NEW YORK (October 7, 2015)—The recent flooding in South Carolina is yet another reminder of just how much destruction natural disasters can cause and how ill prepared communities throughout the US continue to be. Extreme events such as flooding, drought, and storms are leading to not only short-term economic and health impacts but are setting…

A new professional certificate program at Columbia University will address the linkages between environment and security, aimed at practitioners with responsibility for providing assessments and warnings regarding environment-security risks or for designing programs to manage such risks.
David Dinkins represents a time when public service was considered a calling. From his service in the U.S. Marines, to his time in the New York State legislature, his service as New York City Clerk, Borough President, Mayor and now Professor; he has always looked for ways to make a contribution to the public good.

Researchers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have published a new study showing that a tsunami of unimaginable size swept over the Cape Verde Islands some 73,000 years ago. The discovery may have implications for the potential for modern hazards. READ THE FULL SCIENTIFIC STORY
Evidence of an 800-Foot Wave in the Cape Verde Islands

What will Hurricane Joaquin do? The science of predicting that is getting better, but still uncertain. The debate today is over whether there will be a U.S. landfall now in five or more days’ time or not; 30 years ago there would have been no point in even having that discussion.

Increasingly, systems thinking is embraced as a critical framework for approaching sustainability and resilience. Such an approach helps us look beyond an analytical, cause-and-effect mode of doing business that often only yields short-term solutions and unintended consequences.

The Sustainable Development program at the Earth Institute is helping to sponsor a start-up competition for students at Dhaka University in Bangladesh.

“A lot of the challenge is understanding what we as a species should do, because the disasters are getting more prevalent. In the last hundred years, both in human and financial costs, damages are skyrocketing. Most of that is just more people living in dangerous places, but climate change will be more of a factor…