Author: Lakis Polycarpou6

Lakis Polycarpou is a professional author and freelance writer. His articles for State of the Planet have covered water scarcity, climate change, drought, flood, food security, supply chains, geopolitics and other topics. Between 2010 and 2016, Lakis worked with the Columbia Water Center to articulate and communicate innovative solutions to global water and climate challenges. He can be contacted at https://www.cleantechwriting.com/ Visit website »

Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

Patricia J. Culligan, professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, discusses her work with the Columbia University Green Roof Consortium to quantify the benefits of green roofs.
Floods and Coal – The Water-Energy Nexus Redux

Beyond the human toll, the floods in Australia have other repercussions, the most notable being the effect on the global coal market. According to Reuters, “Australia’s $50 billion coal export industry has been brought to a virtual standstill”.
Fluoridation of Water: Communist Conspiracy, Genuine Threat or Both?

Who can forget the scene from Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove of screws-loose General Jack D. Ripper pontificating to straight-laced British group captain Lionel Mandrake about the dangers of fluoride in water…
The Columbia Water Center’s New Projects Section

The Columbia Water Center is pleased to announce the release of a greatly expanded and updated research projects section of its website. The new section includes an interactive map along with updated content on the Water Center’s projects around the world. Find out about our how we’re helping farmers save water with tensiometers in India,…
Plastic Bottles, Compost Toilets and Rainwater Catchment: Simple Solutions for Haiti’s Clean Water Crisis

There are many other low-cost, high-impact approaches to alleviating the clean water crises in places like Haiti, so it’s worth mentioning a few.
Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.
‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

Since the 1960s, farmers in Punjab, India have practiced some of the most intensive broad scale grain production in the world. As a result, the state has earned the nickname “the food bowl of India” for its out sized role in adopting and implementing Green Revolution technologies that in the last decades of the 20th…
Is Groundwater Depletion Causing Sea-level Rise?

A recent study from Yoshihide Wada and other researchers from Utrecht University attempted to assess the status of global groundwater depletion—that is, the amount of water that is being drawn out from underground reservoirs that is not being replaced by precipitation—and came up with some startling conclusions. Chief among them that depletion of groundwater may…
Newsweek Takes on Water

Last week Newsweek Magazine took up the water issue – a sure sign that awareness of the global water crisis is growing.

Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

Patricia J. Culligan, professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, discusses her work with the Columbia University Green Roof Consortium to quantify the benefits of green roofs.
Floods and Coal – The Water-Energy Nexus Redux

Beyond the human toll, the floods in Australia have other repercussions, the most notable being the effect on the global coal market. According to Reuters, “Australia’s $50 billion coal export industry has been brought to a virtual standstill”.
Fluoridation of Water: Communist Conspiracy, Genuine Threat or Both?

Who can forget the scene from Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove of screws-loose General Jack D. Ripper pontificating to straight-laced British group captain Lionel Mandrake about the dangers of fluoride in water…
The Columbia Water Center’s New Projects Section

The Columbia Water Center is pleased to announce the release of a greatly expanded and updated research projects section of its website. The new section includes an interactive map along with updated content on the Water Center’s projects around the world. Find out about our how we’re helping farmers save water with tensiometers in India,…
Plastic Bottles, Compost Toilets and Rainwater Catchment: Simple Solutions for Haiti’s Clean Water Crisis

There are many other low-cost, high-impact approaches to alleviating the clean water crises in places like Haiti, so it’s worth mentioning a few.
Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.
‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

Since the 1960s, farmers in Punjab, India have practiced some of the most intensive broad scale grain production in the world. As a result, the state has earned the nickname “the food bowl of India” for its out sized role in adopting and implementing Green Revolution technologies that in the last decades of the 20th…
Is Groundwater Depletion Causing Sea-level Rise?

A recent study from Yoshihide Wada and other researchers from Utrecht University attempted to assess the status of global groundwater depletion—that is, the amount of water that is being drawn out from underground reservoirs that is not being replaced by precipitation—and came up with some startling conclusions. Chief among them that depletion of groundwater may…
Newsweek Takes on Water

Last week Newsweek Magazine took up the water issue – a sure sign that awareness of the global water crisis is growing.