Sustainability88
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The How and Why of Green Building
Buildings account for almost a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and the U.N. Environment Programme projects that if we continue with business as usual in the building sector, these emissions will double by 2030. Fortunately, green building is on the rise around the world.
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Report Assesses Risks to World’s Shared River Basins
Risks for the world’s Transboundary River Basins are projected to increase in the next 15–30 years, particularly in four hotspot regions: the Middle East, Central Asia, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, and the Orange and Limpopo basins in Southern Africa.
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Open Dialogue and Sustainability Education
Among the academics I find a mix of optimism and dire pessimism. It’s a recurring theme—can we build an economic life that can preserve the planet, or is it already too late? My responsibility is to ensure that our students hear both perspectives.
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The Climate Crisis and the Transition to a Renewable Economy
What I am betting on is the growing sense of awareness and understanding of environmental issues among the people of the world. It could be that my personal perspective is a little warped. I’ve seen the environmental issue move from the outer fringes to the center of our political agenda.
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How to Rethink Urban Transit, and Pay for It, Too
“We have conflated mobility with access, but mobility is not the same as access. The best solution to a transportation problem is to not have to travel. The city itself was invented as a solution to a transportation problem. We have cities so we don’t have to travel.”
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Fossil Fuel Companies Need to Become Renewable Energy Companies
No one should underestimate the scale of the challenge that confronts humanity. It will require new technologies and changes in infrastructure, organizational capacity, economic incentives and public policy.
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This Earth Day, Commute Another Way
This Earth Day, April 22, 2016, New York City residents and commuters are encouraged to leave their car at home and use another means of travel as part of the city’s first year of Car-Free Day. Find out what Columbia University is doing in support of #CarFreeNYC.
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Making Fish Farming More Sustainable
Global per capita fish consumption has almost doubled in the last 50 years. And today, about half of all the seafood we eat is produced through fish farming, aquaculture. Can it be done sustainably?
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Does Pollution Regulation Kill Jobs? Lessons for China from the U.S.
The problem of air pollution in China continues to reach new heights. To combat the problem in any real way stringent regulation is needed. A new paper from Columbia University’s Earth Institute finds that this can be done without hurting job creation.
