Earth Sciences111
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Rare Earth Metals: Another Challenge for the Green Economy?
Rare earth metals play an important role in our envisaged carbon-free future, but their availability in the future is under question for different political and availability issues, which is worrying for planned reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
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Summer 2012 Announcement: Internship Positions
This summer the Earth Institute, Columbia University is offering Columbia students opportunities to intern within various departments and research centers at the Earth Institute. All full-time Columbia and Barnard students are eligible to apply for internships. These internships are funded at a rate of $15/hr for 35 hours per week and up to a maximum…
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Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series
The Earth Institute’s Columbia Climate Center presents “Managing Carbon on Land in the Context of Climate Change,” with Richard Houghton, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center as part of a new Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series.
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The Sundarbans
After finally reaching the Mongla and our boat, we settled into our new home. It is a similar design, but much larger than the one we used in September. As we ate dinner and explored the ship, it started the overnight journey to the southeastern part of the Sundarbans where the wildlife is most plentiful.…
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Rivers and the Road
We spent a day on the islands (chars) in the Brahmaputra River seeing the geology and talking to the residents. Then after an evening of feasting and dancing in our new Saris and lungis, we hit the road for the trip to the Sundarbans.
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At the Bottom of the Bottom of the World
As we in North America emerge from a remarkably mild winter, the brief and sunny summer in the world’s deep south is drawing to a rapid close. Antarctica’s days are becoming shorter, and come the vernal equinox the South Pole will enter into its yearly hibernation—six months of dusk and night. Researchers from Columbia University…
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Class Trip – to Bangladesh
To help my students in a class on hazards of Bangladesh better understand the country, I am taking them there to experience Bangladesh for themselves.
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A Controversy: Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale
The organic-rich source rock of the Marcellus Shale is an on-going target for massive gas extraction. Advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, have made this extensive area of Marcellus black shale one of the largest unconventional and widely controversial gas operations in the United States today.
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Plugging the Leaks in Climate Models
Independent quality controls for climate models are crucial for the quality of future climate change predictions. Not all models are equally good and should be utilized in climate impact studies for such things as crop yield and hydrology that are produced for far-reaching decision-making.

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