State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Poverty / Development23

  • Food Security in the Face of Changing Climate

    Food Security in the Face of Changing Climate

    An interview with James Hansen, an agricultural scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who also has a prominent role in the world’s largest research program focused specifically on climate change and food security.

  • Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    The water documentary “A Thirsty World” combines French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography with down-to-earth messages, a mélange that calls attention to problems of water security on a global scale.

  • MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

    MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

    MCI’s signature School2School Connectivity Project (S2S), a partnership with global communications giants Ericsson and Airtel Ghana, the City of Kumasi, Ghana, the Kumasi Metropolitan Education Directorate, Columbia University Teachers College and selected New York City public and private schools to teach the uses of the computer and the Internet in the teaching of the STEM…

  • The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    Collaboration between government and the private sector will be essential to substantially increasing job opportunities. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September 2012 – its lowest level since January 2009.

  • Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

    Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

    In sub-Saharan Africa, only 63 percent of girls complete their schooling, according to the World Bank. Yet our own research in the Millennium Cities indicates that girls who continue their education will have far greater opportunities, and they will be in a better position to care for themselves and their families. To celebrate the United…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

    MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

    Two Masters in Development Practice students, Paloma Ruiz Gonzalez and Marianna Costa Checa, used their MDP practicum this past summer to assist the Millennium Cities Initiative in mapping and surveying all health facilities in the Millennium City of Kisumu, Kenya, at the request of the city government and local health officials.

  • Partnering for Impact

    Partnering for Impact

    Our highly interconnected and interdependent world has given rise to an extraordinary collaborative effort to design a future that is sustainable, prosperous and empowering. The recently concluded Clinton Global Initiative 2012 annual meeting’s theme, “Designing for Impact,” focused on designing our lives, environments and the global systems that can create more opportunity and equality.

  • Nigeria Working With Earth Institute to Expand Anti-Poverty Program

    $1.2 Billion Committed to Achieving Millennium Development Goals

Photo of the Earth from space with the text "Lamont at AGU25" on top.

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

  • Food Security in the Face of Changing Climate

    Food Security in the Face of Changing Climate

    An interview with James Hansen, an agricultural scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who also has a prominent role in the world’s largest research program focused specifically on climate change and food security.

  • Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    The water documentary “A Thirsty World” combines French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography with down-to-earth messages, a mélange that calls attention to problems of water security on a global scale.

  • MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

    MCI’s Signature S2S Program Kicks Off its Third Year with a Series of Trainings

    MCI’s signature School2School Connectivity Project (S2S), a partnership with global communications giants Ericsson and Airtel Ghana, the City of Kumasi, Ghana, the Kumasi Metropolitan Education Directorate, Columbia University Teachers College and selected New York City public and private schools to teach the uses of the computer and the Internet in the teaching of the STEM…

  • The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    Collaboration between government and the private sector will be essential to substantially increasing job opportunities. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September 2012 – its lowest level since January 2009.

  • Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

    Millennium City and Millennium Village Students ‘Stand Up for Girls’ on International Day of the Girl

    In sub-Saharan Africa, only 63 percent of girls complete their schooling, according to the World Bank. Yet our own research in the Millennium Cities indicates that girls who continue their education will have far greater opportunities, and they will be in a better position to care for themselves and their families. To celebrate the United…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

    MDP Students Map Kisumu Health Facilities

    Two Masters in Development Practice students, Paloma Ruiz Gonzalez and Marianna Costa Checa, used their MDP practicum this past summer to assist the Millennium Cities Initiative in mapping and surveying all health facilities in the Millennium City of Kisumu, Kenya, at the request of the city government and local health officials.

  • Partnering for Impact

    Partnering for Impact

    Our highly interconnected and interdependent world has given rise to an extraordinary collaborative effort to design a future that is sustainable, prosperous and empowering. The recently concluded Clinton Global Initiative 2012 annual meeting’s theme, “Designing for Impact,” focused on designing our lives, environments and the global systems that can create more opportunity and equality.

  • Nigeria Working With Earth Institute to Expand Anti-Poverty Program

    $1.2 Billion Committed to Achieving Millennium Development Goals