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Climate and Conquest: How Did Genghis Khan Rise?
Eight hundred years ago, relatively small armies of mounted warriors suddenly exploded outward from the cold, arid high-elevation grasslands of Mongolia and reshaped world geography, culture and history in ways that still resound today. How did they do it?
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Talking Data-Driven Development with Haiti’s Prime Minister
On April 22, 2013 the Earth Institute’s Haiti Research and Policy Program at the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development welcomed Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe to the Spring 2013 Haiti Dialogue Series and the Columbia University World Leader’s Forum. The prime minister and Haitian diplomats met with Earth Institute senior researchers to discuss the strategies…
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New Report Examines Impacts of Environmental Indicators and Indices
A new report produced by CIESIN and Yale University examines the role of indicators in environmental policy making, and quantifies measurable impacts.
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Bright Lights, Big City?
Researchers using nighttime lights data to ask questions about economic development in sub-Saharan Africa have findings counter to expectation.
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Where’s My Seasonal Tornado Forecast?
Tornadoes, derechos and other violent storms can kill hundreds each year and cause billions in damages. How well can we predict them? How will climate change influence their occurrence? Experts from around the country discussed these issues at a recent workshop.
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Water Security: Finding Solutions for a World at Risk
“This is a mess, and it is a mess that we have not attended to yet,” Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs said at a conference on water security held today at Columbia University. “Humanity is the driver, but we don’t have our hands on the steering wheel very much.”
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Making Sense of Climate’s Impact on Food Security
From warmer temperatures to natural disasters such as flooding and drought, changing patterns of climate are having billion-dollar impacts on our food-growing systems. But scientists are struggling to find ways to measure and predict what may happen in the future—and to translate that into policies to help feed a bulging world population.
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Extreme Weather Adds Up to Troubling Future
Extreme weather and climate-related events already have cost the United States billions of dollars. A recent symposium focused on what we know about the causes and how changing climate affects agriculture, water supplies, wildlife and our economy.
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Poor Ethiopian Farmers Receive ‘Unprecedented’ Insurance Payout
Thanks to a groundbreaking new program that relies on advanced satellite technology, a weather index insurance payout of unprecedented scale will benefit poor African farmers.
AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More
