Month: January 20102
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Witnessing the Desperation of the Poor
At the moment the Haiti earthquake struck, two Earth Institute staffers were in Port-au-Prince assessing how to make the country less poor, and less vulnerable to natural disasters. Marc Levy and Alexander Fischer of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network were working with the Haiti Regeneration Initiative, a nascent program to repair Haiti’s…
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The State of the Arctic
Where climate change is concerned, the Arctic region acts as a harbinger: the extremely sensitive Arctic system reacts earlier and more profoundly to anthropogenic climate change than many other regions. And as climate change progresses, it is also projected to experience greater environmental changes than other places on earth. As such, it has become an…
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Needed in Haiti: Reinforced Buildings—and Economy
The Jan. 12 Port-au-Prince earthquake is almost unique in modern history. It is about the worst natural extreme to affect some of the worst-off people on earth. What does disaster recovery mean when this happens? Poor countries suffer more from natural extremes like hurricanes, droughts and floods than do rich countries. Everything about richer countries…
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Haiti: America’s ‘Teachable Moment’
President Obama is providing the leadership we need and hoped for in the face of the horror of the Haitian earthquake. The clearest evidence of American unity behind the effort to respond to the tragedy in Haiti took place at the White House on Saturday, Jan. 16, as Obama joined forces with two ex-presidents to…
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Sky’s the Limit: Kumasi Schools Hope to Benefit from School-to-School Partnerships
The assembly hall was full of crisply uniformed high school boys, hundreds of them, standing room only. Despite the midday heat, everyone seemed captivated by the speeches by the Mayor of Kumasi, a spokeswoman for the Education Minister, the CEO of Zain Africa and other top Ericsson and Zain executives for Ghana. They were all…
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Rough seas bring unexpected rewards
Working in Antarctica is always a challenge but this trip has had more than the usual setbacks. After working feverishly in Punta Arenas to prepare our ship, we had to wait two days for some essential cargo to arrive. Not long after pushing off, we encountered rough weather in the Drake Passage, a region notorious…
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Port-au-Prince and New Orleans
Extremes of nature, like hurricanes and earthquakes, can occur almost anywhere. Their effect can be anything from a nuisance–the storm that ruins the seaside vacation–to the tsunami that takes more than a quarter of a million lives and ruins the livelihoods of countless more. Human losses are the most tragic of these disasters’ many consequences,…
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How to Help Haiti Recover
President Obama has declared that the United States will not forsake Haiti in its moment of agony. Honoring this commitment would be a first for Washington. To prevent a deepening spiral of death, the United States will have to do things differently than in the past. American relief and development institutions do not function properly,…
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Let There Be Climate Change
At times of flux when little can be trusted to remain the same, it is common to look for solace in the concrete. Today, as our climate continues to change, many find guidance in the unchanging words of the Bible. The lessons kept within those ancient pages free themselves for interpretation in order to give…
