State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Poverty / Development31

  • Increasing Access to Health Care Using a Community-Based Approach

    Increasing Access to Health Care Using a Community-Based Approach

    Community Health Workers (CHWs), health assistants or lay health workers who provide a fundamental level of health care for residents in the community in which they live, have been shown to make a tremendous contribution to public health and community development. In Kisumu, Kenya, residents of Manyatta, an informal settlement with nearly 90,000 people that…

  • Health Risks From Famine Likely to Persist

    Health Risks From Famine Likely to Persist

    Video Short: IRI’s Madeleine Thomson discusses the short- and long-term health risks of the East Africa famine

  • Earth Institute Receives Funds To Scale Up Effort To Reach Millennium Development Goals

    $15 Million for 5 years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • How You Can Help Earth Cope with 7 Billion

    How You Can Help Earth Cope with 7 Billion

    Earth’s population has more than doubled in the last 50 years to 7 billion. The numbers represent big challenges—feeding and providing for additional people on a planet already stressed by environmental damage and climate change. What can ordinary individuals do?

  • Sauri Millennium Village school feeding program gains Kenya-wide attention

    Sauri Millennium Village school feeding program gains Kenya-wide attention

    Fourteen year old Eugene Obare and his friends from Nyamuninia Primary School in Sauri Millennium Village were invited to address a packed amphitheatre of delegates at the International Food Fair, organized by the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi on October 7th. They are a new breed of happy, confident kids in rural Kenya who…

  • Unsettled by Climate Change

    Unsettled by Climate Change

    Climate change already laps at the edges of some communities, disrupting local economies and habitat, and forcing resettlement. But a new study notes that any efforts to offset the effects of shifting climate could lead to even more displacement and disruption for many people, particularly the poor.

  • 7 Billion on 10/31: The Numbers Can Be Scary

    7 Billion on 10/31: The Numbers Can Be Scary

    You can now watch the tape of “The World at 7 Billion: Sustaining Our Future,” the Earth Institute’s panel discussion held at Columbia Oct. 17 and featuring the presentation by Professor Joel E. Cohen on the “good and bad news” behind the growing world population.

  • China’s Decade Plan for Water

    China’s Decade Plan for Water

    For the first time, China’s No. 1 central document outlining the government’s priorities for the coming year focuses on the construction of water resources acknowledging its importance as a “strategic resource” and its necessity to the economy.

  • Open House: Earth Institute Graduate Programs

    The Environmental and Sustainable Development Programs Open House is a wonderful opportunity for you to find out more about Columbia’s cutting-edge graduate degrees in sustainable development and environmental studies. We invite you to come explore our diverse offering of programs, have your application questions answered, and meet with current Columbia students and faculty. Attend the…

Composite banner with modern building at night and portrait of Dean Alexis Abramson that reads "Science for the Planet"

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

  • Increasing Access to Health Care Using a Community-Based Approach

    Increasing Access to Health Care Using a Community-Based Approach

    Community Health Workers (CHWs), health assistants or lay health workers who provide a fundamental level of health care for residents in the community in which they live, have been shown to make a tremendous contribution to public health and community development. In Kisumu, Kenya, residents of Manyatta, an informal settlement with nearly 90,000 people that…

  • Health Risks From Famine Likely to Persist

    Health Risks From Famine Likely to Persist

    Video Short: IRI’s Madeleine Thomson discusses the short- and long-term health risks of the East Africa famine

  • Earth Institute Receives Funds To Scale Up Effort To Reach Millennium Development Goals

    $15 Million for 5 years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • How You Can Help Earth Cope with 7 Billion

    How You Can Help Earth Cope with 7 Billion

    Earth’s population has more than doubled in the last 50 years to 7 billion. The numbers represent big challenges—feeding and providing for additional people on a planet already stressed by environmental damage and climate change. What can ordinary individuals do?

  • Sauri Millennium Village school feeding program gains Kenya-wide attention

    Sauri Millennium Village school feeding program gains Kenya-wide attention

    Fourteen year old Eugene Obare and his friends from Nyamuninia Primary School in Sauri Millennium Village were invited to address a packed amphitheatre of delegates at the International Food Fair, organized by the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi on October 7th. They are a new breed of happy, confident kids in rural Kenya who…

  • Unsettled by Climate Change

    Unsettled by Climate Change

    Climate change already laps at the edges of some communities, disrupting local economies and habitat, and forcing resettlement. But a new study notes that any efforts to offset the effects of shifting climate could lead to even more displacement and disruption for many people, particularly the poor.

  • 7 Billion on 10/31: The Numbers Can Be Scary

    7 Billion on 10/31: The Numbers Can Be Scary

    You can now watch the tape of “The World at 7 Billion: Sustaining Our Future,” the Earth Institute’s panel discussion held at Columbia Oct. 17 and featuring the presentation by Professor Joel E. Cohen on the “good and bad news” behind the growing world population.

  • China’s Decade Plan for Water

    China’s Decade Plan for Water

    For the first time, China’s No. 1 central document outlining the government’s priorities for the coming year focuses on the construction of water resources acknowledging its importance as a “strategic resource” and its necessity to the economy.

  • Open House: Earth Institute Graduate Programs

    The Environmental and Sustainable Development Programs Open House is a wonderful opportunity for you to find out more about Columbia’s cutting-edge graduate degrees in sustainable development and environmental studies. We invite you to come explore our diverse offering of programs, have your application questions answered, and meet with current Columbia students and faculty. Attend the…