Jan. 23, Davos, Switzerland – A new international ranking of environmental performance puts Switzerland at the top—and the United States 39th, last among the Group of 8 industrialized countries. The ranking, the 2008 Environmental Performance Index, was produced by a team from Yale University and the Columbia University Earth Institute’s Center for International Earth Science…
January 22 – Projects designed to address the emerging challenges of global water scarcity received a $6 million boost today with the announcement of a new grant from the PepsiCo Foundation to the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Targeted solutions towards more efficient water use and sustainable supply development will be explored in critical settings…
Study Upsets Long-Held Image of Volcanism-Driven Hydrothermal Vents
The work of a dozen Columbia Earth Institute scientists is featured in three new books—not all in the usual nonfiction format. In addition to two journalistic works on climate change, there is Time and Materials, by Robert Hass, former poet laureate of the United States. In “State of the Planet”–written for the fiftieth anniversary of…
For more information: IRI – Clare Oh at clare.oh@columbia.edu or (212) 854-5479 IFRC – Matthew Cochrane at matthew.cochrane@ifrc.org or +41 22 730 4426 GENEVA and NEW YORK — The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is joining with a unit of Columbia University’s Earth Institute to develop forecasting and monitoring mechanisms…
Scientists from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will report this week on vital topics including new evidence of the effects of climate change; technologies to confront it; studies of eastern U.S. earthquake risk; and previously unseen inner workings of the deep polar ice caps. The reports will be presented at the fall 2007 American Geophysical…
Overbrook Fellows Will Study Forests, Watersheds and Seas
Amid cheers from hundreds of scientists and guests, Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory cut the ribbon at its $45 million Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building. The ultra-modern facility is “the step forward that we need to accelerate our efforts to understand and predict the important changes that will impact the way we live with our planet,”…
Predictions, Already Daunting, Fail to Account for Extreme Weather, Disease and Other Complications, Say New Reports