State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

birds

  • Coffee for the Birds: Connecting Bird-watchers With Shade-grown Coffee

    Coffee for the Birds: Connecting Bird-watchers With Shade-grown Coffee

    A new study explores whether bird-friendly coffee is on the radar of bird watchers: Are they drinking it and, if not, why not?

  • MSSM Alumnus Designs Bird Habitat in Thailand

    MSSM Alumnus Designs Bird Habitat in Thailand

    MSSM Alum Chak Cherdsatirul, is transforming 30 acres into a natural sanctuary for birds in Thailand. A challenge for architects, zoologists and botanists to juxtapose biodiversity concepts with aesthetic human-nature design to ultimately create a sustainable avian habitat.

  • Hell’s Chicken

    Hell’s Chicken

    From our great, wild west, those rusty, dusty hills, Bones of a beast who would give a cowboy chills. A fierce-looking crest – a mohawk made of bone! Claws, beak, bony tail, locked within hard stone.

  • Birds, Ballasts, and the Fate of the Biosphere

    Birds, Ballasts, and the Fate of the Biosphere

    The Biosphere really needs its own newspaper. Yes, there are lots of newspapers out there, but when it comes to the Biosphere, important stories just don’t get the top billing they deserve. Take discoveries of new species, for example. Just in the last month, a new spoon worm, white toothed shrew, corpse flower, and tailorbird…

  • Water Samples and Wildlife

    Water Samples and Wildlife

    After a day of coring on Tuesday, we decided to give our arms and backs a rest and collect water and plant samples. We take these samples so that we can characterize the chemical signatures of each plant type, and water from different parts of the system. Then, we can recognize those same signatures in…

  • Crash Land Home for the Holidays

    Crash Land Home for the Holidays

    As holidays approach and we plan our ‘seasonal’ migrations to see our families, many other species are making their own migrations — though with a few more snafus than we humans might hit.

  • Cats and Wind Turbines – A Bird’s Two Greatest Fears

    Cats and Wind Turbines – A Bird’s Two Greatest Fears

    Studies find that cats and wind turbines are responsible for the death of many birds.

  • Biodiversity and Health Extinction by Infection: Biodiversity makes a difference.

    Biodiversity and Health Extinction by Infection: Biodiversity makes a difference.

    Throughout the past several decades, countless species have been infected by non-native deadly diseases and ultimately crashed in numbers. A survey of important case studies highlight the importance of mitigating the virulence of the planet’s pathogens.

  • Coffee for the Birds: Connecting Bird-watchers With Shade-grown Coffee

    Coffee for the Birds: Connecting Bird-watchers With Shade-grown Coffee

    A new study explores whether bird-friendly coffee is on the radar of bird watchers: Are they drinking it and, if not, why not?

  • MSSM Alumnus Designs Bird Habitat in Thailand

    MSSM Alumnus Designs Bird Habitat in Thailand

    MSSM Alum Chak Cherdsatirul, is transforming 30 acres into a natural sanctuary for birds in Thailand. A challenge for architects, zoologists and botanists to juxtapose biodiversity concepts with aesthetic human-nature design to ultimately create a sustainable avian habitat.

  • Hell’s Chicken

    Hell’s Chicken

    From our great, wild west, those rusty, dusty hills, Bones of a beast who would give a cowboy chills. A fierce-looking crest – a mohawk made of bone! Claws, beak, bony tail, locked within hard stone.

  • Birds, Ballasts, and the Fate of the Biosphere

    Birds, Ballasts, and the Fate of the Biosphere

    The Biosphere really needs its own newspaper. Yes, there are lots of newspapers out there, but when it comes to the Biosphere, important stories just don’t get the top billing they deserve. Take discoveries of new species, for example. Just in the last month, a new spoon worm, white toothed shrew, corpse flower, and tailorbird…

  • Water Samples and Wildlife

    Water Samples and Wildlife

    After a day of coring on Tuesday, we decided to give our arms and backs a rest and collect water and plant samples. We take these samples so that we can characterize the chemical signatures of each plant type, and water from different parts of the system. Then, we can recognize those same signatures in…

  • Crash Land Home for the Holidays

    Crash Land Home for the Holidays

    As holidays approach and we plan our ‘seasonal’ migrations to see our families, many other species are making their own migrations — though with a few more snafus than we humans might hit.

  • Cats and Wind Turbines – A Bird’s Two Greatest Fears

    Cats and Wind Turbines – A Bird’s Two Greatest Fears

    Studies find that cats and wind turbines are responsible for the death of many birds.

  • Biodiversity and Health Extinction by Infection: Biodiversity makes a difference.

    Biodiversity and Health Extinction by Infection: Biodiversity makes a difference.

    Throughout the past several decades, countless species have been infected by non-native deadly diseases and ultimately crashed in numbers. A survey of important case studies highlight the importance of mitigating the virulence of the planet’s pathogens.