State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Africa5

  • Linking Climate Forecasts, Soil Testing for Smarter Farming

    Linking Climate Forecasts, Soil Testing for Smarter Farming

    A new project combines cutting edge climate science and mobile soil labs for African farmers and service providers.

  • Photo Essay: Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Photo Essay: Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    East Africa’s rift valley is considered by many to be the cradle of humanity. In the Turkana region of northwest Kenya, researchers Christopher Lepre and Tanzhuo Liu of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are cooperating with colleagues to study questions of human evolution, from the creation of the earliest stone tools to climate swings that…

  • Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Who were our earliest ancestors? How and when did they evolve into modern humans? And how do we define “human,” anyway? Scientists are exploring Kenya’s Lake Turkana basin to help answer these questions.

  • Global Philanthropy and Inequality

    Global Philanthropy and Inequality

    Recent trends now point towards global philanthropy becoming the new norm. Global philanthropy aims to reduce inequality in developing countries through many forms. But inequities persist, and different manifestations of global philanthropy will be challenged to increase impact and achieve a demonstrable shift in areas such as poverty, health, access to opportunity, and beyond.

  • Connecting the Dots with a Summer Placement in Lesotho

    Connecting the Dots with a Summer Placement in Lesotho

    The Masters of Public Administration in Development Practice “offered a program that allowed me to explore potential paths in a career of development by having the flexibility to connect the dots with my previous experience.”

  • Taking Flight (Remotely) over East Africa

    Taking Flight (Remotely) over East Africa

    “Despite an early love affair with technology encouraged by my computer scientist, Silicon Valley-based parents, even I had a hard time envisioning a world in which I would spend a summer flying fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over pastoral East Africa.”

  • Filling a Climate Gap and Helping Rwandan Farmers

    Filling a Climate Gap and Helping Rwandan Farmers

    Agriculture makes up a major portion of Rwanda’s economy, and employs eight in 10 Rwandans. Of course, farmers are hugely dependent on the climate, and a new project hopes to ensure they get timely information so they can plan for both good times and bad.

  • Finding Microfossils off Southern Africa

    Finding Microfossils off Southern Africa

    Expedition 361’s newest sediment cores brought up spectacular foraminifera—translucent, glassy and “very pretty” throughout the ocean sediment.

  • A Surprise from the Zambezi River

    A Surprise from the Zambezi River

    Sidney Hemming and her team aboard the JOIDES Resolution got a surprise when they began taking sediment cores from their first river site off southern Africa—about 10 times more sediment than expected.

Banner with images representing environmental issues and text "You Asked: Our Scientists and Experts Answer Your Burning Questions."

You Asked invites you to share your most pressing questions about climate, science, and sustainability. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School experts will respond with clear, evidence-based answers. Pose your questions and story ideas!

  • Linking Climate Forecasts, Soil Testing for Smarter Farming

    Linking Climate Forecasts, Soil Testing for Smarter Farming

    A new project combines cutting edge climate science and mobile soil labs for African farmers and service providers.

  • Photo Essay: Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Photo Essay: Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    East Africa’s rift valley is considered by many to be the cradle of humanity. In the Turkana region of northwest Kenya, researchers Christopher Lepre and Tanzhuo Liu of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are cooperating with colleagues to study questions of human evolution, from the creation of the earliest stone tools to climate swings that…

  • Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Seeking Humanity’s Roots

    Who were our earliest ancestors? How and when did they evolve into modern humans? And how do we define “human,” anyway? Scientists are exploring Kenya’s Lake Turkana basin to help answer these questions.

  • Global Philanthropy and Inequality

    Global Philanthropy and Inequality

    Recent trends now point towards global philanthropy becoming the new norm. Global philanthropy aims to reduce inequality in developing countries through many forms. But inequities persist, and different manifestations of global philanthropy will be challenged to increase impact and achieve a demonstrable shift in areas such as poverty, health, access to opportunity, and beyond.

  • Connecting the Dots with a Summer Placement in Lesotho

    Connecting the Dots with a Summer Placement in Lesotho

    The Masters of Public Administration in Development Practice “offered a program that allowed me to explore potential paths in a career of development by having the flexibility to connect the dots with my previous experience.”

  • Taking Flight (Remotely) over East Africa

    Taking Flight (Remotely) over East Africa

    “Despite an early love affair with technology encouraged by my computer scientist, Silicon Valley-based parents, even I had a hard time envisioning a world in which I would spend a summer flying fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over pastoral East Africa.”

  • Filling a Climate Gap and Helping Rwandan Farmers

    Filling a Climate Gap and Helping Rwandan Farmers

    Agriculture makes up a major portion of Rwanda’s economy, and employs eight in 10 Rwandans. Of course, farmers are hugely dependent on the climate, and a new project hopes to ensure they get timely information so they can plan for both good times and bad.

  • Finding Microfossils off Southern Africa

    Finding Microfossils off Southern Africa

    Expedition 361’s newest sediment cores brought up spectacular foraminifera—translucent, glassy and “very pretty” throughout the ocean sediment.

  • A Surprise from the Zambezi River

    A Surprise from the Zambezi River

    Sidney Hemming and her team aboard the JOIDES Resolution got a surprise when they began taking sediment cores from their first river site off southern Africa—about 10 times more sediment than expected.