State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Poverty / Development25

  • Goals for Rio: A Path to Sustainability

    Goals for Rio: A Path to Sustainability

    In an article published in The Lancet, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs outlines his own ideas for sustainable development goals, and how how these goals can build on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN’s set of targets that aim to reduce extreme poverty and boost social well-being in many other ways by 2015.

  • High-Value Resources: The Other Side of the Coin

    High-Value Resources: The Other Side of the Coin

    High-value resources such as diamonds have been linked to civil conflict. But they can also contribute to promoting development in post-conflict countries. This possibility was explored during an all-day conference, “Identifying Lessons for Natural Resource Management in Post-Conflict Peace-building,” held at Columbia University on April 25.

  • Photo Essay: In the Heart of Dryness

    Photo Essay: In the Heart of Dryness

    Explore the country of Niger in this visual essay while learning about the importance of seasonal forecasting to the Sahel, one of the poorest and most climate-vulnerable regions in the world.

  • Brownfields: Untold Stories, Unrealized Value

    Brownfields: Untold Stories, Unrealized Value

    Across the country, in distressed urban centers, hundreds of thousands of industrial sites have been left lying fallow. These properties, known as brownfields, embody the story of America’s twentieth-century industrial might and bear the mark of that period’s unenlightened practices. Their closing and subsequent abandonment culminated in the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs, the creation…

  • Renewed Effort Underway to Better Understand Challenges to Peacebuilding

    Renewed Effort Underway to Better Understand Challenges to Peacebuilding

    Lessons learned regarding the management of natural resources in peacebuilding efforts were the focus of several activities recently, including a book launch of the first in a six-volume series, a conference, and curriculum-building workshop.

  • Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

    Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

    MCI is lucky enough to work with two amazing Ethiopian women from the region of Tigrai, in the north of the country where the Millennium City of Mekelle is located. Both women have gone abroad to become talented professionals and both have resolved to transform the lives of women and young girls in their native…

  • Decadal Prediction: The New Kid On the Block

    Decadal Prediction: The New Kid On the Block

    Research on decadal prediction—what the climate is going to be like a decade or two from now—is still relatively new and experimental. It’s also in high demand by planners and decision makers interested in building dams and other large-scale development projects. In a new paper, IRI’s Lisa Goddard and colleagues discuss how decadal prediction research…

  • New Grants to Extend Reach of Africa’s Green Revolution

    New Grants to Extend Reach of Africa’s Green Revolution

    Two new programs in Ethiopia and Tanzania will adapt modern technology such as an innovative “lab-in-a-box,” smartphones and web-based communications, along with training for agricultural extension workers, to broaden the reach of Africa’s “Green Revolution.”

  • Video: Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?

    Video: Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?

    A video interview with climate scientist Bradfield Lyon, who explains his latest research on what’s driving rainfall patterns in parts of East Africa.

  • Goals for Rio: A Path to Sustainability

    Goals for Rio: A Path to Sustainability

    In an article published in The Lancet, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs outlines his own ideas for sustainable development goals, and how how these goals can build on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN’s set of targets that aim to reduce extreme poverty and boost social well-being in many other ways by 2015.

  • High-Value Resources: The Other Side of the Coin

    High-Value Resources: The Other Side of the Coin

    High-value resources such as diamonds have been linked to civil conflict. But they can also contribute to promoting development in post-conflict countries. This possibility was explored during an all-day conference, “Identifying Lessons for Natural Resource Management in Post-Conflict Peace-building,” held at Columbia University on April 25.

  • Photo Essay: In the Heart of Dryness

    Photo Essay: In the Heart of Dryness

    Explore the country of Niger in this visual essay while learning about the importance of seasonal forecasting to the Sahel, one of the poorest and most climate-vulnerable regions in the world.

  • Brownfields: Untold Stories, Unrealized Value

    Brownfields: Untold Stories, Unrealized Value

    Across the country, in distressed urban centers, hundreds of thousands of industrial sites have been left lying fallow. These properties, known as brownfields, embody the story of America’s twentieth-century industrial might and bear the mark of that period’s unenlightened practices. Their closing and subsequent abandonment culminated in the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs, the creation…

  • Renewed Effort Underway to Better Understand Challenges to Peacebuilding

    Renewed Effort Underway to Better Understand Challenges to Peacebuilding

    Lessons learned regarding the management of natural resources in peacebuilding efforts were the focus of several activities recently, including a book launch of the first in a six-volume series, a conference, and curriculum-building workshop.

  • Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

    Making Sanitary Pads to Help Keep Girls in School

    MCI is lucky enough to work with two amazing Ethiopian women from the region of Tigrai, in the north of the country where the Millennium City of Mekelle is located. Both women have gone abroad to become talented professionals and both have resolved to transform the lives of women and young girls in their native…

  • Decadal Prediction: The New Kid On the Block

    Decadal Prediction: The New Kid On the Block

    Research on decadal prediction—what the climate is going to be like a decade or two from now—is still relatively new and experimental. It’s also in high demand by planners and decision makers interested in building dams and other large-scale development projects. In a new paper, IRI’s Lisa Goddard and colleagues discuss how decadal prediction research…

  • New Grants to Extend Reach of Africa’s Green Revolution

    New Grants to Extend Reach of Africa’s Green Revolution

    Two new programs in Ethiopia and Tanzania will adapt modern technology such as an innovative “lab-in-a-box,” smartphones and web-based communications, along with training for agricultural extension workers, to broaden the reach of Africa’s “Green Revolution.”

  • Video: Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?

    Video: Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?

    A video interview with climate scientist Bradfield Lyon, who explains his latest research on what’s driving rainfall patterns in parts of East Africa.