North America9
-
Your friendly neighborhood Sinkhole: a sign of things to come?
Your old infrastructure is going to eat you alive. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but it is eating some people alive. I’m talking about the astounding sinkhole that formed in Guatemala City over the weekend.
-
Water and Energy – an Integrated Approach
In the news, electricity and resource use seems to get the most exposure – people are looking at emissions, global warming, and oil and coal dependence. One thing that is for certain is that electricity use needs to decrease if we are to decreased our dependence on oil, our CO2 emissions, and become a greener…
-
The Letter: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
255 prominent scientists from all over the United States published an open letter in today’s Science Magazine, in defense of science, scientists and the scientific process in the face of vocal and aggressive climate change skeptics. In case you don’t subscribe to Science Magazine, it’s worthwhile reproducing the letter here.
-
Hydraulic Fracturing – Potential for Contamination of Drinking Water Sources
Hydraulic fracturing is a technique used by the oil and gas industry to facilitate natural gas recovery in underground low permeability coalbed methane wells. This operation improves the extraction efficiency of methane by creating fissions or fractures in underground rock formations, generally 5,000 – 20,000 feet below the ground surface. Highly pressurized hydraulic fracturing fluids,…
-
Environmental Regeneration in Haiti: the Water Problem
Columbia Water Center research scientist Lior Asaf is working in Haiti to understand the existing environmental conditions, and look for ways to improve people’s lives for the long term. One part of the project focuses on the Port Piment watershed basin on the southwestern end of the island.
-
The True Cost of Water: NYC Event May 6
The Green Policy and Environmental Policy Discussion Group of the The New York Academy of Science and the Columbia Water Center are sponsoring a panel discussion on The True Cost of Water on May 6. The focus of this panel discussion is the importance of economic optimization of water usage in the present and in…
-
Gulf Oil Spill
Last week, in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon, an oil drilling rig for BP, exploded and sank. This has led to what potentially could be one of the worst oil spills in US history. Currently, oil is leaking at 42,000 gallons per day from a well 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana,…
-
The Bottled Water Risk: ‘Tapped’ Awareness Event (photos)
On April 21, the Tapped Truck visited the Columbia University campus, as part of an event organized by Teacher’s College Program in Social Studies and the Go Green Committee. The truck pulled up on 120th Street and began exchanging plastic water bottles for Klean Kanteen eco-friendly aluminum ones. The line formed quickly, and the first…
-
Reflections on Haiti
Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to travel to Haiti to install a weather monitoring station, as well as conduct streamflow measurements and water quality assessments with Water Center employee Lior Asaf. Traveling to Haiti gave me my first exposure to how water and climate issues are affecting poor and developing countries, as well…