Sustainability100
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The Environmental Paradox: Escalating Conflict and Bringing Peace in the Middle East
Throughout history, land has been a source of conflict between different stakeholders who want to control it. Increasingly, environmental issues surrounding land are playing a role in conflict discourse in the Middle East.
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Anthropocene and Its Victims: Migration as Failure or Adaptive Strategy?
Gemenne argues that climate change is a form of political persecution, that victims of the anthropocene are also victims of political persecution, thus, we should reinstate the term “climate refugee.”
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How the Transition to Renewable Energy Could Come
In the United States, our political process sends us strong signals about what problems and proposals can achieve agenda status. Increased federal support for science and technology will not be easy, but unlike a carbon tax, it is capable of drawing bipartisan support.
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Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images
Two women investigating climate change from different perspectives—Christine McCarthy, a geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Denise Iris, a multimedia artist from Brooklyn—had a chance to spend several days together recently. In the Rock Mechanics Lab at Lamont, where McCarthy works, and a nearby “cold room” chilled to the climate of an industrial freezer, they…
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Students Learn About a Plan to Rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley
Nine Columbia graduate students landed in Amman, Jordan last Friday night, after over 20 hours of travel, to begin the field study component of their course in Regional Environmental Sustainability in the Middle East. Though exhausted, they were eager to get to the hotel to meet students from Tel Aviv University – who had crossed…
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From the Nile to the Sundarbans: the Undergraduate Capstones
This spring, students in the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development presented innovative solutions to sustainability issues as part of their Capstone Workshop. Their clients ranged from the United States Military Academy at West Point to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
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A Carbon Tax Is Not Feasible or Practical
The idea behind the carbon tax is that by raising the price of fossil fuels, one promotes energy efficiency and, as fossil fuels become more expensive, renewable energy technologies will become more competitive. I am certain this is true. But few elected officials are going to advocate higher fossil fuel prices.
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Sustainable Shipping and EPA’s Truck Mileage Standards
The huge vertically integrated companies and large factory complexes of the 20th century have been replaced by the networked organization of the 21st. This enables more specialized and efficient production because the cost of shipping is low enough to be easily covered by the reduced costs of production. Shipping of finished products is also increasing…
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The Right Wing’s Endless War on Environmental Regulation
The right wing attack on environmental regulation is a fundamental political mistake. Conservatives are correct in assuming that Americans mistrust big organizations and powerful institutions, but they should remember that the public counts on these powerful organizations to protect them.
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“
