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12/20/06
An international group of scientists are suggesting new priorities for the next government of Bangladesh to advance the country's fight against naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater.
12/01/06
Maps of U.S. Census data reveal trends in 35 categories such as housing density, linguistically isolated households, motor vehicle use, and education level.
11/28/06
Casey Brown arrived in Manila in early November on the heels of a "super typhoon" that clocked 125-mile-per-hour winds. But for Manila, home to more than 10 million people, it is drought -- not typhoons -- that has led to rising tensions between urban dwellers and farmers who work just outside the city.
11/15/06
A new technique developed by researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory now allows scientists to use an isotope of manganese that is not abundant on Earth to understand the record of millions of years of changes to the Earth’s surface.
10/23/06
A new project seeks to compile an online list of all Gulf Coast residents who died as a result of direct and indirect effects of the storm, calling on those who were there to contribute information.
10/12/06
The Earth Institute at Columbia University today announced that it has received $15 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to advance scientific research and efforts to slash poverty, disease and hunger in Africa. The grant supports The Earth Institute at Columbia University, which is currently working in 10 African countries to battle the complex challenges of poverty with proven scientific interventions and policy recommendations at the local and national levels.
10/09/06
Edmund Phelps, a seminal figure in modern economics, has won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics. Phelps is head of the
Center on Capitalism & Society at Columbia University, now within the Earth Institute, which conducts and promotes research on capitalism. He is McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia.
10/06/06
A new study shows that four out of five Alaskans believe global warming is happening and is a serious threat to the state. The statewide survey involved telephone interviews with more than 1,000 Alaskan adults, and was conducted early this summer.
10/02/06
The building will replace the existing geochemistry building, which dates from the early 1950's and can no longer support the kinds of leading-edge research needed to answer the most pressing questions about Earth and its climate. The new building is made possible by an $18 million gift from Gary Comer.
09/26/06
"The revolutionary advances in poverty mapping have made it possible to be precise about things we used to only generalize about," says Marc Levy, Associate Director for Science Applications at CIESIN. "Connections between poverty and climatic conditions, soil fertility, exposure to natural disasters, access to transportation networks, and other important drivers, are beginning to come into sharp relief."
09/26/06
A new study led by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a part of The Earth Institute, finds that the world's temperature is reaching a level that has not been seen in thousands of years.
09/22/06
As part of a new initiative, The Earth Institute will provide New York City with scientific research and advice on environmental and climate change-related issues.
09/20/06
Rain washing off of a conventional, impervious asphalt surface can carry oil, grit and other unwanted materials into local sewers or surrounding water bodies. But this new parking lot will capture nearly every single drop of water that hits it.
09/08/06
"My earliest memories are of living in post-invasion Grenada," said Anisa Khadem Nwachuku, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in sustainable development from Columbia University.
09/06/06
Nelson will be the 27th laureate of the prize, honoring his pioneering research in the field of economics of innovation.
09/06/06
It has been one year since hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans and a sizeable stretch of the Gulf Coast. What made that event a disaster, however, happened well before the storm actually came ashore.
08/24/06
What if biodiversity were to disappear and we counted on the conventional utilities and services providers to take over?
08/24/06
Marie Tharp, a pathbreaking oceanographic cartographer at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, co-creator of the first global map of the ocean floor and co-discoverer of the central rift valley that runs through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, died August 23, 2006 in Nyack Hospital.
08/31/06
The volume examines various factors that suggest a new boom in FDI flows, as well as a number of factors that suggest a backlash against FDI may be in the making.
08/22/06
Many of New York City's natural respites are not natural at all, making this an ideal place to study restoration ecology.
08/07/06
Eun Soo Lim, a graduate student in the Climate and Society program, will present an action plan to a Washington city council with practical ways the government and the community at large can cut fuel and electricity consumption.
07/28/06
Each year nearly 40,000 tons of cosmic dust fall to Earth from outer space. Now, the first successful chronological study of extraterrestrial dust in Antarctic ice has shown that this amount has remained largely constant over the past 30,000 years, a finding that could help efforts to understand the Earth's past climate.
07/11/06
Over the next 19 years, the Earth's population of 6.5 billion is projected to increase by 1-2 billion. An innovative new map shows where they might live.
07/05/06
The goal of
the
Millennium
Villages Project (MVP) is to help Sauri, and several
other villages in sub-Saharan Africa, develop economically.
The hard question, and where my master’s project fits
in, is: Can development happen in a way that is sustainable
for the environment?
read
his reports from the field
07/05/06
In areas throughout the world, prolonged inhalation of indoor smoke leads to illness and disability for many, as well as more than 1 million deaths per year. Earth Institute Fellow Susan Doll is working with local partners in Mayange, Rwanda, a Millennium Village, to help find a better way to cook meals that are easier on the health of villagers and the environment.
View slideshow
06/29/06
More states mandate that science educators teach students about society's impacts on the environment than ways the environment impacts society.
06/21/06
Less than 100 years ago western
Kenya, including Sauri, was part of a jungle.
Today nearly all of western Kenya's original rainforest
has been cleared for agriculture. Journalism student Justin
Nobel's research in Sauri aims to determine what type of
avian diversity this modified landscape supports.
06/19/06
The Earth Institute and
the University of Iceland signed an agreement on June 13, 2006,
setting the
stage for future cooperation on global climate change, sustainable
development and technological responses to climate change.
06/08/06
On Saturday morning May 27, an earthquake
with a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the
Indonesian island of Java. As of June 6, the death toll
according to the Indonesian government had surpassed 5,800
people, with 3,000 from Bantul Regency (District), and close
to 38,000 injured. The worst-hit areas in the regency are
Imogiri and Jetis, where my parents live.
06/08/06
A new study appearing in
the upcoming issue of the journal Science suggests
that, except for regions of the North Atlantic, most
of the Earth began warming at the same time roughly
17,500 years ago.
06/08/06
According to local folklore,
a salve of dried, crushed pygmy kingfisher applied
to the back of a teething child's neck will allow
the child to sleep; and roasted cardinal woodpecker
fed to a sick cow will make it produce milk. A swallow
entering the home of a barren woman will help her
conceive, and anyone who kills the friendly African
pied wagtail be visited in the night by the bird's
kin, who will then burn the person's house down.
05/25/06
>Nirupam Bajpai is leading a team of Earth Institute experts along with faculty from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad to help scale-up the provision of essential services such as health care and education, among others, in some of the most underserved areas of India.
05/18/06
Justin Nobel, a first-year Earth and Environmental Science Journalism student, is spending his summer studying the diversity and ecological importance of birds in Sauri, Kenya.
Read his reports from the field.
05/17/06
Honor by the American Geophysical Union recognizes more than 30-year commitment as a researcher, administrator and innovator in the earth sciences
G. Michael Purdy, director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, was recently named as the recipient of the 2006 Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). According to the AGU, the award recognizes his "significant and original contributions to our understanding of oceanic crustal structure and as a developer of new geophysical instrumentation for use in the deep sea."
05/12/06
A recently published study by researchers from The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the International Institute for Environment and Development suggests that as much as 10 percent of the world's population is vulnerable to sea-level rise.
05/12/06
With the summer approaching, new research has shown that recent water emergencies in the Northeast have resulted from more than just dry weather. Instead, researchers from The Earth Institute at Columbia University found droughts had more direct, human causes. The result is a condition known as demand-driven drought that may catch more water managers and residents off-guard in coming years.
04/25/06
Earth's been a terrific home
thanks to all those plants, animals, and microorganisms,
conveniently referred to as biodiversity. But what
if they stopped working? Or maybe worse what
if they sent us a bill?
04/24/06
One hundred million
personal computers were disposed of in 2004, and they
are not benign computers contain hazardous materials
harmful to human health and the environment, and no policy
exists to manage this e-waste. Is anyone working on this
problem? The MPA's are.
04/24/06
The Earth
Institute at Columbia University, in partnership with
the Columbia University Program on International Investment,
and with support from the UN Millennium Project, is launching
the Millennium Cities Initiative, which aims to fast-track
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in
some of the poorest cities in the world.
04/14/06
Despite concerns over global warming, scientists have discovered something that may have actually limited the impact of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in recent years by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the Earth.
04/10/06
Sub-Saharan Africa shoulders 27 percent of the 8 million new annual tuberculosis cases. Yanis Ben Amor, an Earth Institute Fellow, is working to improve the situation by bringing a rapid and more sensitive diagnostic to the hardest hit areas of Africa.
04/03/06
Despite comprehensive national malaria
control plans, a complex process of fund transfers, tenders
and approvals and a shortage of key anti-malarial commodities
can lead to delays of months or years long. Led by the Earth
Institute, "Breaking the Bottlenecks" is a groundbreaking
initiative to help ensure the smooth
and fast transport of anti-malarial commodities and
accelerate anti-malarial efforts in 10 African countries.
04/01/06
Student researcher Ramon Munoz-Raskin,
an urban planning graduate student at Columbia University, analyzes
whether the implementation of a bus rapid transit system (BRT)
has effects on residential property values. In other words:
If your property falls within the proximity of a mass transit
solution, is it worth more?
04/01/06
The Earth Engineering Center
(EEC) at the Earth Institute
has helped to launch a company that uses an
innovative rewards system to increase household recycling.
The company, RecycleBank, operates under the belief
that recycling rates go up when people are paid to
recycle.
03/23/06
Seismologists at Columbia University and Harvard University have found a new indicator that the Earth is warming: "glacial earthquakes" caused when the rivers of ice lurch unexpectedly and produce tremblors. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, the researchers found, have more than doubled in number since 2002.
03/14/06
The behavior of the Scandinavian
Ice Sheet at the end of the last Ice Age may
preview loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet
due to global warming.
03/07/06
Affordable solutions exist
to the problem of rising carbon dioxide levels,
writes Jeffrey D. Sachs and Klaus Lackner in
a new Brookings Institute publication.
02/01/06
"My hope is that
by 2008 we have comprehensive malaria control
in place across rural Africa."
Interview broadcast
on BBC's "Focus on Africa," January
29, 2006
02/01/06
A recent study published in
Nature shows that climate forecasts can
help predict malaria epidemics many months
in advance.
01/26/06
Lake
Vostok may be the best-known and largest subglacial
lake in the world, but it is not alone down
there. Scientists have identified more than
145 other lakes trapped under ice.
01/23/06
Humans have provoked a lot of wobbling
in the global food web, and one result is the explosion of
infectious diseases.
01/10/06
At the end of the last Ice
Age and the beginning of the current warming period,
two ancient lakes catastrophically emptied into the
North Atlantic, causing parts of the world to cool.
Now climate modelers have reproduced the climate changes
caused by this massive freshwater pulse that happened
8,000 years ago.