State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Urbanization22

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

    Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

    Graduate students in architecture and urban design recently presented their findings and design work issuing out of a collaboration between the Urban Design Lab (UDL) and MCI in the Millennium City of Kumasi, Ghana. At the city’s invitation, and with MCI’s facilitation, the UDL came to Kumasi in early February, to devise solutions to revitalize…

  • Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

    Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

    MCI’s Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa held its regional meeting May 7-9, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, where delegations from the three participating Millennium Cities were able to hold extended, frank discussions with their colleagues and with private sector investors, who did not hesitate to describe precisely what it is that local…

  • From Sendai to Rio: A Call for Action

    From Sendai to Rio: A Call for Action

    The people living on the northeast coast of Japan had learned to expect large earthquakes. But despite being one of the best-prepared nations, they were caught off-guard by the force of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated their coastline and led to the meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

  • A Trip Along the High Line

    A Trip Along the High Line

    The Highline, a park built on an old rail line on the lower West Side of New York City, pays homage to the area’s industrial past while providing locals and tourists alike with a place for repose.

  • Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

    Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

    Across sub-Saharan Africa, where MCI is working to help selected secondary cities attain the Millennium Development Goals, more than 150 million adults, or 38% of the adult population, lack basic literacy skills. Fortunately, a number of organizations are working hard to change this. LitWorld, a NY-based NGO dedicated to improving global literacy and a long-time…

  • Urban Wastewater: One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Treasure

    Urban Wastewater: One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Treasure

    How can we overcome the main challenges we face in our urban wastewater systems today? Are there opportunities to improve sustainability in water treatment systems in US cities to support local food security?

  • The Sundarbans

    The Sundarbans

    After finally reaching the Mongla and our boat, we settled into our new home. It is a similar design, but much larger than the one we used in September. As we ate dinner and explored the ship, it started the overnight journey to the southeastern part of the Sundarbans where the wildlife is most plentiful.…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

    Architecture and Urban Design Students Present Innovative Upgrading Plans for a Millennium City

    Graduate students in architecture and urban design recently presented their findings and design work issuing out of a collaboration between the Urban Design Lab (UDL) and MCI in the Millennium City of Kumasi, Ghana. At the city’s invitation, and with MCI’s facilitation, the UDL came to Kumasi in early February, to devise solutions to revitalize…

  • Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

    Regional Partnership Promotes Trade and Investment in Three Sub-Saharan Cities

    MCI’s Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa held its regional meeting May 7-9, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, where delegations from the three participating Millennium Cities were able to hold extended, frank discussions with their colleagues and with private sector investors, who did not hesitate to describe precisely what it is that local…

  • From Sendai to Rio: A Call for Action

    From Sendai to Rio: A Call for Action

    The people living on the northeast coast of Japan had learned to expect large earthquakes. But despite being one of the best-prepared nations, they were caught off-guard by the force of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated their coastline and led to the meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

  • A Trip Along the High Line

    A Trip Along the High Line

    The Highline, a park built on an old rail line on the lower West Side of New York City, pays homage to the area’s industrial past while providing locals and tourists alike with a place for repose.

  • Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

    Making Connections and Celebrating Literacy, City to City

    Across sub-Saharan Africa, where MCI is working to help selected secondary cities attain the Millennium Development Goals, more than 150 million adults, or 38% of the adult population, lack basic literacy skills. Fortunately, a number of organizations are working hard to change this. LitWorld, a NY-based NGO dedicated to improving global literacy and a long-time…

  • Urban Wastewater: One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Treasure

    Urban Wastewater: One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Treasure

    How can we overcome the main challenges we face in our urban wastewater systems today? Are there opportunities to improve sustainability in water treatment systems in US cities to support local food security?

  • The Sundarbans

    The Sundarbans

    After finally reaching the Mongla and our boat, we settled into our new home. It is a similar design, but much larger than the one we used in September. As we ate dinner and explored the ship, it started the overnight journey to the southeastern part of the Sundarbans where the wildlife is most plentiful.…