The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and the Earth Institute (EI) were honored to host Accra Mayor Alfred Vanderpuije this week, for a series of lectures and meetings focused on Ghana’s capital. Mayor Vanderpuije met twice with the leadership of the MCI Accra team – Professor Patricia Culligan, Vice-Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied…
Natalie Boelman is an ecologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies the effects of climate change on organisms throughout the food chain. She first visited the Alaskan Arctic in 2001, and will return to the North Slope this spring and summer to continue a wildfire-mapping project and to set up a field study that will…
Here is a video montage showing highlights of the seafloor deployment of the VentCam (created by Carl Robinson): You can read more about this project here, and more on the deployment of this particular instrument here.
Following the launch of the Corporate Circle in October 2009, we are thrilled to welcome Con Edison, Nestlé and Walmart as new Sustaining Members with their $25,000 gifts to the institute. At this level, all three corporations are supporting the core sustainable development work of the Earth Institute and joining a network of top companies…
The Columbia Water Center is now posting a Photo of the Day on Twitter, highlighting global water issues and CWC’s projects around the world. Follow us here: http://twitter.com/columbiawater
Often referred to as the granary of India, Punjab is now slowly drying out. And though many farmers are deeply worried over the prospects of producing enough food, some of the more entrepreneurial ones are adopting new ways to conserve water while bracing for what will be a drier future. Back in the 1970s India…

Driving through Punjab in early February, the green of newly sprouted wheat is all around. Trenches in between rows of stalks are being dug and linked to larger conduits where the water is flowing. Nearby an electric generator hums as water is pumped from 100 feet below. As the season goes, so does the water…
Two new gifts from donor Winnington Group of Hong Kong are helping support the Millennium Cities Initiative and the Earth Institute’s new China 2049 project, which seeks to answer the following crucial questions: What will the Chinese economy look like one hundred years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China? How can public…
Nearly 100 people including several UN ambassadors, corporate executives, foundation leaders and key representatives from NGOs and academia gathered at Columbia University to attend a brainstorm session on a way forward after December’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Led by Earth Institute Director Jeff Sachs, the agenda covered topics including improvements to the United Nations…