State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Environment24

  • Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series

    Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series

    The Earth Institute’s Columbia Climate Center presents “Managing Carbon on Land in the Context of Climate Change,” with Richard Houghton, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center as part of a new Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series.

  • The Sundarbans

    The Sundarbans

    After finally reaching the Mongla and our boat, we settled into our new home. It is a similar design, but much larger than the one we used in September. As we ate dinner and explored the ship, it started the overnight journey to the southeastern part of the Sundarbans where the wildlife is most plentiful.…

  • Rivers and the Road

    Rivers and the Road

    We spent a day on the islands (chars) in the Brahmaputra River seeing the geology and talking to the residents. Then after an evening of feasting and dancing in our new Saris and lungis, we hit the road for the trip to the Sundarbans.

  • Class Trip – to Bangladesh

    Class Trip – to Bangladesh

    To help my students in a class on hazards of Bangladesh better understand the country, I am taking them there to experience Bangladesh for themselves.

  • Bottom Up or Top Down? Another Way to Look at an Air Quality Problem

    Bottom Up or Top Down? Another Way to Look at an Air Quality Problem

    While not all countries have the financial wherewithal and capacity to deploy ground-based instruments for air-quality monitoring, and for some countries monitoring information is not available to the public, for example, through health advisories, another way exists to assess air pollution levels: through satellites.

  • One Planet, Too Many People?

    One Planet, Too Many People?

    Can we manage the needs of 9 billion people for water, food and energy without depleting our resources and ruining the environment? “The solutions,” says Tim Fox, “are all within the capability of existing technology.”

  • Ocean Acidification: Geologic Record Adds New Warning

    Ocean Acidification: Geologic Record Adds New Warning

    A new study in Science finds that the oceans may be acidifying faster today from industrial emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years when carbon levels spiked naturally.

  • EPA’s greenhouse gas rule poses challenges for US policy review process

    Just in case anyone you missed it, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving, albeit almost imperceptibly, toward regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It took one more step in January, published the emissions of 6700 facilities with annual emissions of more than 25,000 MtCO2e. This category of emitters was required to report these figures…

  • Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

    Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

    With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…

  • Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series

    Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series

    The Earth Institute’s Columbia Climate Center presents “Managing Carbon on Land in the Context of Climate Change,” with Richard Houghton, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center as part of a new Carbon Management Distinguished Speaker Series.

  • The Sundarbans

    The Sundarbans

    After finally reaching the Mongla and our boat, we settled into our new home. It is a similar design, but much larger than the one we used in September. As we ate dinner and explored the ship, it started the overnight journey to the southeastern part of the Sundarbans where the wildlife is most plentiful.…

  • Rivers and the Road

    Rivers and the Road

    We spent a day on the islands (chars) in the Brahmaputra River seeing the geology and talking to the residents. Then after an evening of feasting and dancing in our new Saris and lungis, we hit the road for the trip to the Sundarbans.

  • Class Trip – to Bangladesh

    Class Trip – to Bangladesh

    To help my students in a class on hazards of Bangladesh better understand the country, I am taking them there to experience Bangladesh for themselves.

  • Bottom Up or Top Down? Another Way to Look at an Air Quality Problem

    Bottom Up or Top Down? Another Way to Look at an Air Quality Problem

    While not all countries have the financial wherewithal and capacity to deploy ground-based instruments for air-quality monitoring, and for some countries monitoring information is not available to the public, for example, through health advisories, another way exists to assess air pollution levels: through satellites.

  • One Planet, Too Many People?

    One Planet, Too Many People?

    Can we manage the needs of 9 billion people for water, food and energy without depleting our resources and ruining the environment? “The solutions,” says Tim Fox, “are all within the capability of existing technology.”

  • Ocean Acidification: Geologic Record Adds New Warning

    Ocean Acidification: Geologic Record Adds New Warning

    A new study in Science finds that the oceans may be acidifying faster today from industrial emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years when carbon levels spiked naturally.

  • EPA’s greenhouse gas rule poses challenges for US policy review process

    Just in case anyone you missed it, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving, albeit almost imperceptibly, toward regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It took one more step in January, published the emissions of 6700 facilities with annual emissions of more than 25,000 MtCO2e. This category of emitters was required to report these figures…

  • Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

    Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?

    With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…