State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Water33

  • Bharungamari – End of the Road

    Bharungamari – End of the Road

    For our final installation, we had to go from the edge of the Bay of Bengal almost to Bangladesh’s northern border with India, a trip of over 350 miles. Along the way we stopped at Humayun’s childhood home, had several flats and picked up a student of Humayun’s from the town where we installed it.…

  • Hiron Point in Sundarban

    Hiron Point in Sundarban

    We traveled by boat to the south part of the Sundarbans near the Indian Ocean to install a GPS at Hiron Point, this isolated facility also hosts a tide gauge recording long-term water level changes due to rising sea level and land subsidence. Our GPS will help distinguish how much of each there is in…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Leaving Dhaka, we spend an entire day getting to Khepupara in southern Bangladesh. Then we spent a long morning installing a GPS to monitor subsidence of the delta before heading back on the road again.

  • Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

    Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

    Dr. Daniel Hillel was recently honored with the World Food Prize for his pioneering work in sustainable agriculture.

  • To Comilla and Back

    To Comilla and Back

    I’ve just arrived back in Bangladesh with an engineer to install 6 new GPS stations to add to our studies of earthquake hazards and land subsidence. Our first stop was Comilla University, the westernmost exposed fold of the collision between the Ganges-Bramaputra Delta and the Sumatra-Andaman-Burma plat boundary.

  • Biotherapy: Technology Assisted Wetland Revival

    Biotherapy: Technology Assisted Wetland Revival

    Coastal Wetlands provide homes for migrating and native birds, protected areas for hatcheries, flood mitigation and an unrivaled biodiversity of microorganisims that serves as the basis of the marine food chain. Nature here works hard to compensate for an increasingly heavy human footprint.

  • Restoration Efforts on the Bronx River

    It’s not every day one has the opportunity to see river restoration efforts, take water samples, and refine one’s canoeing skills. Students from the Sustainable Development program did all three while exploring the Bronx River with the Bronx River Alliance.

  • CERC Certificate Alum Pursues His Passion For Protecting Oceans

    CERC Certificate Alum Pursues His Passion For Protecting Oceans

    Learn more about Mike Misner, a 2006 graduate of the Certificate in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC).

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

  • Bharungamari – End of the Road

    Bharungamari – End of the Road

    For our final installation, we had to go from the edge of the Bay of Bengal almost to Bangladesh’s northern border with India, a trip of over 350 miles. Along the way we stopped at Humayun’s childhood home, had several flats and picked up a student of Humayun’s from the town where we installed it.…

  • Hiron Point in Sundarban

    Hiron Point in Sundarban

    We traveled by boat to the south part of the Sundarbans near the Indian Ocean to install a GPS at Hiron Point, this isolated facility also hosts a tide gauge recording long-term water level changes due to rising sea level and land subsidence. Our GPS will help distinguish how much of each there is in…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Leaving Dhaka, we spend an entire day getting to Khepupara in southern Bangladesh. Then we spent a long morning installing a GPS to monitor subsidence of the delta before heading back on the road again.

  • Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

    Watering the World’s Crops, Drop by Drop

    Dr. Daniel Hillel was recently honored with the World Food Prize for his pioneering work in sustainable agriculture.

  • To Comilla and Back

    To Comilla and Back

    I’ve just arrived back in Bangladesh with an engineer to install 6 new GPS stations to add to our studies of earthquake hazards and land subsidence. Our first stop was Comilla University, the westernmost exposed fold of the collision between the Ganges-Bramaputra Delta and the Sumatra-Andaman-Burma plat boundary.

  • Biotherapy: Technology Assisted Wetland Revival

    Biotherapy: Technology Assisted Wetland Revival

    Coastal Wetlands provide homes for migrating and native birds, protected areas for hatcheries, flood mitigation and an unrivaled biodiversity of microorganisims that serves as the basis of the marine food chain. Nature here works hard to compensate for an increasingly heavy human footprint.

  • Restoration Efforts on the Bronx River

    It’s not every day one has the opportunity to see river restoration efforts, take water samples, and refine one’s canoeing skills. Students from the Sustainable Development program did all three while exploring the Bronx River with the Bronx River Alliance.

  • CERC Certificate Alum Pursues His Passion For Protecting Oceans

    CERC Certificate Alum Pursues His Passion For Protecting Oceans

    Learn more about Mike Misner, a 2006 graduate of the Certificate in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC).