Going to Antarctica involves a whole lot of paperwork. Before I left, I filled out an extensive medical history, was tested for every disease imaginable, gave my pants size, shoe size, hat size, until I had only one form remaining. That was the waiver acknowledging that working in Antarctica is inherently dangerous and that by…
Where we work and how we get there depends on the sea ice. The Oden is a powerful icebreaker but it is often faster and more fuel-efficient to go around heavy sea ice then to chop our way through. If the sea ice is several feet thick, we often choose to detour. We actually consult…
One of the targets of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015, with hunger measured as the proportion of the population who are undernourished and the prevalence of children under five who are underweight.
On February 12, Columbia Water Center staff had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Sheetal Sekhri, an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Department of Economics, on ‘The Impact of Public Groundwater Provision Schemes on Water Tables: Evidence from Rural India’. Staff engaged her in a spirited discussion of the results of her…
A recent anonymous gift of $200,000 to the Earth Institute will provide financial support for students from developing countries. The gift will fund two scholarships for students either in our MA in Climate and Society or MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program, and will also provide funding for summer internships.
2009 was noted as the first year that more people lived in urban spaces than in rural areas. The hope that a majority urban population would slow the clearing of tropical forests — our most effective carbon sinks — seems, however, to have been misplaced. The idea was simple: if more people moved into forested…
After crossing the Ross Sea, we’ve reached our first study area: the “Little America Trough.” The oceanographers on board want to find out if warmer water from the deep ocean is rising onto the continental shelf and reaching the ice, making it melt faster. They measure temperature and salinity as well as the water currents.…
Government leaders cannot solve global challenges on their own any more. In today’s much flatter world, it is everyday people –and, critically, their personal networks–who have the potential to be the world’s big new problem solvers.
Robin Bell will soon become one of the most senior Observatory researchers to receive the title of Lamont Research Professor, which elevates the status of Lamont’s distinguished researchers to something akin to tenure in the University setting, and which will support Lamont’s recruitment efforts of such dedicated educator/researchers well into the future.