Posts
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A Week of Firsts for This Arctic Nation
We are closing in on a week of intense focus and excitement for GEOTRACES and for the United States around the Arctic. President Obama became the first sitting president to visit Alaska, the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy with US GEOTRACES scientists completed the first unaccompanied US surface vessel transit to the North Pole, and…
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The Challenging Question: What is Sustainable Development?
“Ever since I started studying sustainable development, the big question has always been how to define and speak about it. I have come to notice more and more how important this question is as I spend my days conversing with different people on the topic.”
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Habitat
People are sometimes startled By falcons perched on balconies, raccoons slinking through the park, Bluefish blitzing herring up the river, coyotes tracing train tracks. Isn’t it amazing, or isn’t it disturbing, we say, A creature’s daring foray into our hard-paved empire.
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The Southern Ocean Is Breathing in Carbon Dioxide at a Healthy Rate
“In the last 10 years, we were afraid that the Southern Ocean was going to quit giving us a break from climate change. This study shows that it’s recovered its ability to take up carbon dioxide, and that’s good news.”
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Making Agriculture Sustainable in One of India’s Poorest States
Jharkhand, India is one of the nation’s poorest and most most food-insecure states, with over 45 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Can a research team devise sustainable ways to improve livelihoods, productivity and sustainable water use?
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Faculty Profile: Allen Zweben
Allen Zweben is currently doing landmark research on integrating behavioral and pharmacological treatment for alcohol problems. His specific focus has been on exploring the biological and psychosocial pathways that can produce lasting change for individuals with alcohol problems. Zweben has derived important insights on the kinds of behavioral strategies that might be employed along with…
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Faculty Profile: Robert Pollack
Robert Pollack, biology professor and the director of the Earth Institute’s Center for the Study of Science and Religion, sums up his academic interests on the biology department’s Web site this way: “To reconsider the large question—is the natural normative?—from both scientific and religious perspectives at once.” Pollack also holds positions as a lecturer at…
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From the Field: Mapping Lava Flows in Iceland
Lamont’s Einat Lev and Elise Rumpf write about their expedition to the lava fields of Iceland, where the two volcanologists and a drone named Buzz studied how lava flows and what happens to rivers, rocks and old lava in its path.
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Practicum Introduces Students to Earth Institute Research
Each fall, the Earth Institute Practicum offers a broad survey of the applications of frontier research to the practice of sustainable development, taught by top faculty and researchers. The practicum meets weekly on Mondays.
