Food Prices May Rise 121% by 2050 Due to Climate Change, Business Standard A report released on Wednesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute outlines the threats to agricultural security posed by climate change. Food prices, already expected to increase significantly by 2050, could rise further as the effects from climate change continue to…
Before airplanes and satellite phones, polar exploration was a more dangerous undertaking than it is now. Many who set out for the frozen ends of the earth did not come back. Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen and British explorer Ernest Shackleton were some of the few who brought their entire crews home safely. Nansen began his…
Low-Level Aerial Surveys Aim to Understand Rapid Antarctic Melting
In 2008 the world faced one of its most severe food crises in recent history. Around the world riots broke out in otherwise food-secure nations — places like Egypt, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil. The world’s governments responded — a major U.N. conference was held in Geneva. What they discussed there was the fundamental issue of…
Gordon Brown’s $100 bn Climate Aid Proposal is ‘Only First Offering‘, guardian.co.uk Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposes $100 billion in future aid to countries struggling to adapt to climate change. The compensation, which could rise to a higher number as international negotiations continue, would be supplied by “rich” nations in a timeframe extending to 2020.…
Others Were Far Worse; Population, Planning Are the Real Problems
Nick Frearson, Gravimeter Instrument Team, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: I’m a senior engineer at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, and my role in Operation Ice Bridge is to work with the gravimeter. This instrument can see beneath ice sheets into the water and bedrock below to reveal the ice sheet’s hidden contours – critical information…
Columbia College Junior Hannah Perls was interning for Congressman Edward Markey, co-author of the historic Waxman-Markey climate bill, when she first considered a future working on Capitol Hill in environmental policy and energy issues. This summer, as part of her studies in the undergraduate special concentration in sustainable development, she completed a seminar on sustainability…
Michael Studinger, Instrument Co-Principal Investigator, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: The scale and style of Operation Ice Bridge will be a new experience for me. I’ve been involved in airborne research for more than a decade using ice-penetrating radar systems, airborne laser scanning, gravity and magnetics to learn more about the polar ice caps and how they…