State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Agriculture49

  • Sime Darby Supports Sustainable Agriculture and China 2049

    Sime Darby Supports Sustainable Agriculture and China 2049

    The Sime Darby Group, a Malaysian-based multinational company with core businesses in plantation, property, motors, industrial, energy and utilities, has committed $500,000 in support of the Earth Institute’s Tropical Agriculture and China 2049 programs, making the company the newest Earth Institute Corporate Circle Strategic Partner. The Earth Institute also serves on Sime Darby’s International Advisory…

  • Agriculture in Ruhiira MVP (Uganda)

    Agriculture in Ruhiira MVP (Uganda)

    Partnering up with Millennium Promise MVP has provided larger South African Boa goats to 150 farmers who meet certain criteria. This improved variety of goats is larger, grow faster and sell for more; a local goat for slaughter sells at USH 80 000 to 150 000 while the improved variety sells at USH 300 000…

  • Supporting Continued Rebuilding Efforts in Haiti

    Supporting Continued Rebuilding Efforts in Haiti

    The Countess Moira Charitable Foundation, longtime supporter of our Earth Clinic, has made a gift to support two projects in Haiti to improve crop yields through the use of test plots and agricultural extension training.

  • Irrigation project success in Mali

    Irrigation project success in Mali

    Columbia Water Center is working in Mali, Africa, as part of its PepsiCo Foundation funded project to improve rural water use and livelihoods. The Mali component of the project aims to develop an effective irrigation system to improve agricultural productivity and food security. In recent months, CWC’s Mali-based staff signed a Memorandum of Understanding with…

  • Energy, Agriculture, and the Environment: Dead Zones and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

    Energy, Agriculture, and the Environment: Dead Zones and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

    Catastrophic, tragic, disastrous: these are all words that have been used to describe the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is impossible to deny that these words apply – thick, goopy crude has already coated the beaches and estuaries of the Gulf, contaminating more than 120 miles of coastline.  The spill is…

  • The Permaculture Approach to Water

    Permaculture has many facets, but one of the most exciting is its approach to water. Permaculture designers believe that through intelligent landscape design, it is frequently possible to go beyond conservation of water to actually recharge groundwater supplies.

  • Dust and its Impact on Earth’s Climate System

    Last month, Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory hosted a conference on dust in the climate system as part of the NOAA funded Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World (ACCWW) project. Most often, we think of dust simply as the stuff that accumulates on our windowsills, but those fine particles floating in the air play an…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 6/7

    10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium,  Providence Business News On Tuesday a memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of ten states established an Atlantic offshore wind energy consortium.  The goal is to promote the efficient development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf from Maine…

  • The Garden on the Tibibas Plain, Mali: Women’s ag. project takes off

    What follows are excerpts from a report by Severin Oman on a Women’s Community Garden project in Mali, West Africa, sponsored by the Earth Institute Millennium Village Project (MVP) and the Columbia Water Center. The project is located within the Tiby, Mali, Millennium Village cluster.

Banner: Climate Week NYC 2025, September 21-28, 2025
  • Sime Darby Supports Sustainable Agriculture and China 2049

    Sime Darby Supports Sustainable Agriculture and China 2049

    The Sime Darby Group, a Malaysian-based multinational company with core businesses in plantation, property, motors, industrial, energy and utilities, has committed $500,000 in support of the Earth Institute’s Tropical Agriculture and China 2049 programs, making the company the newest Earth Institute Corporate Circle Strategic Partner. The Earth Institute also serves on Sime Darby’s International Advisory…

  • Agriculture in Ruhiira MVP (Uganda)

    Agriculture in Ruhiira MVP (Uganda)

    Partnering up with Millennium Promise MVP has provided larger South African Boa goats to 150 farmers who meet certain criteria. This improved variety of goats is larger, grow faster and sell for more; a local goat for slaughter sells at USH 80 000 to 150 000 while the improved variety sells at USH 300 000…

  • Supporting Continued Rebuilding Efforts in Haiti

    Supporting Continued Rebuilding Efforts in Haiti

    The Countess Moira Charitable Foundation, longtime supporter of our Earth Clinic, has made a gift to support two projects in Haiti to improve crop yields through the use of test plots and agricultural extension training.

  • Irrigation project success in Mali

    Irrigation project success in Mali

    Columbia Water Center is working in Mali, Africa, as part of its PepsiCo Foundation funded project to improve rural water use and livelihoods. The Mali component of the project aims to develop an effective irrigation system to improve agricultural productivity and food security. In recent months, CWC’s Mali-based staff signed a Memorandum of Understanding with…

  • Energy, Agriculture, and the Environment: Dead Zones and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

    Energy, Agriculture, and the Environment: Dead Zones and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

    Catastrophic, tragic, disastrous: these are all words that have been used to describe the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is impossible to deny that these words apply – thick, goopy crude has already coated the beaches and estuaries of the Gulf, contaminating more than 120 miles of coastline.  The spill is…

  • The Permaculture Approach to Water

    Permaculture has many facets, but one of the most exciting is its approach to water. Permaculture designers believe that through intelligent landscape design, it is frequently possible to go beyond conservation of water to actually recharge groundwater supplies.

  • Dust and its Impact on Earth’s Climate System

    Last month, Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory hosted a conference on dust in the climate system as part of the NOAA funded Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World (ACCWW) project. Most often, we think of dust simply as the stuff that accumulates on our windowsills, but those fine particles floating in the air play an…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 6/7

    10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium,  Providence Business News On Tuesday a memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of ten states established an Atlantic offshore wind energy consortium.  The goal is to promote the efficient development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf from Maine…

  • The Garden on the Tibibas Plain, Mali: Women’s ag. project takes off

    What follows are excerpts from a report by Severin Oman on a Women’s Community Garden project in Mali, West Africa, sponsored by the Earth Institute Millennium Village Project (MVP) and the Columbia Water Center. The project is located within the Tiby, Mali, Millennium Village cluster.