Posts
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Rough seas bring unexpected rewards
Working in Antarctica is always a challenge but this trip has had more than the usual setbacks. After working feverishly in Punta Arenas to prepare our ship, we had to wait two days for some essential cargo to arrive. Not long after pushing off, we encountered rough weather in the Drake Passage, a region notorious…
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Port-au-Prince and New Orleans
Extremes of nature, like hurricanes and earthquakes, can occur almost anywhere. Their effect can be anything from a nuisance–the storm that ruins the seaside vacation–to the tsunami that takes more than a quarter of a million lives and ruins the livelihoods of countless more. Human losses are the most tragic of these disasters’ many consequences,…
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How to Help Haiti Recover
President Obama has declared that the United States will not forsake Haiti in its moment of agony. Honoring this commitment would be a first for Washington. To prevent a deepening spiral of death, the United States will have to do things differently than in the past. American relief and development institutions do not function properly,…
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Let There Be Climate Change
At times of flux when little can be trusted to remain the same, it is common to look for solace in the concrete. Today, as our climate continues to change, many find guidance in the unchanging words of the Bible. The lessons kept within those ancient pages free themselves for interpretation in order to give…
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Adelie penguins
The nice folks up on the bridge always give us a call when they see wildlife. Then we all grab our cameras and rush out to our favorite spots to try and photograph whatever creatures have come to visit. I’m no biologist, but seeing so many beautiful animals has made me curious. So I’ve been…
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Making Connections: Schools Come Together Thanks to Exciting New Partnership
I am in Kumasi, Ghana, for the launch of a great partnership between Ericsson, the mobile phone giant; Zain, the 3-G broadband giant; the City of Kumasi; 18 Kumasi public schools; and the Millennium Cities Initiative. Ericsson and Zain are connecting these 18 schools to the Internet, the Mayor of Kumasi is donating computer labs…
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The Haiti Earthquake
The quake in Haiti came suddenly—but the results were predictable. At the moment it struck, scientists from the Earth Institute and other parts of Columbia University were in Port-au-Prince with a UN-sponsored project assessing how to reduce the nation’s obvious vulnerability to natural disasters. It is clear that the extreme toll came as much from poverty…
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Reactions to Haiti Earthquake
Scientists from Columbia University’s Earth Institute and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have provided some photographs and commented analysis of the earthquake in Haiti.
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Girls on Ice
While I’ve been staying on the ship, Erin Pettit has been flying off by helicopter to study glaciers. She has a really cool job, and I wish she would take me with her on some of her adventures. But it turns out that she wants to take you! Erin runs a program called Girls on…