North America
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Extreme-Weather Winters Becoming More Common in U.S., Study Shows
This past July was Earth’s hottest month since record keeping began, but warming isn’t the only danger climate change holds in store. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the simultaneous occurrence of extremely cold winter days in the Eastern United States and extremely warm winter days in the Western U.S., according to a…
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Symposium this Week on Climate and Adaptation
This week climate scientists from the United States and Europe will join with officials from government and international agencies at Columbia to share knowledge about climate change and strategies for adaptation in North America and the Caribbean.
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Global Philanthropy and Inequality
Recent trends now point towards global philanthropy becoming the new norm. Global philanthropy aims to reduce inequality in developing countries through many forms. But inequities persist, and different manifestations of global philanthropy will be challenged to increase impact and achieve a demonstrable shift in areas such as poverty, health, access to opportunity, and beyond.
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Philanthropy and Inequality
In the field of philanthropy, foundations have been confronted with how to address structural racism and various forms of systemic inequities. How can foundations play a greater role in reducing racial disparities, promoting criminal justice reform, and tackling any range of manifestations of inequality?
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Anchor Institutions and their Significance to Community and Economic Development
Partnerships between anchor institutions and local organizations and businesses are vital to solving problems in localities and regions. Through engagement, investment and collaboration, anchor institutions can continue to play a crucial role in providing significant social and economic development opportunities to the communities in which they operate.
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Photo Essay: The Mystery of North American Diamonds
People have been finding loose diamonds across the United States and Canada since the early 1800s, but for the most part, no one knows where they came from. It was not until the 1990s that geologists tracked down the first commercial deposits, on the remote tundra of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Yaakov Weiss, a geochemist at…
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How Much Arsenic is Too Little?
Five hundred utilities in the U.S. provide drinking water with unsafe levels of arsenic, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But how many people are getting too much arsenic in their water is much less clear, according to a study conducted in part by the Columbia Water Center.
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US Groundwater Declines More Widespread Than Commonly Thought
Groundwater levels are dropping across a much wider swath of the United States than is generally discussed, according to a new report, suggesting that the nation’s long-term pattern of groundwater use is broadly unsustainable.
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2013 Ranks in Top 10 Warmest Years
Last year was one of the warmest on record, according to analyses of global temperature data by NASA and NOAA. Both federal agencies placed 2013 among the top 10 warmest years since records began in 1880, continuing a longer-term trend of global warming.
