Agriculture20
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Transparency and Community Empowerment around Land Investments in Cameroon
Samuel Nguiffo, founder of Cameroon’s Centre for Environment and Development, explains how he uses OpenLandContracts.org, a unique tool created by the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment.
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Justine Sylvester on Land Contract Transparency and OpenLandContracts.org
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment speaks with Justine Sylvester of Village Focus International about land contract transparency in Laos and OpenLandContracts.org, a repository of publicly available investor-state contracts for large-scale land-based investments.
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American Geophysical Union 2017: Key Events From the Earth Institute
A chronological guide to key talks and other events presented by Columbia University’s Earth Institute at the American Geophysical Union 2017 meeting.
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Is There a Human Right to Land?
For people around the world, land is a source of food, shelter, and livelihoods. Given their importance, land rights are surely human rights—right?
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Swapping Where Crops are Grown Could Feed an Extra 825 Million People
It could also reduce water stress, according to a new study that includes 14 major food crops from around the world.
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In Biblical Land, Searching for Droughts Past and Future
Human-influenced climate warming has already reduced rainfall and increased evaporation in the Mideast, worsening water shortages. Up to now, climate scientists had projected that rainfall could decline another 20 percent by 2100. But the Dead Sea cores suggest that things could become much worse, much faster.
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Photo Essay: The Dead Sea, Living Waters and Megadrought
Thousands of years before Biblical times, during a period when temperatures were unusually high, the lands around the Dead Sea now occupied by Israel, Jordan and surrounding nations suffered megadroughts far worse than any recorded by humans. Warming climate now threatens to return such conditions to this already hard-pressed region.
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3 Uses for OpenLandContracts.org
Kaitlin Cordes from the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment shares some of the ways she uses this repository of investor-state contracts.
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Reflecting on OpenLandContracts.org’s First Two Years
Kaitlin Cordes from the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment looks back at the progress made by the repository of land investment contracts—and looks ahead to the challenges that await.
AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More
