The Peters Project

  ⚡ An Engineering Titan: The Itaipu Binational Dam Stretching nearly 8 kilometers across the Paraná River on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, the Itaipu Binational Dam is a staggering monument to human ambition. It stands as the largest hydroelectric facility in the Western Hemisphere and the third-largest power-producing structure in the entire world. To feed its massive turbines, the dam impounds an unbelievable 29 billion cubic meters of water, creating a reservoir that covers over 1,350 square kilometers of land. Yet, the history behind this engineering marvel is deeply complex. Born as a joint megaproject between Brazil and Paraguay in the 1970s, its construction came at a devastating environmental cost. It utterly decimated local ecosystems—including the historic Guairá Falls, which were completely submerged—and displaced tens of thousands of indigenous and local residents. Given today’s strict global environmental and human rights protocols, a project with this level of i...

  ✈️ And here's my second in-flight blog... A Tale of Two Museums: Data, Dignity, and the Soul of Praça Mauá In a previous reflection ("A Tale of Two Communities"), I wrote about how the physical landscapes of the Rocinha Favela and Ilha da Gigóia operate as dual illustrations of how communities organize themselves outside the boundaries of traditional urban planning. Just a short distance away in Rio de Janeiro's port district, a similarly powerful, parallel conversation is unfolding. Standing on opposite sides of the historic Praça Mauá plaza are two monumental institutions: the Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) and the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) . During my field research, stepping between these two spaces felt like navigating a brilliant, intentional juxtaposition: 🌐 One is an austere, futuristic laboratory mapping out global trajectories of science and environmental data. 💓The other is a warm, deeply emotional sanctuary of truth-telling, anchoring the raw h...

 ✈️ Thanks to in-flight wifi and a long flight to Manaus (my point of departure for the Amazon tomorrow!) I'm finally able to write a couple of blog posts that have been kicking around in my mind in Rio… Let's start with Tijuca National Park, and then we'll get to “A Tale of Two Museums.” 🌿 Pre-SDG Pioneers: The Reborn Canopy of Tijuca National Park When we talk about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, it is easy to view them as a modern, 21st-century framework. But deep in the heart of Rio de Janeiro lies a staggering ecosystem that proves humanity knew how to work toward these targets long before they ever had a name. Covering roughly 39 square kilometers (about 15 square miles), Tijuca National Park is celebrated as the largest hand-planted urban rainforest on Earth.  Today, it stands as a colossal green lung entirely encircled by a sprawling metropolitan area of over 13 million people. To step inside its borders is to witness a living model of ecologica...

During a single day of field research here in Rio de Janeiro, I had the privilege of stepping into two entirely different worlds, both existing within the fabric of the same vast metropolitan area. On the surface, the vertical, bustling brick labyrinth of the Rocinha Favela shares absolutely nothing with the serene, car-free waterways of Ilha da Gigóia (Gigóia Island). Yet, looking at them through the lens of my fellowship, they are deeply interconnected. Both communities are actively testing the boundaries of SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities , serving as living embodiments of how organic urban spaces adapt, struggle, and thrive when left to innovate outside of traditional city planning. 🧱 Community 1: The High-Density Resilience of Rocinha To understand Rocinha, you first have to understand what a favela actually is. Favelas originated as informal, self-built settlements created by residents who lacked access to affordable housing. Far from a te...

The packs are ready, the adapters are in hand, and the departure gate is officially in sight. In exactly three days, six months of intensive planning, dreaming, and curriculum building shifts from a laptop screen in Chicago straight to the streets of Rio de Janeiro. 💚💛💙 ✨️My Fund for Teachers 2026 Fellowship is finally here.✨️ Putting all the pieces of this fellowship together has required an incredible amount of hard work and logistics. 💪🏻 But knowing that I am about to step onto the ground to investigate sustainable development in Brazil makes every single hour of preparation entirely worth it.  📍🗺 The Itinerary: From Cityscapes to Natural Wonders This journey is a massive, multi-regional deep dive into what sustainability actually looks like in a country as rich, diverse, dynamic, and vibrant as Brazil. I will be traveling through three distinct areas to study how environment, policy, and human life intersect: 🏙Rio de Janeiro Exploring urban resilience and t...

Right now, my living room looks less like a place to relax and more like a staging area for a survival expedition. A big pile of specialized gear is taking up most of the space on my coffee table, and my algorithms now think I’m getting ready to go off the grid.  In my last post, I talked about conquering a new language. Now I want to discuss my preparations for conquering one of the most intense ecosystems on the planet: the Amazon Rainforest . Dressing the Part The Amazon requires a very strict, highly specific “dress code.” It’s a hot, incredibly humid environment where things refuse to dry, and the insects are famously aggressive and potentially lethal. To prepare, I’ve been adding to my wardrobe with ultra-packable, moisture-wicking trekking pants and long-sleeve UPF shirts designed to dry quickly and keep bugs & UV rays at bay. It's definitely not my go-to style, but it's completely necessary. To be honest, the great outdoors gear & apparel industry i...