
Heaved upwards from your deep and watery grave, From the quiet murk onto a chaotic, brine-encrusted ship deck, You’re ever so carefully washed free from the mud, From all the rinsings of continents that settled out of the sea with you Like snow, softly entombing your remains.

As China incorporates environmental considerations into its economic planning process, its government appears to be carefully examining the relationship between sustainability and broader development goals.

A team of biologists and agronomists has identified genomic signatures in plants indicating they are resilient to stresses such as drought or toxic soils. The multi-year study, expected to help developing-world farmers, was done with sorghum, one of the world’s most common crops.

As a young undergraduate, Peter deMenocal once wandered the halls of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he met Charlie Hollister, a well-known and charismatic marine geologist. Charlie invited him into his large office and recounted his life as an oceanographer: travel to distant ports, research on the open ocean, rigorous science and the thrill…

Computer scientists at Columbia University will work with oceanographers to understand what has caused an unusual plankton-like species to rapidly invade the Arabian Sea food chain, threatening fisheries that sustain more than 100 million people.
I left China encouraged by the widespread receptivity to the theory and practice of sustainability, but aware of the huge challenge that lies ahead. As we flew from Guiyang to Beijing for the return flight home, I looked down and saw a countryside dotted with scores of windmills. The transition from a coal-based economy to…

Recently, paleontologists have used genomics to delve into the lives of ancient humans. These studies have capitalized on futuristic techniques to reveal the genealogy, travel plans and sex lives of our ancestors.

Last weekend, Earth Institute executive director Steven Cohen and post-doctoral research scholar Dong Guo participated in the Fourth Global Think Tank Summit in Beijing, hosted by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE). CCIEE, the preeminent think tank in China headed by the former vice premier, hosted hundreds of politicians, scholars, business leaders, and…