
The American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting opens in San Francisco this week. Catch up on your interests through AGU’s On-Demand live stream.

Vijay Modi is a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University and an Earth Institute faculty member. He also lead the UN Millennium Project effort on the role of energy and energy services in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). Currently, he is focused on making consumer-scaled versions of technology that is normally supersized available to developing countries.…

The United States has joined 185 countries in promising to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, develop other ways to mitigate the impacts and to make communities more resilient to climate change. So what exactly is the United States proposing to do?

“Reaching an agreement would firstly mean an increase in awareness for the particular situation faced by small island developing states. States such as Kiribati are on the front line of climate change since they are already experiencing its effects, and an agreement would enhance recognition of [their] vulnerability.”

Vertical farming is touted as a solution to the drawbacks of traditional agriculture, but how sustainable is it really? A team of students attempts to design a certification system to assess the sustainability of vertical farms.

By studying modeled climate evidence from the last interglacial period, the team concluded that the warming going on today risks setting off “feedbacks” in the climate system.

Excess carbon dioxide absorbed into the oceans is starting to have profound effects on marine life, from oysters to tiny snails at the base of the food chain. Our scientists explain the changes and what they are learning about ocean acidification in the past.

At Le Bourget outside Paris, the site of the UN climate talks, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs talks to FRANCE 24 English TV about what’s likely to happen at the climate negotiations in Paris.

The World Wildlife Fund will collaborate with the Earth Institute’s Center for Climate Systems Research to advance adaptation to the impacts of climate change around the globe. The partners will create new ways of generating climate risk information and embedding it into the World Wildlife Fund’s conservation and development planning, policies and practice.