Author: Kevin Krajick38

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.

In New York City: 5,000 Acres and a Mule?

It is no surprise that New York City holds one of the world’s densest agglomerations of people and infrastructure; but according to a new report, it is also hides a huge archipelago of potential farmland.
New Public Outreach Prize Goes to Earth Institute Climatologist

A major new international prize for public communication on climate-change issues has been awarded to Gavin Schmidt of the Earth Institute-affiliated NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The $25,000 Climate Communications Prize was announced today by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest organization of earth and space scientists. Schmidt, an influential climate modeler who has authored more than…
Exploring an Unknown Arctic Seabottom (No Ice Included)

Readers can follow a New York Times blog from the arctic as the U.S. flagship vessel for charting geology under the seabed sails the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska and Siberia. By sending sound pulses to the seabed and reading the echoes, scientists conducting the Chukchi Edges project aboard the Marcus G. Langseth hope to understand the structure and history of…
A Sea Change, Deep Under Antarctic Waters

The frigid seabottom off Antarctica holds a surprising riot of life: colorful carpets of sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other soft, bottom-dwelling animals, shown on images from robotic submarines. Now, it appears that many such communities could fast disappear, due to warming climate. Scientists sailing on an icebreaker last year have just published a study showing that gigantic…
Humans Shaped Stone Axes 1.8 Million Years Ago, Study Says

Evidence Pushes Advanced Tool-Making Methods Back in Time
Climate Cycles Are Driving Wars, Says Study

When El Niño Warmth Hits, Tropical Conflicts Double
Hydraulic Fracturing: Resources for Journalists

(Updated Feb. 12, 2019) Earth Institute scientists can offer a wide range of expertise to journalists covering natural-gas production using hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). This includes basics of energy exploration and extraction; rock mechanics; contaminants in underground water; manmade earthquakes; and economic/political questions surrounding the practice. Here is a brief guide. (Click on hyperlinks for individual…
Lurking Under Bangladesh: The Next Great Earthquake?

Beneath Bangladesh: The Next Great Earthquake? from Earth Institute on Vimeo. After the recent great quakes that have swept away entire coastlines and cities in Japan, Haiti and Sumatra, scientists are now looking hard at the nation that may suffer the gravest threat of all: Bangladesh. A new documentary from the Earth Institute follows seismologists as they trace signs of…
Studying the Farthest-North Trees

A team led by Kevin Anchukaitis of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Tree Ring Lab is currently in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, studying the effects of changing climate on trees. Working near the treeline, they’re taking cores from spindly white spruces to measure weather of the past.

In New York City: 5,000 Acres and a Mule?

It is no surprise that New York City holds one of the world’s densest agglomerations of people and infrastructure; but according to a new report, it is also hides a huge archipelago of potential farmland.
New Public Outreach Prize Goes to Earth Institute Climatologist

A major new international prize for public communication on climate-change issues has been awarded to Gavin Schmidt of the Earth Institute-affiliated NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The $25,000 Climate Communications Prize was announced today by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest organization of earth and space scientists. Schmidt, an influential climate modeler who has authored more than…
Exploring an Unknown Arctic Seabottom (No Ice Included)

Readers can follow a New York Times blog from the arctic as the U.S. flagship vessel for charting geology under the seabed sails the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska and Siberia. By sending sound pulses to the seabed and reading the echoes, scientists conducting the Chukchi Edges project aboard the Marcus G. Langseth hope to understand the structure and history of…
A Sea Change, Deep Under Antarctic Waters

The frigid seabottom off Antarctica holds a surprising riot of life: colorful carpets of sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other soft, bottom-dwelling animals, shown on images from robotic submarines. Now, it appears that many such communities could fast disappear, due to warming climate. Scientists sailing on an icebreaker last year have just published a study showing that gigantic…
Humans Shaped Stone Axes 1.8 Million Years Ago, Study Says

Evidence Pushes Advanced Tool-Making Methods Back in Time
Climate Cycles Are Driving Wars, Says Study

When El Niño Warmth Hits, Tropical Conflicts Double
Hydraulic Fracturing: Resources for Journalists

(Updated Feb. 12, 2019) Earth Institute scientists can offer a wide range of expertise to journalists covering natural-gas production using hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). This includes basics of energy exploration and extraction; rock mechanics; contaminants in underground water; manmade earthquakes; and economic/political questions surrounding the practice. Here is a brief guide. (Click on hyperlinks for individual…
Lurking Under Bangladesh: The Next Great Earthquake?

Beneath Bangladesh: The Next Great Earthquake? from Earth Institute on Vimeo. After the recent great quakes that have swept away entire coastlines and cities in Japan, Haiti and Sumatra, scientists are now looking hard at the nation that may suffer the gravest threat of all: Bangladesh. A new documentary from the Earth Institute follows seismologists as they trace signs of…
Studying the Farthest-North Trees

A team led by Kevin Anchukaitis of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Tree Ring Lab is currently in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, studying the effects of changing climate on trees. Working near the treeline, they’re taking cores from spindly white spruces to measure weather of the past.