State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Southeast Asia

  • Battling ‘the Largest Mass Poisoning in History’

    Battling ‘the Largest Mass Poisoning in History’

    As many as one in five deaths in Bangladesh may be tied to naturally occurring arsenic in the drinking water; it is the epicenter of a worldwide problem that is affecting tens of millions of people. For two decades, health specialists and earth scientists from Columbia University have been trying to understand the problem, and…

  • Investigating Water Quality and Arsenic in Bangladesh

    Investigating Water Quality and Arsenic in Bangladesh

    Postcard from the Field: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Rajib Mozumder, who works with Lamont scientists Lex van Geen and Ben Bostick, has spent part of his summer drilling water wells and collecting samples in Bangladesh.

  • Sustainable Development Grad Puts Theory to Practice in SE Asia

    Sustainable Development Grad Puts Theory to Practice in SE Asia

    Within two weeks of graduating from the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development in May 2012, Patrick Blute found himself launched into a management trainee program with the non-profit Rustic Pathways and on his way to Southeast Asia.

  • The Indiana Jones of Climate Modeling

    The Indiana Jones of Climate Modeling

    By JD Capuano Benjamin Cook is a climate modeler at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Cook completed his Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of Virginia in 2007. He was among a select group of scientists awarded a Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Oceanic…

  • Timor-Leste: Sustainable Development Initiative Launched by the Vale Columbia Center in Partnership with the Revenue Watch Institute and the Open Society Foundations

    Timor-Leste: Sustainable Development Initiative Launched by the Vale Columbia Center in Partnership with the Revenue Watch Institute and the Open Society Foundations

    The Open Society Foundations have awarded $800,000 to the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment to promote integrated development in Timor-Leste in collaboration with the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). Though rich in oil and gas, the island nation of Timor-Leste remains one of the least developed countries in the world.  To use its revenues…

Photo of the Earth from space with the text "Lamont at AGU25" on top.

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

  • Battling ‘the Largest Mass Poisoning in History’

    Battling ‘the Largest Mass Poisoning in History’

    As many as one in five deaths in Bangladesh may be tied to naturally occurring arsenic in the drinking water; it is the epicenter of a worldwide problem that is affecting tens of millions of people. For two decades, health specialists and earth scientists from Columbia University have been trying to understand the problem, and…

  • Investigating Water Quality and Arsenic in Bangladesh

    Investigating Water Quality and Arsenic in Bangladesh

    Postcard from the Field: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Rajib Mozumder, who works with Lamont scientists Lex van Geen and Ben Bostick, has spent part of his summer drilling water wells and collecting samples in Bangladesh.

  • Sustainable Development Grad Puts Theory to Practice in SE Asia

    Sustainable Development Grad Puts Theory to Practice in SE Asia

    Within two weeks of graduating from the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development in May 2012, Patrick Blute found himself launched into a management trainee program with the non-profit Rustic Pathways and on his way to Southeast Asia.

  • The Indiana Jones of Climate Modeling

    The Indiana Jones of Climate Modeling

    By JD Capuano Benjamin Cook is a climate modeler at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Cook completed his Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of Virginia in 2007. He was among a select group of scientists awarded a Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Oceanic…

  • Timor-Leste: Sustainable Development Initiative Launched by the Vale Columbia Center in Partnership with the Revenue Watch Institute and the Open Society Foundations

    Timor-Leste: Sustainable Development Initiative Launched by the Vale Columbia Center in Partnership with the Revenue Watch Institute and the Open Society Foundations

    The Open Society Foundations have awarded $800,000 to the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment to promote integrated development in Timor-Leste in collaboration with the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). Though rich in oil and gas, the island nation of Timor-Leste remains one of the least developed countries in the world.  To use its revenues…