State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Water63

  • The chaal and local groundwater management in India: When progress isn’t progress

    I recently came across an article in the Tehelka blog, which made me want to learn more. It was about a traditional water management system in the Uttarakhand region in northern India that has worked for years, but is being destroyed by funding meant to ‘modernize’ it.

  • The Economist: Special Report on Water, a primer for the water crisis

    The Economist has released a Special Report on Water, dated May 22nd, 2010, written by John Grimond. The 18 page report contains 9 short but substantial articles giving an overview of global water issues.

  • Irrigation project success in Mali

    Columbia Water Center is working in Mali, Africa, as part of its PepsiCo Foundation funded project to improve rural water use and livelihoods. The Mali component of the project aims to develop an effective irrigation system to improve agricultural productivity and food security.

  • Water and Energy – an Integrated Approach

    In the news, electricity and resource use seems to get the most exposure – people are looking at emissions, global warming, and oil and coal dependence.  One thing that is for certain is that electricity use needs to decrease if we are to decreased our dependence on oil, our CO2 emissions, and become a greener…

  • LIMPET: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer

    I recently posted a piece on the ‘Deep Green’ project to generate electricity from deep ocean currents. Here is another of the ocean-based generation schemes: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer, or LIMPET.

  • The Water Conflict in Ecuador

    Over the last year, the government has been working on passing a new water bill, the Hydraulic Resources Law, which would, as I understand it, allow the concessions to stand, codify privatization of water rights and centralize decision-making at the state level, possibly further excluding traditional local water-management structures from the process. In the last…

  • Sea-kites harvest the energy of the ocean

    A test site for a process called ‘Deep Green’ will be built off the coast of Northern Ireland in 2011, according to Minesto, a Saab spinoff. Sea kites will fly deep under water, using ocean currents to lift them, while an attached turbine harvests the the kinetic energy and turns it into electricity.

  • The Letter: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science

    255 prominent scientists from all over the United States published an open letter in today’s Science Magazine, in defense of science, scientists and the scientific process in the face of vocal and aggressive climate change skeptics. In case you don’t subscribe to Science Magazine, it’s worthwhile reproducing the letter here.

  • Disney’s Oceans, the timely movie

    On Earth Day, Disney Nature released the film ‘Oceans’. It’s a big-screen, high quality look into a part of the world that most of us can only imagine. Less nature documentary and more visual poem, the film is light on information and heavy on inspiration.

  • The chaal and local groundwater management in India: When progress isn’t progress

    I recently came across an article in the Tehelka blog, which made me want to learn more. It was about a traditional water management system in the Uttarakhand region in northern India that has worked for years, but is being destroyed by funding meant to ‘modernize’ it.

  • The Economist: Special Report on Water, a primer for the water crisis

    The Economist has released a Special Report on Water, dated May 22nd, 2010, written by John Grimond. The 18 page report contains 9 short but substantial articles giving an overview of global water issues.

  • Irrigation project success in Mali

    Columbia Water Center is working in Mali, Africa, as part of its PepsiCo Foundation funded project to improve rural water use and livelihoods. The Mali component of the project aims to develop an effective irrigation system to improve agricultural productivity and food security.

  • Water and Energy – an Integrated Approach

    In the news, electricity and resource use seems to get the most exposure – people are looking at emissions, global warming, and oil and coal dependence.  One thing that is for certain is that electricity use needs to decrease if we are to decreased our dependence on oil, our CO2 emissions, and become a greener…

  • LIMPET: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer

    I recently posted a piece on the ‘Deep Green’ project to generate electricity from deep ocean currents. Here is another of the ocean-based generation schemes: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer, or LIMPET.

  • The Water Conflict in Ecuador

    Over the last year, the government has been working on passing a new water bill, the Hydraulic Resources Law, which would, as I understand it, allow the concessions to stand, codify privatization of water rights and centralize decision-making at the state level, possibly further excluding traditional local water-management structures from the process. In the last…

  • Sea-kites harvest the energy of the ocean

    A test site for a process called ‘Deep Green’ will be built off the coast of Northern Ireland in 2011, according to Minesto, a Saab spinoff. Sea kites will fly deep under water, using ocean currents to lift them, while an attached turbine harvests the the kinetic energy and turns it into electricity.

  • The Letter: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science

    255 prominent scientists from all over the United States published an open letter in today’s Science Magazine, in defense of science, scientists and the scientific process in the face of vocal and aggressive climate change skeptics. In case you don’t subscribe to Science Magazine, it’s worthwhile reproducing the letter here.

  • Disney’s Oceans, the timely movie

    On Earth Day, Disney Nature released the film ‘Oceans’. It’s a big-screen, high quality look into a part of the world that most of us can only imagine. Less nature documentary and more visual poem, the film is light on information and heavy on inspiration.