General91
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A Spatial Analysis of the 2008 Itajaí River Valley Disaster
Biophysical and socioeconomic risk factors—such as terrain, population distribution, settlement patterns, poverty, and governance—can combine to produce high levels of vulnerability to heavy rainfall, flooding, and landslides.
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Alums Recruit Students at All-Ivy Fair
On Feb. 28, the All-Ivy Environmental and Sustainable Development Career Fair marked its 11th year. The eight Ivy League schools – Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale – teamed up once again to host the fair at Columbia University in New York City. This year’s event attracted 69 recruiting…
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Bricks, an Archeological Site and Home
It was time to pack up and leave. Shofiq, who is from Sylhet, was dropped off near his home and the fellowship of the rocks was broken. We settled in for another long drive. We made an impromptu stop at one of the numerous brick factories scattered across Bangladesh. Here, the workers immediately started snapping…
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Field School: Sylhet Tectonics
Most field trips have a “death march” hiking a long way through forest, swamps, hills or deserts to get to a remote outcrop. We have a “death bus ride” instead.
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MS Student Takes Sustainability to the Skies
As head of sustainability for JetBlue Airways, current Master of Science in Sustainability Management student Sophia Mendelsohn is responsible for reducing the environmental impact of one of the largest airlines in North America. While this can be a challenge, the financial and scientific skills she has gained through the program provide her with a solid…
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Mekong Delta and Three Gorges Dam: World’s First Climate Change Resettlements?
Many resettlers are economically better off, but the dislocations remain significant, especially for older resettlers, who have a harder time getting work in the newly developed industrial sector. Although the plight of some resettlers has been quite difficult (one older man competed fiercely to serve as a porter for us for the royal sum of…
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A Life Well Mapped
Mark Becker believed in the power of geospatial data and analysis to motivate our stewardship of the environment and guide development of sustainable approaches that balance human and environmental needs.
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Field School: The Brahmaputra River
The first day was very light for the jet-lagged students, just a short introduction to the field school and some background, and then introductions all around as we started to get to know each other. The final group of nine students finally arrived around 9 p.m. They were the most worn-out, bedraggled bunch of travelers…
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Students Design Energy Retrofit Program for Montenegro
When four Master of Science in Sustainability Management students landed in Podgorica, Montenegro in January, they were carrying an energy efficiency plan that promised to save the country money and energy, and to create jobs. These benefits would come from the energy retrofitting of some 100,000 buildings that have sprouted without permits in the last…
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
