economics17
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Paulie, Jimmy and Vinny on NYC’s Water Future
New York City’s trio of water and sewer czars, explain the reasons behind rising rates.
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Climate News Roundup: Week of 4/17
Young Climate Activists Push Obama, Vow to Create More Local Awareness, NY Times, Apr. 18 This past weekend, around 10,000 young climate change activists gathered in Washington, D.C for the third Power Shift. While previous Power Shifts held educational workshops on climate science and technology specifics, this year’s event focused on training young activists in…
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Southern Louisiana’s Vanishing Act
Louisiana’s wetlands — the largest system in the United States — are shrinking at an alarming rate.
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Insuring the World’s Poorest Farmers
Index insurance could help small-scale farmers build wealth and cope with climate change, but more accurate weather and climate data is needed for index insurance to catch on, writes Daniel Osgood, a scientist at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). In a new piece in Nature Geoscience, Osgood and colleagues outline…
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A Tentative Year for REDD+: Placing Value on Forests
Forests, particularly tropical forests, are economically valuable for their biodiversity and, especially relevant for climate change, their ability to store carbon within their vegetation and soil. Alternately, destruction of forests releases carbon into the atmosphere. Deforestation and forest degradation account for 12-20% of GHG emissions. REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a…
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Record-Breaking Amounts of Snow Raise Problems for Cities
These record breaking amounts of snow have caused numerous concerns both economical and environmental and as snowfalls pile up cities run out of room to put the snow. One suggested solution was to dump the snow into waterways even though it became a mixture of many pollutants including, but not limited to, motor oil and…
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Finding Answers to the Worsening Water Crisis in Gujarat, India
As explained in a recent blog post, falling groundwater levels in the Northern regions of the state of Gujarat, India, are reaching dramatically dangerous proportions. Columbia Water Center (CWC), however, believes that there are numerous technologies and practices that could save significant amounts of water and energy. Farmers have shown interest in applying them, but…
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Desalination: Yesterdayʼs Solution (part 3)
Worldwide, humans have quickly and wastefully consumed water from the cheapest sources by over-pumping aquifers and over-allocating rivers. Weʼve turned to technology to eek out more but technology is not without its costs. Every remaining incremental gallon of water will come at a higher and higher price. Are we nearing a breaking point?
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Despite Grim Water Futures, China and US Discuss Everything but Water
Notably absent from this week’s program is any planned dialogue regarding energy demand and water supply, two issues whose inverse trajectories are threatening the environmental and economic futures of both nations.
