Sustainability94
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Working with Facebook to Create Better Population Maps
Knowing how settlements are distributed across the landscape—e.g., in clusters, along roads or waterways, or scattered widely—has important implications for designing infrastructure, improving access, and promoting sustainability.
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Education and Sustainability
o many different types of skills are needed to transition to the renewable economy, some element of our educational process should be devoted to identifying what children like to do and what they are good at. Those may not be the same thing, and it is important for people to identify the useful skills they…
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How Well is the World Protecting Ecosystems and Human Health?
The new global environmental report card is out. The 2016 Environmental Performance Index graded 180 countries on how well they are protecting human health and their ecosystems. While the world is making progress in some areas, it is seriously falling behind in others.
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Federal Environmental Policy Can’t Find the 21st Century
The issue comes down to willingness to pay upfront for improved systems, rather than pay to address environmental emergencies later on, when pieces of the system fall apart. Both water and energy systems carry user charges, but weak, ideologically-bound politicians refuse to allow these fees to grow to pay the capital cost of modern infrastructure.
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Internships Available at Center on Sustainable Investment
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment is accepting applications until March 31 for internship positions for summer 2016. Interns are assigned to one or more projects depending on background and interests; unpaid and paid opportunities are available.
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The Sustainable City
By concentrating human population in cities, we will make it possible to preserve land for wilderness, ecosystem maintenance and agriculture. People will travel to these places and will experience nature, but only a fortunate few will live close to nature.
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Uncovering Impacts of Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea
From late December 2015 through January, a team of Earth Institute scientists and human rights lawyers from Columbia University worked in the highlands of Papua New Guinea to deliver the results of an independent study of water quality and human rights to the indigenous communities living near an industrial gold mine.
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Come on Mr. Mayor, Leave the Central Park Carriage Horses Alone
The mayor seems almost desperate to complete this carriage deal and move on, but in the process is simply giving his enemies more ammunition to do battle with him. In the process, he has managed to antagonize park advocates, pedicab workers, and good government advocates.
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Students Help an Urban Farm Rethink Its Future
In the Fair Haven section of New Haven, Conn., rates of obesity and diabetes are high, and access to healthy fresh food can be limited. For some residents, the New Haven Farms wellness program is just the prescription, but the organization is struggling to grow. Now, students studying sustainability management through the Earth Institute have…
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
