Author: Kevin Krajick34

Kevin Krajick is the Columbia Climate School’s senior editor for science news. He grew up in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of upstate New York, where he worked at his high-school newspaper. He started his professional career as a reporter covering crime, police and prisons across the United States. He has since reported from all 50 U.S. states and 30-some countries, writing about science, medicine, immigration and other subjects. His work has been featured in National Geographic, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Science, Smithsonian and many other publications. He was a 1981 finalist for the National Magazine Award for Public Service for his reporting on organized crime’s links to the toxic waste-disposal industry. He is two-time winner of the American Geophysical Union’s Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism, and his work has been featured repeatedly in the yearly book “Best American Science and Nature Writing.” His widely praised 2001 book “Barren Lands” is the true account of how two prospectors discovered diamonds in Canada’s remote far north. Krajick holds degrees in comparative literature and journalism from Columbia University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife and a tiny white dog.

Gone to Sea No More

After John Diebold, an enormously popular and influential marine scientist, died suddenly in summer 2010, friends and family erected a memorial to him: a carved red oak bench they installed on a causeway along the Hudson River, inscribed with “GONE TO SEA.” Then along came Hurricane Sandy.
Megavolcanoes Tied to Pre-Dinosaur Mass Extinction

An Apparent Sudden Climate Shift Could Have Analog Today
The Law of Drowning Nations

Sea levels are inching up year by year, and by various projections could be two to six feet higher by 2100—enough to make some small, low-lying island nations uninhabitable, or simply to wipe them off the map. What rights will citizens have to live elsewhere; in fact, will these entities actually still be nations, with…
A New Primer on Sea Level

The threat of sea-level rise–actually, its ongoing reality–has been on many more minds since New York and surrounding areas were walloped during Hurricane Sandy by a record-high storm surge, abetted by a water level that has risen steadily over the last century. That level will keep rising if climate keeps warming, and so, probably, will…
Latest Korea Nuke Test Dwarfed Previous Ones

Seismic Waves Show Steady Progress to Bigger Bomb, Say Scientists
Mapping Hot Spots of Lead to Protect Children

A new study in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization shows how hot spots of lead contamination in soil can be pinpointed in order to safeguard children against drastic health effects. Researchers led by geochemist Alexander van Geen of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, studied soil around two Peruvian mining towns, and found high lead concentrations…
As Amazon Urbanizes, Rural Fires Burn Unchecked

Fewer Farmers Plus More Roads and Drought Bring Increased Risk
Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

Dr. Daniel Hillel was recently honored with the World Food Prize for his pioneering work in sustainable agriculture.
A Forest Reserve Is Not an Island

Biologist Marina Cords has been studying monkey social behavior in western Kenya’s protected Kakamega Forest since 1979. Her work has led to insights about how primates manage conflicts, mate and carry out other social functions closely related to human behavior.

Gone to Sea No More

After John Diebold, an enormously popular and influential marine scientist, died suddenly in summer 2010, friends and family erected a memorial to him: a carved red oak bench they installed on a causeway along the Hudson River, inscribed with “GONE TO SEA.” Then along came Hurricane Sandy.
Megavolcanoes Tied to Pre-Dinosaur Mass Extinction

An Apparent Sudden Climate Shift Could Have Analog Today
The Law of Drowning Nations

Sea levels are inching up year by year, and by various projections could be two to six feet higher by 2100—enough to make some small, low-lying island nations uninhabitable, or simply to wipe them off the map. What rights will citizens have to live elsewhere; in fact, will these entities actually still be nations, with…
A New Primer on Sea Level

The threat of sea-level rise–actually, its ongoing reality–has been on many more minds since New York and surrounding areas were walloped during Hurricane Sandy by a record-high storm surge, abetted by a water level that has risen steadily over the last century. That level will keep rising if climate keeps warming, and so, probably, will…
Latest Korea Nuke Test Dwarfed Previous Ones

Seismic Waves Show Steady Progress to Bigger Bomb, Say Scientists
Mapping Hot Spots of Lead to Protect Children

A new study in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization shows how hot spots of lead contamination in soil can be pinpointed in order to safeguard children against drastic health effects. Researchers led by geochemist Alexander van Geen of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, studied soil around two Peruvian mining towns, and found high lead concentrations…
As Amazon Urbanizes, Rural Fires Burn Unchecked

Fewer Farmers Plus More Roads and Drought Bring Increased Risk
Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

Dr. Daniel Hillel was recently honored with the World Food Prize for his pioneering work in sustainable agriculture.
A Forest Reserve Is Not an Island

Biologist Marina Cords has been studying monkey social behavior in western Kenya’s protected Kakamega Forest since 1979. Her work has led to insights about how primates manage conflicts, mate and carry out other social functions closely related to human behavior.