Columbia University’s Columbia’s School of Continuing Education and the Earth Institute are seeking Curriculum and Grading Assistants (CGAs) for a number of Sustainability Management courses for the spring 2013 semester. CGAs are responsible for attending class sessions, holding weekly office hours for students, addressing student inquiries, reviewing course material with the instructor, and assisting in…

During Hurricane Sandy the seas rose a record 14-feet in lower Manhattan. Water flooded city streets, subways, tunnels and even sewage treatment plants. It is unclear how much sewage may have been released as plants lost power or were forced to divert untreated wastewater into the Hudson River. Four days after Sandy, the environmental group…

Sandy instantly brought a new kind of national media attention to the influence of global warming on weather disasters. After several years of near-silence on climate from our political leaders and the mainstream media, the renewed attention is profoundly welcome.

Because of Cotopaxi’s almost perfectly conic shape, the climb appears be a straight line to the top. It isn’t. In fact, the climb winds past spires of ice and vast blue crevasses the size of small canyons. Cotopaxi is a beautiful mountain.

Though driverless cars sound like something out of the “The Jetsons,” they are just one of many innovations already under way in the realm of personal transportation.

An interview with James Hansen, an agricultural scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who also has a prominent role in the world’s largest research program focused specifically on climate change and food security.

“Everything is so alive in the forest. After a nice summer rain it teems with insects, birds and the famous coquis, Puerto Rico’s native frogs. The song of the coquis take a little getting used to, but they soon lull you to sleep in the humid nights,” says Jennifer Mendez, a student in the first…

The night is spent enduring the constant pinging of text messages, music and lights being turned on in the sleeping area every time someone comes or leaves. One thing to avoid before an Alpine Start (12.30am) is a night without sleep.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award of the Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalists at the United Nations on Nov. 13. He joins a list of recipients that includes UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, Her Majesty Queen Noor, and Mia Farrow, among others.