Posts
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Punjab: Less Water, More Money (Part 2)
Last week, I began the story of declining groundwater tables in India. I talked about the current system of subsidized energy, the need to change it, and the willingness of farmers to adapt to such changes. Even before changing the irrigation in the crop’s lifecycle, however, an initial step that farmers can take starts with…
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 10/11
Memo Calls for Reversing Law to Phase Out German Nuclear Plants, The New York Times German Chancellor Angela Merkel moves to reverse legislation that gradually phases out nuclear power by 2022. The proposed reversal, contained in a working document sent to Merkel’s political coalition partner, the Free Democrats, calls nuclear power the crucial “bridge” to…
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The Starry Messenger
Summer Ash, a current Frontiers of Science Fellow at Columbia College, takes a page out of Galileo’s book and looks towards the cosmos under the ever-enlightening lens of a telescope. Read her ruminations on our night sky here: The Starry Messenger The universality of the sky was revealed to me last night. It started simply…
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Taking Teachers Into Field Helps School, Students, Study Finds
Pioneering Program Connects Educators with Research Scientists
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On the Surface of Climate Change
Blog Action Day 2009’s theme this year is Climate Change. Thousands of people on blogs all over the world are writing today on this single issue, and the Columbia Water Center is joining them. On Climate In a recent study at Columbia University, correlations were drawn between sea surface temperature on the coast of Africa…
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A Revolutionary Degree to Train Better Development Professionals
Typically, development professionals do not have the background in the natural and health sciences they need to properly understand the complex forces affecting issues such as hunger and extreme poverty. The innovative M.P.A. in Development Practice, which started this fall, is meant to help change that. This degree is the first of a network of…
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Let’s Discuss Our Water Sources: Impacts of Natural Gas Extraction Along the Upper Delaware
In public debate about the future of America’s energy policy, the Northeast region is in contention regarding gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale field. With this project, we focused on the Marcellus Shale gas extraction along the Upper Delaware, in the Town of Hancock. The process of extraction includes potential environmental hazards and while contentious,…
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Punjab: Less Water, More Money (Part 1)
In an earlier blog, I highlighted the story of declining groundwater in many parts of India. This story is one of agricultural intensification and widespread groundwater pumping, facilitated by highly subsidized or free electricity. As the Government of India sought food security for the nation, it promoted the procurement of rice and wheat from the…
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Test Flight
Nick Frearson, Gravimeter Instrument Team, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: The flight engineer ticks off instruments over the intercom. “LVIS, ready.” “Gravity, ready.” “DACOM, ready.” We are about to take the DC-8 on its first test flight before Antarctica. The pilots, clipped and professional, have just described the day’s flight plans and the plane is bustling with…