State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Water30

  • Partnering to Expand Access to Water: PepsiCo and CWC Announce Achievement of Safe Water Goal

    Partnering to Expand Access to Water: PepsiCo and CWC Announce Achievement of Safe Water Goal

    Earth Institute partner PepsiCo has achieved its stated goal of partnering with organizations, including the Columbia Water Center, to provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2015.

  • Geocharts: Water Challenges Around the World

    Geocharts: Water Challenges Around the World

    View four interactive maps that give an overview of some of the water challenges different parts of the world currently face.

  • Putting Sustainability into Practice- EcoPracticum

    Interdisciplinary collaboration, rather than polarized efforts, are needed to promote environmental sustainability.

  • Jamuna River

    Jamuna River

    The last part of our river work was on the Jamuna River, as the Brahmaputra is called south of where if diverges from its former course. It shifted up to 100 km to this course about 200 years ago. We visited Sirajganj where an embankment protects the city from the migrating river and Aricha near…

  • Brahmaputra chars

    Brahmaputra chars

    We traveled to the Brahmaputra River, one of the most active on the planet, to continue our fieldwork. We visited two places while working our way downstream and saw the rapid changes in the river bank and chars (islands). At one ghat (dock) the river had eroded a mile of the coast while in the…

  • Tensiometers in Punjab

    Tensiometers in Punjab

    So far, tensiometers have been tested in four central districts of Punjab, initially with more than 500 farmers the first year, and then peaking with an additional 4,500 farmers in 2011 before testing was scaled back. Data showed, on average, a 30 percent reduction in the water used in the test plots when compared with…

  • Achieving Sustainable Water, Energy and Agriculture in Gujarat, India

    Achieving Sustainable Water, Energy and Agriculture in Gujarat, India

    Watch a video about the Columbia Water Center’s project to address a looming water crisis in north Gujarat, India.

  • Sampling The Ganges

    Sampling The Ganges

    For the final part of my journey, we will be visiting numerous sites, mainly on the main rivers of Bangladesh. The samples and field data will ground truth and calibrate satellite data improving our analyses. We first stopped at an area that had converted from shrimp farming to rice, then spent two days on the…

  • Extreme Weather Adds Up to Troubling Future

    Extreme Weather Adds Up to Troubling Future

    Extreme weather and climate-related events already have cost the United States billions of dollars. A recent symposium focused on what we know about the causes and how changing climate affects agriculture, water supplies, wildlife and our economy.

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

  • Partnering to Expand Access to Water: PepsiCo and CWC Announce Achievement of Safe Water Goal

    Partnering to Expand Access to Water: PepsiCo and CWC Announce Achievement of Safe Water Goal

    Earth Institute partner PepsiCo has achieved its stated goal of partnering with organizations, including the Columbia Water Center, to provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2015.

  • Geocharts: Water Challenges Around the World

    Geocharts: Water Challenges Around the World

    View four interactive maps that give an overview of some of the water challenges different parts of the world currently face.

  • Putting Sustainability into Practice- EcoPracticum

    Interdisciplinary collaboration, rather than polarized efforts, are needed to promote environmental sustainability.

  • Jamuna River

    Jamuna River

    The last part of our river work was on the Jamuna River, as the Brahmaputra is called south of where if diverges from its former course. It shifted up to 100 km to this course about 200 years ago. We visited Sirajganj where an embankment protects the city from the migrating river and Aricha near…

  • Brahmaputra chars

    Brahmaputra chars

    We traveled to the Brahmaputra River, one of the most active on the planet, to continue our fieldwork. We visited two places while working our way downstream and saw the rapid changes in the river bank and chars (islands). At one ghat (dock) the river had eroded a mile of the coast while in the…

  • Tensiometers in Punjab

    Tensiometers in Punjab

    So far, tensiometers have been tested in four central districts of Punjab, initially with more than 500 farmers the first year, and then peaking with an additional 4,500 farmers in 2011 before testing was scaled back. Data showed, on average, a 30 percent reduction in the water used in the test plots when compared with…

  • Achieving Sustainable Water, Energy and Agriculture in Gujarat, India

    Achieving Sustainable Water, Energy and Agriculture in Gujarat, India

    Watch a video about the Columbia Water Center’s project to address a looming water crisis in north Gujarat, India.

  • Sampling The Ganges

    Sampling The Ganges

    For the final part of my journey, we will be visiting numerous sites, mainly on the main rivers of Bangladesh. The samples and field data will ground truth and calibrate satellite data improving our analyses. We first stopped at an area that had converted from shrimp farming to rice, then spent two days on the…

  • Extreme Weather Adds Up to Troubling Future

    Extreme Weather Adds Up to Troubling Future

    Extreme weather and climate-related events already have cost the United States billions of dollars. A recent symposium focused on what we know about the causes and how changing climate affects agriculture, water supplies, wildlife and our economy.