State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

developing countries3

  • Deploying in the Mangrove Forest

    Deploying in the Mangrove Forest

    We continued our electromagnetic expedition to image fresh and saline groundwater into the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, the world’s largest. While guards protected us from tigers, it was a wild boar that dug up some of our equipment.

  • Sailing Around the Bangladesh Coastal Zone

    Sailing Around the Bangladesh Coastal Zone

    I am back in Bangladesh to explore the distribution of fresh and saline groundwater in the coastal zone, needed for drinking in the dry season.

  • Into the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and Back

    Into the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and Back

    For the last week of our trip, we traveled by boat to reach the sites where we are measuring subsidence in the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and nearby embanked islands.

  • From Barisal to Khulna

    From Barisal to Khulna

    We continued to service our GNSS and RSET-MH equipment measuring land subsidence in coastal Bangladesh. Long distances, poor roads and slow ferries made for very long days, but we were able to complete the work at the sites.

  • Dhaka and Beyond

    Dhaka and Beyond

    After a week of meetings and a wedding in Dhaka, we headed back to the field to service equipment measuring land subsidence in Bangladesh.

  • Back to Bangladesh at Last

    Back to Bangladesh at Last

    I am finally back in Bangladesh after a pandemic hiatus. I need to repair precision GPSs that failed over the last few years. They are measuring tectonic movements for earthquake hazard and land subsidence, which exacerbates sea level rise.

  • New Climate Migration Modelling Puts a Human Face on Climate Impacts

    New Climate Migration Modelling Puts a Human Face on Climate Impacts

    New models project number of migrants within countries of six regions of the world to be up to 216 million by 2050.

  • Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study

    Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study

    A 2009-2018 analysis of 14 countries teases out the factors behind reversals in food security. Conflict, not drought, is behind much of it.

  • Food Systems Offer Huge Opportunities to Cut Emissions, Study Finds

    Food Systems Offer Huge Opportunities to Cut Emissions, Study Finds

    Researchers drilling into the many moving parts of food systems say that greenhouse-gas emissions have been systematically underestimated.

  • Deploying in the Mangrove Forest

    Deploying in the Mangrove Forest

    We continued our electromagnetic expedition to image fresh and saline groundwater into the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, the world’s largest. While guards protected us from tigers, it was a wild boar that dug up some of our equipment.

  • Sailing Around the Bangladesh Coastal Zone

    Sailing Around the Bangladesh Coastal Zone

    I am back in Bangladesh to explore the distribution of fresh and saline groundwater in the coastal zone, needed for drinking in the dry season.

  • Into the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and Back

    Into the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and Back

    For the last week of our trip, we traveled by boat to reach the sites where we are measuring subsidence in the Sundarban Mangrove Forest and nearby embanked islands.

  • From Barisal to Khulna

    From Barisal to Khulna

    We continued to service our GNSS and RSET-MH equipment measuring land subsidence in coastal Bangladesh. Long distances, poor roads and slow ferries made for very long days, but we were able to complete the work at the sites.

  • Dhaka and Beyond

    Dhaka and Beyond

    After a week of meetings and a wedding in Dhaka, we headed back to the field to service equipment measuring land subsidence in Bangladesh.

  • Back to Bangladesh at Last

    Back to Bangladesh at Last

    I am finally back in Bangladesh after a pandemic hiatus. I need to repair precision GPSs that failed over the last few years. They are measuring tectonic movements for earthquake hazard and land subsidence, which exacerbates sea level rise.

  • New Climate Migration Modelling Puts a Human Face on Climate Impacts

    New Climate Migration Modelling Puts a Human Face on Climate Impacts

    New models project number of migrants within countries of six regions of the world to be up to 216 million by 2050.

  • Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study

    Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study

    A 2009-2018 analysis of 14 countries teases out the factors behind reversals in food security. Conflict, not drought, is behind much of it.

  • Food Systems Offer Huge Opportunities to Cut Emissions, Study Finds

    Food Systems Offer Huge Opportunities to Cut Emissions, Study Finds

    Researchers drilling into the many moving parts of food systems say that greenhouse-gas emissions have been systematically underestimated.