State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

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  • Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs (part 2)

    Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs (part 2)

    Patricia J. Culligan is a professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University and the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs for Columbia Engineering. In part two of this interview she talks about the challenge of quantifying the economic benefits of green roofs, the potential for rooftop agriculture, and what it means to “solve…

  • Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

    Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

    Patricia J. Culligan, professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, discusses her work with the Columbia University Green Roof Consortium to quantify the benefits of green roofs.

  • Urban Design Lab: Plastic TrashPatch

    How much is your trash worth?  Using various visualization instruments, design ideas, engineering, and environmental science research, a team of designers, engineers, and scientists at the Urban Design Lab (UDL) are trying to find out. A new initiative for 2010, Plastic TrashPatch, seeks to raise awareness of ”trashpatches,” thick areas of concentrated marine debris that…

  • Changing the Urban Relationship to Food

    With an Italian background, from a culture of food, as biologist and one time theatre producer, to me it makes sense to work with a research group that has the courage to break many taboos and re-discuss academic assumptions in an open and innovative way.

  • Designers at Columbia and MIT Promote “Foodshed” Concept

    Contributed by Richard Plunz and Michael Conard On September 10th, Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” highlighted the work of designers at the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) in his Op-Ed Contribution to the New York Times, titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.” Since 2007, researchers at the…

  • Cities at a Turning Point

    Scientists warn that many cities around the world may soon face big climate-change challenges: rising seas; shrinking water supplies; killer summer heat waves; rises in water-borne diseases as temperatures go up and sewers are swamped. No one is predicting that, say, London or Miami will simply drop beneath the waves–but these and other cities will probably have to be redesigned if…

  • Urban Design Lab to Help Promote Sustainability and Environmental Justice in New York City

    New Earth Institute center will provide practical assistance to community groups working to improve and develop their neighborhoods

  • Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs (part 2)

    Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs (part 2)

    Patricia J. Culligan is a professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University and the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs for Columbia Engineering. In part two of this interview she talks about the challenge of quantifying the economic benefits of green roofs, the potential for rooftop agriculture, and what it means to “solve…

  • Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

    Solving Urbanization Challenges by Design – The Science of Green Roofs

    Patricia J. Culligan, professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, discusses her work with the Columbia University Green Roof Consortium to quantify the benefits of green roofs.

  • Urban Design Lab: Plastic TrashPatch

    How much is your trash worth?  Using various visualization instruments, design ideas, engineering, and environmental science research, a team of designers, engineers, and scientists at the Urban Design Lab (UDL) are trying to find out. A new initiative for 2010, Plastic TrashPatch, seeks to raise awareness of ”trashpatches,” thick areas of concentrated marine debris that…

  • Changing the Urban Relationship to Food

    With an Italian background, from a culture of food, as biologist and one time theatre producer, to me it makes sense to work with a research group that has the courage to break many taboos and re-discuss academic assumptions in an open and innovative way.

  • Designers at Columbia and MIT Promote “Foodshed” Concept

    Contributed by Richard Plunz and Michael Conard On September 10th, Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” highlighted the work of designers at the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) in his Op-Ed Contribution to the New York Times, titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.” Since 2007, researchers at the…

  • Cities at a Turning Point

    Scientists warn that many cities around the world may soon face big climate-change challenges: rising seas; shrinking water supplies; killer summer heat waves; rises in water-borne diseases as temperatures go up and sewers are swamped. No one is predicting that, say, London or Miami will simply drop beneath the waves–but these and other cities will probably have to be redesigned if…

  • Urban Design Lab to Help Promote Sustainability and Environmental Justice in New York City

    New Earth Institute center will provide practical assistance to community groups working to improve and develop their neighborhoods