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Who owns the Nile?
Who owns the Nile? Nine countries want to have a say in answering that question, and they don’t agree. The great river moves through Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so they all may claim her as at least partly their own.
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What is Truth: The First Question from Raphy Rosen, a CSSR-TCC Intern
The field of medicine is concerned with life, yet life cannot be studied without an understanding of death. The CSSR’s internship with the Terence Cardinal Cooke Hospital and Medical Center allows undergraduate students to grapple with the ethics surrounding life and death. Each summer two undergraduate students are selected to intern at TCC for 10…
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Engaging Change: The Challenges of Governing MVP Initiatives
For my second week of rotations in the Mbola Millennium Village, I was with the Community Development and Education Team. The way the project engages the local government and village structures, as well as what it does to bolster up the educational systems means everything in terms of sustainability and community acceptance of MVP initiatives.
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Why Women Matter
Megatons of carbon dioxide, radiative forcing, technology deployment, cap-and-trade systems: this is the common vocabulary of climate change. Concepts of equality, justice and ethics are relative latecomers to this highly specialized and technical world. Where they have emerged, terms like ‘climate justice’ usually refer to the interests of developing nations as a whole, reflecting the deep…
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Hiking Monte Pollino
I grew up in a family that drove on vacations, be it six hours to the beach, eight hours to see relatives, or three days to Idaho. So the seven hour drive from Calabria to Rome is no big deal, although the lack of air conditioning does make it undesirable. When I tell my friends…
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Columbia Planning Seminar on Accra, Ghana, Sparks Ideas to Further the City’s Development
Accra, Ghana, MCI’s newest Millennium City, presents a unique set of challenges in its quest to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. With a population of well over three million, Accra has had to deal with public sector challenges typical of many urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa, including finding solutions to the many pressing…
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Finished, as the Glaciers Fall Apart
We have finished our mission at Puncak Jaya and removed the ice cores, along with all camps and people from the field. Currently, we are in the coastal city of Timika for a few days, drying out our field equipment and tents. These are the first glaciers we have ever drilled where it rains almost every day–and…
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Applied Climate Research: A Conversation with Stefan Sobolowski (Part 2)
In part 1 of this interview, I talked with Columbia Water Center hydroclimatologist Stefan Sobolowski about the effects of continental snowcover on climate, and the implications of his research on climate change. In part 2, we talk about the problem of uncertainty in climate prediction models, extreme weather events, the regional variation of climate change…
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Gender based training in Ruhiira
The community sector carries out training workshops addressing gender issues two to three times per year. As part of our community sector rotation last week, we visited the homes of two couples, one of which had attended the training, one of which had not. Based on the day’s discussions with the field facilitators and visited…
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