
The team aboard the JOIDES Resolution just finished at their first coring site off southern Africa. The first results? “Awesome.” Sidney Hemming describes the process in words and photos.

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.

MS in Sustainability Management faculty member Vance Merolla has worked over the past thirty years as an environmental and sustainability professional for the private sector. As the instructor for SUMA K4170 Sustainable Operations, Merolla focuses on the importance of incorporating sustainability at each step along the value chain, including product design, procurement, distribution, manufacturing, product/service…
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.

Sidney Hemming and her team have started examining their first sediment core from off southern Africa. It appears to contain about 6 million years of history.

“It was so much more impactful to see and experience in-person what I had learned about in the classroom. The graphs and formulas we used were more meaningful when we had collected the data ourselves. And it was extremely interesting to learn about the issues facing the specific area that we were living in.”

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.

The Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to postpone implementation of the Clean Power Plan represents a setback for efforts to combat climate change; but the damage to the U.S. ability to meet pledges it made at the Paris climate summit in December “is less than it might seem,” says Michael Gerrard.