Author: Kevin Krajick36

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.

Do Urban ‘Heat Islands’ Hint at Trees of the Future?

Common Oaks Get a Boost in New York’s Central Park
Asthma Hot Spots Linked to Trucks, Low-Grade Heating Oil

New York Children Suffer Block by Block Depending on Soot Levels
Changing Ocean Chemistry: the Poem

A study published earlier this month indicated that due to manmade emissions of carbon dioxide, the earth’s oceans are tipping toward acidity faster than at any time in the last 300 million years. It made world headlines, and this week the study was the subject of Sunday New York Times editorial, “Changing the Chemistry of Earth’s Oceans.” And now, the poem.…
New York Roofs: Brighter, Whiter, Cooler

The results are in for the first study to systematically measure the effects of the city’s fledgling effort to introduce more reflective rooftops in order to reduce cooling costs and the overall heat burden on the city.
Fixing Climate: Beyond Carbon Dioxide

Climate scientists at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this week were elated to hear that the United States and five other countries had agreed to work toward cutting pollutants other than carbon dioxide thought to cause about a third of current human-influenced global warming. After all, many of them…
A Climate Tipping Point for World Food Prices?

Increased growing-season heat due to climate change in coming decades could push staple U.S. crops off a cliff, and cause world food prices to jump, a Columbia University economist told a press briefing at a top scientific meeting this week. In a panel organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, economist Wolfram…
Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…
Did the Oceans Influence Human Evolution?

Scientists often invoke climate as a possible factor in human evolution; but only recently have they developed the ability to get enough information about past climates and related fossil evidence to see any details. A half-dozen leading paleontologists and climate scientists discussed recent advances in a symposium this week at the annual meeting of the…
Global Climate Modeling for the Masses: You Can Try This at Home

Since 2005, the Educational Global Climate Modeling Project has been downloaded 50,000 times, and adopted for teaching and research at hundreds of universities and other institutions.

Do Urban ‘Heat Islands’ Hint at Trees of the Future?

Common Oaks Get a Boost in New York’s Central Park
Asthma Hot Spots Linked to Trucks, Low-Grade Heating Oil

New York Children Suffer Block by Block Depending on Soot Levels
Changing Ocean Chemistry: the Poem

A study published earlier this month indicated that due to manmade emissions of carbon dioxide, the earth’s oceans are tipping toward acidity faster than at any time in the last 300 million years. It made world headlines, and this week the study was the subject of Sunday New York Times editorial, “Changing the Chemistry of Earth’s Oceans.” And now, the poem.…
New York Roofs: Brighter, Whiter, Cooler

The results are in for the first study to systematically measure the effects of the city’s fledgling effort to introduce more reflective rooftops in order to reduce cooling costs and the overall heat burden on the city.
Fixing Climate: Beyond Carbon Dioxide

Climate scientists at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this week were elated to hear that the United States and five other countries had agreed to work toward cutting pollutants other than carbon dioxide thought to cause about a third of current human-influenced global warming. After all, many of them…
A Climate Tipping Point for World Food Prices?

Increased growing-season heat due to climate change in coming decades could push staple U.S. crops off a cliff, and cause world food prices to jump, a Columbia University economist told a press briefing at a top scientific meeting this week. In a panel organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, economist Wolfram…
Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…
Did the Oceans Influence Human Evolution?

Scientists often invoke climate as a possible factor in human evolution; but only recently have they developed the ability to get enough information about past climates and related fossil evidence to see any details. A half-dozen leading paleontologists and climate scientists discussed recent advances in a symposium this week at the annual meeting of the…
Global Climate Modeling for the Masses: You Can Try This at Home

Since 2005, the Educational Global Climate Modeling Project has been downloaded 50,000 times, and adopted for teaching and research at hundreds of universities and other institutions.