State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

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  • Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

    Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

    In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.

  • ‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

    ‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

    Since the 1960s, farmers in Punjab, India have practiced some of the most intensive broad scale grain production in the world. As a result, the state has earned the nickname “the food bowl of India” for its out sized role in adopting and implementing Green Revolution technologies that in the last decades of the 20th…

  • Can We Have Our Water and Drink It, Too? Exploring the Water Quality-Quantity Nexus

    Can We Have Our Water and Drink It, Too? Exploring the Water Quality-Quantity Nexus

    Water quantity and quality have generally been considered as separate problems and have usually been treated as such in policy-making and environmental restoration efforts. Increasingly, however, research and experience is beginning to show a strong link between water quantity and quality.

  • The Glaciers Disappear: The Startling Photos of David Breashears

    The Glaciers Disappear: The Startling Photos of David Breashears

    Mountaineer, photographer and documentary filmmaker David Breashears is obviously a tough man—he has, after all, reached the summit of Mount Everest over five times, one of the very few people in the world to even attempt such a feat. In person, though, the soft-spoken Breashears comes off less like an indomitable mountain conqueror than like…

  • Applied Climate Research: A Conversation with Stefan Sobolowski (Part 2)

    In part 1 of this interview, I talked with Columbia Water Center hydroclimatologist Stefan Sobolowski about the effects of continental snowcover on climate, and the implications of his research on climate change. In part 2, we talk about the problem of uncertainty in climate prediction models, extreme weather events, the regional variation of climate change…

  • Event: Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis

    Event: Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis

    Columbia Water Center, The Asia Society and The Economist are cosponsoring the event Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis, Wednesday July 14, 2010, 6:30pm at the Asia Society.

  • Losing your glaciers? Build your own.

    Scientific American has an interesting photo piece by Gaia Vince about a place in the Himalayas that is adapting to climate change by creating its own glaciers.

  • Addressing South Asia’s Urgent Global Issues Through Sustainable Development

    As the world’s leading academic center addressing the practical challenges of sustainable development, the Earth Institute is building a formal presence in South Asia through the Columbia Global Center/South Asia.  The center, established by Columbia University, joins centers already in place in Europe, the Middle-East, and East Asia. Under the leadership of Founding Director Dr.…

  • The chaal and local groundwater management in India: When progress isn’t progress

    I recently came across an article in the Tehelka blog, which made me want to learn more. It was about a traditional water management system in the Uttarakhand region in northern India that has worked for years, but is being destroyed by funding meant to ‘modernize’ it.

Columbia campus skyline with text Columbia Climate School Class Day 2024 - Congratulations Graduates

Congratulations to our Columbia Climate School MA in Climate & Society Class of 2024! Learn about our May 10 Class Day celebration. #ColumbiaClimate2024

  • Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

    Direct Seeding of Rice – A Simple Solution to India’s Water Crisis?

    In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.

  • ‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

    ‘Small is Also Beautiful’ – Appropriate Technology Cuts Rice Farmers’ Water Use by 30 Percent in Punjab, India

    Since the 1960s, farmers in Punjab, India have practiced some of the most intensive broad scale grain production in the world. As a result, the state has earned the nickname “the food bowl of India” for its out sized role in adopting and implementing Green Revolution technologies that in the last decades of the 20th…

  • Can We Have Our Water and Drink It, Too? Exploring the Water Quality-Quantity Nexus

    Can We Have Our Water and Drink It, Too? Exploring the Water Quality-Quantity Nexus

    Water quantity and quality have generally been considered as separate problems and have usually been treated as such in policy-making and environmental restoration efforts. Increasingly, however, research and experience is beginning to show a strong link between water quantity and quality.

  • The Glaciers Disappear: The Startling Photos of David Breashears

    The Glaciers Disappear: The Startling Photos of David Breashears

    Mountaineer, photographer and documentary filmmaker David Breashears is obviously a tough man—he has, after all, reached the summit of Mount Everest over five times, one of the very few people in the world to even attempt such a feat. In person, though, the soft-spoken Breashears comes off less like an indomitable mountain conqueror than like…

  • Applied Climate Research: A Conversation with Stefan Sobolowski (Part 2)

    In part 1 of this interview, I talked with Columbia Water Center hydroclimatologist Stefan Sobolowski about the effects of continental snowcover on climate, and the implications of his research on climate change. In part 2, we talk about the problem of uncertainty in climate prediction models, extreme weather events, the regional variation of climate change…

  • Event: Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis

    Event: Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis

    Columbia Water Center, The Asia Society and The Economist are cosponsoring the event Himalayan Glaciers and Asia’s Looming Water Crisis, Wednesday July 14, 2010, 6:30pm at the Asia Society.

  • Losing your glaciers? Build your own.

    Scientific American has an interesting photo piece by Gaia Vince about a place in the Himalayas that is adapting to climate change by creating its own glaciers.

  • Addressing South Asia’s Urgent Global Issues Through Sustainable Development

    As the world’s leading academic center addressing the practical challenges of sustainable development, the Earth Institute is building a formal presence in South Asia through the Columbia Global Center/South Asia.  The center, established by Columbia University, joins centers already in place in Europe, the Middle-East, and East Asia. Under the leadership of Founding Director Dr.…

  • The chaal and local groundwater management in India: When progress isn’t progress

    I recently came across an article in the Tehelka blog, which made me want to learn more. It was about a traditional water management system in the Uttarakhand region in northern India that has worked for years, but is being destroyed by funding meant to ‘modernize’ it.