To address the exponential rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations since the Industrial Revolution, Professor Klaus S. Lackner, director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute, is working on ambitious carbon capture and sequestration strategies. “Our goal is to take a process that takes 100,000 years and compress it into 30…
Schwarzenegger Boosts Clean Energy Plan, Reuters Governor Schwarzenegger issues executive order S-21-09, directing the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations that would increase California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 33% of its power from renewable resources by 2020. Although the 33% standard was first established last year, S-21-09 aims to streamline the regulatory process and…
Thursday, June 25, 2008, six intrepid Earth Institute supporters – Joy Tartar of the Lenfest Foundation and her husband George Hall, Nancy Best, Diane Troderman and Harold Grinspoon, and Bonnie Potter – joined Earth Institute Funding Initiatives staff and 200 project staff for the third annual Millennium Villages retreat in Bamako, Mali. The group participated…
What can satellite imagery tell us about the impact of humanity’s transformation of the landscape on climate and ecosystems? A lot, according to Ruth DeFries, ecosystems expert, Denning Professor of Sustainable Development, and professor of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia University and the Earth Institute’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC). DeFries…
Among various uses of corn, the three major uses—food, animal feed, and biofuel production—compete in demand. Here we analyzed the percentage of corn for animal feed compared to total domestic consumption of corn (including feed, food, seed, and industrial uses) in US, China, and India.
We found top three importers and exporters of wheat in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2008.
Using wheat production and population data for China, US, and India since 1960, we analyzed per capita wheat production. Because per capita wheat consumption is fairly stable over time (though it can change a little bit by changing lifestyle, diet, economic status, etc), from per capita wheat production, it can be shown whether a country…
China shows the biggest improvement in yield over last 50 years; it improved almost by six times, while United States only doubled and India tripled. Although China and India showed very similar yield level in 1960s, China started to take off around early 1970. United States shows a relatively little change in yield and China…
In July 2009 more than 20 people from eight countries set out for the Millennium Village cluster of Koraro, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, to see firsthand the progress and challenges experienced by one of the most remote Millennium Villages. Individuals represented the Earth Institute, Millennium Promise, Millennium Villages project (MVP) sites in…