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Climate News Roundup – Week of 9/13
Germany Extends Nuclear Plants’ Life, NY Times, Sept. 13 Germany has signaled its intent to extend the life span of the country’s 17 nuclear power plants. The decision, which stands in contrast to the country’s historic resistance to nuclear power, comes as Merkel’s government pushes for more renewable energy sources in Germany’s energy mix. US…
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Promises, Promises: The Clock is Ticking in Africa’s Cities
Back in the flush days of 2005, a confident, wealthy G8 promised sub-Saharan Africa $25 billion more per year to help the region achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015, then 10 years hence.
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Cyprus: A Case Study in Water Challenges
One tends to think of islands as wet places (surrounded as they are by water) but the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean sea belies that characterization. Among many childhood memories I have of that place, some of the most vivid are of the wide-open, piercing blue of cloudless skies and the sun-scorched, dusty…
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Drylands of Africa Pose Unique Challenge to Acheiving MDGs
Dryland regions make up roughly 43% of the earth’s surface. In Africa alone, it’s over 60%, but despite this, decision-makers have generally neglected development of these regions. One of the main reasons is that drylands are assumed to be wastelands, with little potential, and in need of constant supplies of food aid. Contrary to this…
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Reaching the Millennium Development Goals in the Millennium Villages and Beyond
There are just five years left until the deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, eight ambitious objectives to tackle extreme poverty and its many dimensions and reach a more equitable and sustainable world by 2015. World leaders are gathering this month at the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals to see that…
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The Sustenance in Achieving Global Nutrition Security
As the world focuses on the ten-year progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the MDG Summit in New York City, it is with great hope that nutrition is front and center in the discussions and decision making at the luminous building that sits on the East River at 42nd Street.
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Transforming Health in the Millennium Villages
If someone asked me what is the single most important thing that has caused these positive developments in health I would say the Community Health Worker (CHW) system. There are definitely other equally important program interventions in setting up health facilities, ensuring commodity security for health-related consumables, and providing equipment and staffing to optimize the…
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Practice and Persevere: Neonatal Survival Workshops Aim to Reduce Infant Mortality in Ghana
With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other…
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Implementing the Lean Smart Grid
As utilities and suppliers begin the modernization of the electric grid in the United States into the “Smart Grid”, there seem to be two schools of thought circulating across the country. There are those looking forward to the change and those dreading the consequences of the change. Those looking forward to the change are anticipating…
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