September 20093
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Improving Lives in Koraro, Ethiopia, Through the Millennium Villages Project
In July 2009 more than 20 people from eight countries set out for the Millennium Village cluster of Koraro, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, to see firsthand the progress and challenges experienced by one of the most remote Millennium Villages. Individuals represented the Earth Institute, Millennium Promise, Millennium Villages project (MVP) sites in…
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Sea Change
Bärbel Hönisch, an expert on ocean acidification at Columbia, will speak after a screening of the film “A Sea Change” this Thursday.
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Shaking Out Some Money
That rumbling you feel is not necessarily a passing subway. New York City and the surrounding region gets a surprising number of small earthquakes, and a 2008 study from the region’s network of seismographs, run by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, suggests that the risk of a damaging one is not negligible. This week, the federal government announced a major upgrade…
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Webcast With Jeffrey Sachs
Tomorrow, Sept. 14 at 10am (EST), Jeff Sachs is participating in a webcast on “Globalization in the Era of Environmental Crisis.” The discussion is part of the Raul Prebisch lecture series and organized by the UN Commission on Trade and Development. Should be very interesting considering the current financial crisis and as a run-up to…
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Designers at Columbia and MIT Promote “Foodshed” Concept
Contributed by Richard Plunz and Michael Conard On September 10th, Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” highlighted the work of designers at the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) in his Op-Ed Contribution to the New York Times, titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.” Since 2007, researchers at the…
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Warming Climate May Devastate Major U.S. Crops
Study Suggests Tipping Points for Corn, Soybeans, Cotton
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California’s other crisis
The “Golden” State doesn’t seem so golden these days. LA’s recent wildfires and Sacramento’s recent budget crises have left a dark cloud hanging over the state. Compounding the state’s financial woes and charred image is a problem potentially even more challenging: drought. Since 2000, the state’s reservoirs have been depleted and current climate change projections…
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Ecosystem Services Come to New York City: The Natural Way to Reduce Pollution
On August 27th, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that his office will provide $1.8 million of a $7 million settlement with a number of towns in Westchester that had been illegally dumping raw sewage into the Bronx River. According to Cuomo’s web site: “The funding will be provided to seven entities, including…
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India: the Impact of the 2009 Monsoon Failure
This article is the second in a series inspired by the recent Columbia Water Center trip to India During our recent CWC trip to India (during the first three weeks of August) one news story dominated all others: this year’s near total failure of the monsoon. Many of us in the West don’t really understand what…

AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More