
At the Crossroads of Civilization: Science, Society, Wars and Personal Choice
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Forests as the Beating Heart: The Biotic Pump Theory
This edition highlights ongoing fieldwork, community engagement, and engineering progress across Sierra Leone and India.
Climate Overshoot: Is There a Way Back?
BBC World Service — The Climate Question (26 mins). What's it like being a chief heat officer? Featuring Eugenia Kargbo, Chief Heat Officer for Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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Brazil, the Amazon, and the Climate Story
Sunlight Reflection: The Business Case for an Albedo Accord
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The Climate Acceleration Debate: Could 3°C Arrive by 2050?
As 2026 progresses, MEER's work continues to build momentum.
Goliath's Curse: Why Societies Collapse
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Building a Climate-Ready Majority
As we begin 2026, MEER's work continues to gather pace across India, Africa, and other key regions.
Carbon Removal Won't Scale in Time
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A Climate Reality Check
Key developments in our field trials, partnerships, and community-led cooling initiatives.
Climate Change and Health in Africa: Insights from a NASAC Publication
Good Vibrations from the Soil: Seismology for Ecosystem Monitoring
The Nemesis of Planet A
Confronting a "Silent Killer:" Reducing vulnerability to extreme heat in urban West Africa with surface cooling technology and climate-resilient roofing (Benjamin K. Sovacool, Climatic Change, 2025). Extreme heat is a potent and progressively worsening public health problem confronting West Africa, where heat stress remains "a silent killer". Most heat deaths occur in cities, driven by the urban heat island effect. In wealthier cities, air conditioning is the primary means of adapting to extreme heat, but Sierra Leone has one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world, making this climate intervention unaffordable and unreliable. One novel intervention to extreme heat is "Surface Cooling Technology" or "Surface Radiative Thermal Management" (SRTM). STRM interventions, unlike climate mitigation or adaptation, can produce very fast results, do not involve politically difficult legislation, and can involve modular and lower-risk technologies. This study explores the history, benefits, and challenges of one STRM pilot project, Mirrors for Earth's Energy Rebalancing (MEER) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. MEER relies on a form of direct cooling technology to reduce urban heat by increasing albedo and infrared emissivity. To provide community benefits, MEER also makes furniture out of recycled PET bottles, which they give away at no cost so people can sit in the shade beneath the mirrors, alleviating exposure to extreme heat. The study is based on a qualitative research design involving site visits across Freetown (N = 8), including three informal settlements; N = 28 semi-structured interviews with community residents and members of local government; a community survey; and document analysis.
In Freetown, MEER is partnering with the Sierra Leone National Dance Group to create a shared space where cultural expression meets environmental innovation.
IPCC Three Years Later
Denial to Disaster: The Consequences of Ignoring Climate Science
Risk Realism: Cooling a Livable Planet
Confessions of a Climate Activist: Clean Energy Alone Can No Longer Save Us. We Need to Study Sunlight Reflection — with Mike Tidwell.
The Global Cooling Potential of Radiative Surfaces — with Dr. Atousa Pirvaram.
Humid Heat in Cityscapes: Urban Microclimates and the Role of Greenspaces — with Professor Xuhui Lee.
Dimming the Sun: The Urgent Case for Geoengineering — with Thomas Ramge.
Fewer Clouds, More Warming: Contraction of world's storm-cloud zones adds to Earth's sunlight absorption — with Dr. George Tselioudis.
A Short Film on Rani's Story
Warming Waters: Exploring Ocean Dynamics and Their Role in Arctic Climate Change — with Jim Massa.
The Heat Will Kill You First: Jeff Goodell discusses innovative adaptation strategies, including the radical redesign of buildings and cities.
How Hot Is It? How Hot Will It Get? Learn from Eliot Jacobson about the current status of the IPCC's global target of Article 2 of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
COPOUT: How Governments Have Failed the People on Climate — with Nick Breeze.
Weathering the Storm: Climate Change's Impact 2024 has delivered a smorgasbord of destructive and disruptive extreme weather events — with Jennifer Francis.
The Independent's inaugural Climate 100 List 2024 recognises the world's foremost environmentalists, published to coincide with Climate Week NYC. Dr. Ye Tao is named among the honourees.
Local Water Solutions in an Era of Global Warming — Vishwanath Srikantaiah discusses how communities in India are working together to build climate-adaptive solutions.
The Guardian — Initial results show homes in Sierra Leone's capital fitted with heat-reflective roofing sheets can be up to 6C cooler. By Eromo Egbejule in Abidjan.
Marine Cloud Brightening in a Changing Climate — Jessica Wan's work demonstrates that regional marine cloud brightening in the North Pacific can be effective at reducing the risk of extreme heat.
Fire and Oil: Rising to the Challenge of a More Flammable World — with John Vaillant.
BBC reports on how MEER's reflective surfaces are helping Freetown residents cope with the extreme heat of the dry season.
Bamboo Revolution: Social Tipping Point for Planetary Climate Migration — with Paul Maidowski, who studied International Relations in Dresden.
Rose Taylor, a geography teacher at Chew Valley School, will cover 28 miles during a challenge crossing bridges across the city to raise funds for MEER.
Global Tipping Points: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — Learn about the negative tipping points, positive tipping points and the race for the future with Paul Beckwith.
Climatic Architecture — Philippe Rahm speaks about how architecture can help fight against climate change.
Are Clouds a Dial We Can Control to Mitigate Climate Change? Clouds play a controlling role in the atmosphere, in large part because of their reflectivity.
The Emperor's New Climate Scenarios — Sandy Trust explains why commonly used models in financial services are underestimating climate risk.
A New Climate Vocabulary — Herb Simmens speaks about how a new climate vocabulary can bring to life a hopeful vision of a healthy and stable climate.
In the near-term, billions of the most vulnerable to climate chaos and socioeconomic stressors will be forced to migrate due to intolerable conditions — Dr. Peter Carter on the rapidly deteriorating climate emergency and the MEER initiative.
TIME features Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo highlighting the need for environmental conservation.
Climate change used to be a science challenge until recently, when it has also become a developmental and moral challenge — with Professor Nana Klutse.
Overheating Cities on a Hot Planet — a fascinating and inspiring talk centered around how to help overheating cities through urban design and inclusive planning.
BBC profiles Africa's first heat officer helping women keep cool in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.
This MEERtalk premiered MEER's short documentary FREETOWN: COOLING A CITY, featuring Dr. Ye Tao, Founder & Director of MEER, along with community partners in Sierra Leone.
Climate Emotions and Activism: A Psychologist's Perspective — with Margaret Klein Salamon, PhD, Clinical Psychologist.
Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse — with Jem Bendell, world-renowned scholar.
MEER Is Growing — Project Expansion in Freetown! A recent huge rainstorm has damaged a municipal building in Sierra Leone. Tom Goreau on saving coral reefs from extinction.
What's Inside the IPCC Report 'Final Warning'? — Charlie Gardner, Conservationist, Activist & Member of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion.
As temperatures in Freetown rise, Eugenia Kargbo is helping people adapt to the heat.
Faster, Higher, Hotter: Takeaways from Climate 2022 — David Spratt, Research Director for Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration.
Dr. Rupert Read sets out succinctly the case for building what has come to be called a new mass 'moderate' flank in climate action.
New Scientist reports on people in Freetown, Sierra Leone, who are increasingly exposed to extreme heat due to climate change and the urban heat island effect.
Environmental Degradation: Stories from the Frontlines — Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo, environmental journalist, speaks about degradation in Nigeria and beyond.
Dr. Gulrez Shah Azhar explores mechanisms to mitigate the mortality effects of heatwaves and to generate appropriate local heat action plans.
The Appallingly Bad Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change — Professor Steve Keen, author, economist, and Distinguished Fellow.
Since 1988 the IPCC has been the world's leading resource on climate change science and policy recommendations. What if they have been getting it wrong? Kyle Kimball investigates.
Mineral Supply Challenges to Phase Out Fossil Fuels — with Simon Michaux, Associate Professor of Geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland.
Facing Our Climate Anxiety Health Crisis — Britt Wray on human responses to the global climate crisis and the earth's current ecological state.
Marine Cloud Brightening: Is It Feasible? — with Michael Diamond, CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences) Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at NOAA.
Dr. Daniel Cziczo, Professor and Department Head of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, speaks about known unknowns in Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) proposals.
MEER featured on 12 News.
Leon Simons presents his most recent analysis of atmospheric aerosols, how they affect the Earth's albedo (surface reflectivity), and the risk of a warming planet.
Dr. Ye Tao discusses his vision for combatting climate change by using fields of mirrors that reflect solar radiation.
Dr. Ye Tao: Covid aerosols analysis. Peter Dynes: MEER Urban. Dr. Lisa Doner and Dr. Eric Hoffman: Short-circuiting the greenhouse effect.
Dr Ye Tao, head of the Mirrors for Earth Energy Rebalancing (MEER) project, speaks to Nick Breeze.
Climate Crisis Solutions, Greenwashing, and a Post-Capitalist Future w/ Dr. Ye Tao.
Dr. Tao discussed COP26 and the MEER Framework on Radio Ulster.
Short internal reports on materials, deployment and measurement.
Step-by-step field guide for planning a MEER installation.
Classroom-ready materials on radiation, albedo and the energy budget.
Logos, imagery and boilerplate for journalists and partners.
