March 20165
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Are Zika Virus and the Climate Related?
Madeleine Thomson, a scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, studies the relationship between diseases like Zika, dengue, malaria and others and changes in climate. She spoke at length recently with the Wellcome Trust, a health-focused charity, about the connection.
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Slowly Moving to Protect the Environment
In some cases we do not understand the impact of human actions on the planet and we need to do more observation and analysis to understand those impacts. In other cases we don’t really know how to repair the damage once it has been done.
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MESSENGER Data Reveal Evidence of Ancient Carbon-Rich Crust on Mercury
Mercury’s dark surface is revealing intriguing new clues about the formation of the solar system, including evidence announced today that the planet closest to the Sun may have formed in part from carbon, a key component of life.
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What Five Tech Companies Are Doing About Climate Change
Many experts agree that the climate pledges made at COP21 alone will not hold global temperatures below 2˚ C—we also need significant investment in energy technology innovation in order to meet the climate goals. What are the five big tech companies and their founders doing about climate change?
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Competition Challenges Students to Limit Global Warming
Can the global community devise a solution to save the planet from the worst impacts of global climate change? How about doing it in seven hours?
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Bleach Patrol: Turning Surfers into Scientists to Help Coral Reefs
With coral bleaching spreading, a new project and app called Bleach Patrol is putting surfers, divers and snorkelers to work as citizen scientists, keeping an eye on the world’s coral reefs.
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Peering into Chile’s Quizapu Volcano
In their quest to unravel the physical and chemical processes controlling volcanic eruptions, Einat Lev and colleagues headed to South America and the volcanoes of Chile.
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Faculty Profile: Elke Weber
Elke Weber has made it her life’s work to understand why and how people make the decisions they make. Not a simple task. Take, for example, smoking cigarettes. Doctors’ warnings of the deadly consequences of becoming addicted to cigarettes have been publicized for nearly 50 years now, but this hasn’t stopped millions of people from…
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In a Vast Ocean, Studying Impact of the Tiniest Creatures
Vast portions of the oceans contain low levels of the nutrients that normally sustain life. Yet these areas are not devoid of life. Once thought to be biological deserts, recent research has shown that such nutrient-poor marine systems could significantly contribute to the amount of carbon dioxide that is trapped into the deep ocean, influencing…
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
