Posts
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A Controversy: Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale
The organic-rich source rock of the Marcellus Shale is an on-going target for massive gas extraction. Advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, have made this extensive area of Marcellus black shale one of the largest unconventional and widely controversial gas operations in the United States today.
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Climate Services: Bring In Many Perspectives, Early On
What’s a “climate service”? Depends on whom you ask, which is why it is crucial to bring as many different perspectives to the table, says Guy Brassuer, head of Germany’s Climate Service Center.
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A New Spring Course: Bangladesh: Life on a Tectonically Active Delta
During the Spring 2012 semester, the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development is offering a new and unique senior Capstone Workshop that explores the world’s largest delta in Bangladesh as an example of development challenges in the 21st century.
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ESP Students Present Initial Findings for Clients at Midterm Presentations
“The midterm briefings showcase each Workshop’s central analytic challenge and progress to date, but what I like best is the students’ palpable excitement at working for a real world client on a pressing problem,” stated Professor Sara Tjossem, who is the faculty advisor for the Workshop project “Building the First Sustainability Rating System for Local…
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“The Population Bomb: Defused or Still Ticking?” Seminar Recap
“Thank you for coming on this gorgeous day, to sit in an airless, lightless room and discuss how to save the world,” said John Mutter, director of Columbia’s PhD in Sustainable Development and a member of the Earth Institute faculty, in welcoming the audience of the Sustainable Development Seminar, “The Population Bomb: Defused or Still…
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Celebrating International Women’s Day: Triumphs and Challenges
There is much to celebrate, this International Women’s Day. Three fabulously courageous women won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and just a year earlier the United Nations established UN Women, a new agency dedicated to gender equality worldwide and headed by another strong woman leader and role model, former President of Brazil Michelle Bachelet. School…
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The Groundwater Crisis and the “Grass that Grows in the Water”
Rice is the world’s third-largest crop after wheat and corn; by some estimates it accounts for fully one-fifth of the total calories consumed by the human race. Given these facts, it’s not surprising that countries that have historically struggled with devastating famine would do whatever it takes to ensure strong production of the grain, even…
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Plugging the Leaks in Climate Models
Independent quality controls for climate models are crucial for the quality of future climate change predictions. Not all models are equally good and should be utilized in climate impact studies for such things as crop yield and hydrology that are produced for far-reaching decision-making.
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New York Roofs: Brighter, Whiter, Cooler
The results are in for the first study to systematically measure the effects of the city’s fledgling effort to introduce more reflective rooftops in order to reduce cooling costs and the overall heat burden on the city.
