Hi, I'm Drew. Welcome to my fair trade, artisanally-crafted, low-sodium website! I am a postdoctoral associate at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment and an incoming assistant professor of environmental studies and sciences at Oberlin College; also, I am reluctant to resort to black magic. Be aware that this website is very large, and some of it is randomly generated. For the full experience, reload a bunch of times and navigate as follows:
- If you are interested in my SCIENTIFIC WORK: In my scientific research, I use satellite data to track pollution back to its source and monitor emissions in real time, and I maintain free open-source software that allows others to do the same. If you want to learn more, check out out my ongoing projects, research papers, conference presentations, and environmental datasets. Everything is open access, and you can find a general-audience explanation of each of the publications I led in my newsletter.
- If you are interested in my INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK: My interdisciplinary work imagines how humanity can democratically govern itself in an age of environmental crisis. With collaborators, I imagine the sorts of institutions and protocols that advance economic democracy within planetary boundaries, with an emphasis on connecting science with (1) social movements and (2) economic planning. This work has taken the form of books, video games, public writing, and academic publications.
- If you are interested in MY CV: you can download it here.
- If you are interested in MISCELLANEOUS: This website is big because I have had it since high school and I don't delete things. If you search for it, you can find ephemera I have made over the years, including original music.
- If you are interested in HUMAN CONTACT: I can be reached at drew [at] drewpendergrass [dot] com or at the academic address in my CV. For upcoming events, check out my events page. You can follow me on Bluesky or LinkedIn. The best way to follow my work is to subscribe to my newsletter below (expect emails every six months or so at most):
Upcoming events
Talk: Socialismo di Metà-Terra book tour (Pettorano sul Gizio, Italy)
Date: 27 March 2026 at 6pm CET
Location: Castello Cantelmo
I will discuss the Italian translation of my book with Rewilding Apennines in the Castello Cantelmo in Abruzzo.
Talk: Socialismo di Metà-Terra book tour (Milan, Italy)
Date: 28 March 2026 at 3pm CET
Location: Piano Terra: Via Federico Confalonieri, 1, 20124 Milano
I will discuss the Italian translation of my book with Andrea Fumagalli, Gianluca Pozzoni, and Elisabetta Corrà at Piano Terra in Milan.
Poster: Methane Action for People and Planet (Ispra, Italy)
Date: 30 March 2026 at 12pm CET
Location: European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)
I will be at the Methane Action for People and Planet conference, presenting my work on global methane emissions and trends as well as further developments to CHEEREIO which illuminate reactive nitrogen emissions. My poster will be up on March 30 and April 1 and I will be there during coffee breaks.
Additional events, future and past, are available on my events page.
You can learn more about my research on the projects page, or you can read through all of our scientific papers and presentations on their respective pages.
A featured interdisciplinary project!
A paper on the town-country divide in architecture and in Marxism
In this article, I worked with historian Troy Vettese and architect Filip Mesko to discuss how eco-socialist planning can create a just and sustainable society. We argue that the problem of land scarcity, long a topic of both classical political economy and architecture, is an opportunity to erode the separation of city and country. We consider the intellectual history of the town-country divide and how the category of wilderness and the practice of rewilding can break this binary. The illustration is by Lukas Eigler-Harding and Ariel Noltimier-Strauss and is entitled Half-Earth Diptych (2021).
Vettese, T.G.W, Pendergrass, D. C., and Mesko, F. (2022). "Town, Country, and Wilderness: Designing the Half-Earth." Architectural Design. 92(1), 112–119. doi:10.1002/ad.2780 | Read it here.
Read more of my writing here.
A random media appearance
Nichtstun fürs Klima! Brecht’s Daoism, Useless Trees and the Action of Non-Action (video)
12 February 2026 | Watch here
My co-author Troy Vettese and I talk about the surprising resonances between the playwrite Bertolt Brecht and Laozi: both figures praise forms of non-action and uselessness. In conversation with Heinrich Detering and Alexander Karschnia, comment on the implications for climate action.
Additional interviews and media are available on my interviews page.
All the cool kids are using CHEEREIO!
CHEEREIO is a tool that uses observations of pollutants in the atmosphere, measured from satellites or surface stations, to correct supercomputer models that simulate the Earth. Powerful use cases for CHEEREIO include tracking pollution back to its source, even if there are no local observations on the ground, and monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in near-real-time. Read more on my projects page or the offical CHEEREIO site.
