State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

World Bank

  • Project Uses Satellites for Rapid Assessment of Flood Response Costs

    Project Uses Satellites for Rapid Assessment of Flood Response Costs

    Overall global losses from natural disasters such as floods, landslides or earthquakes amount to about $300 billion annually. A rapid and early response is key to immediately address the loss of human life, property, infrastructure and business activity.

  • The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    Collaboration between government and the private sector will be essential to substantially increasing job opportunities. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September 2012 – its lowest level since January 2009.

  • Population, Consumption and the Future

    Population, Consumption and the Future

    As the world population grows toward 10 billion, consumption of water, food and energy is expanding at a rate that cannot be maintained without depleting the planet’s resources. If we fail to address these two issues together, we face a grim future of economic, social and environmental ills, warns a new report prepared by a…

  • Protectionism Against Foreign Investors on Rise

    Global Survey Sees New Barriers, Often Connected to National Security

  • Mapping Poverty for Better Development Planning

    This remarkable map of Latin America portrays infant mortality rates, a widely used proxy measure of poverty. It demonstrates clearly that although Latin America has generally low infant mortality rates, overall poverty is very unevenly distributed throughout the region. Moreover, the relationship between this pattern of human well-being and broader geographic constraints is also clear.…

  • Where the Poor Are

    New ‘Poverty Atlas’ reveals critical insights into relationship between geography and poverty

  • Project Uses Satellites for Rapid Assessment of Flood Response Costs

    Project Uses Satellites for Rapid Assessment of Flood Response Costs

    Overall global losses from natural disasters such as floods, landslides or earthquakes amount to about $300 billion annually. A rapid and early response is key to immediately address the loss of human life, property, infrastructure and business activity.

  • The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    The US Jobs Challenge and Its Future

    Collaboration between government and the private sector will be essential to substantially increasing job opportunities. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September 2012 – its lowest level since January 2009.

  • Population, Consumption and the Future

    Population, Consumption and the Future

    As the world population grows toward 10 billion, consumption of water, food and energy is expanding at a rate that cannot be maintained without depleting the planet’s resources. If we fail to address these two issues together, we face a grim future of economic, social and environmental ills, warns a new report prepared by a…

  • Protectionism Against Foreign Investors on Rise

    Global Survey Sees New Barriers, Often Connected to National Security

  • Mapping Poverty for Better Development Planning

    This remarkable map of Latin America portrays infant mortality rates, a widely used proxy measure of poverty. It demonstrates clearly that although Latin America has generally low infant mortality rates, overall poverty is very unevenly distributed throughout the region. Moreover, the relationship between this pattern of human well-being and broader geographic constraints is also clear.…

  • Where the Poor Are

    New ‘Poverty Atlas’ reveals critical insights into relationship between geography and poverty