http://earth.columbia.edu/ The latest research news and press releases from the Earth Institute en-us Sat, 7 Nov 2009 14:19:02 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss CakePHP webteam@ei.columbia.edu http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2577 A poll conducted in October shows that the proportion of Americans who are convinced that human activity is warming Earth’s climate has dropped sharply since last year, to under 40 percent--even though most scientists say the evidence is overwhelming. A concise new publication delves into what goes on in human minds that causes this disconnect, and what communicators of climate sci... Wed, Nov 4th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2577 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2575 A new comprehensive analysis of global market and policies aimed at stemming climate change says that even if all current or proposed major policies take maximum effect, they will be insufficient to avoid higher temperatures by mid-century.  The report adds that governments will need to ensure greater certainty in their policies if they are to attract the needed capital. The analysi... Mon, Oct 26th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2575 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2574 The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and the School of Life and Environmental Sciences (SLES) at Minzu University in China recently formalized a partnership for innovative research in the growing field of ethnobiology, which looks at the relationship between people, biodiversity and the environment . CERC’s mission, &a... Fri, Oct 23rd 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2574 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2572 Training teachers to do science in the field or laboratory measurably increases the academic performance of their students and may have far-reaching economic benefits, according to a study published this week in the journal Science. The number of high school students passing New York State’s standardized tests, the Regents exams, is raised by as much as 10 percentage points if the teac... Mon, Oct 19th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2572 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2556      Relevant links:       NASA Ice Bridge pages       Lamont Ice Bridge pages       NASA Ice Bridge blog        Lamont I... Wed, Oct 7th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2556 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2541 A 2005-2007 dry spell in the southeastern United States destroyed billions of dollars of crops, drained municipal reservoirs and sparked legal wars among a half-dozen states—but the havoc came not from exceptional dryness but booming population and bad planning, says a new study. Researchers from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory defied conventional w... Thu, Oct 1st 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2541 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2540 UNITED NATIONS – Highlighting the growing challenge of hunger and malnutrition and the urgent need for solutions and partnerships, the World Food Programme and the Millennium Villages project today announced plans to expand joint action to cut hunger and malnutrition across Africa. At a time when one in six people worldwide do not have enough to eat, the partners will work to establis... Mon, Sep 28th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2540 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2537 A new study adds evidence that climate swings in Europe and North America during the last ice age were closely linked to changes in the tropics. The study, published this week in the journal Science, suggests that a prolonged cold spell that sent glaciers in Europe and North America creeping forward several hundred years ago may have affected climate patterns as far south as Peru, causing tr... Thu, Sep 24th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2537 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2538 Major nations including the United States have begun erecting barriers to keep foreign investors out of many businesses, says a new report commissioned by the World Bank. Many of them justified on national-security grounds, the mechanisms could revive protectionism at a time when international trade is still struggling out of global recession, says the report. Authored by Karl P. Sauvant, executiv... Thu, Sep 24th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2538 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2531 Three of the most important crops produced in the United States—corn, soybeans and cotton—are predicted to suffer declines of as much as 80 percent if temperatures continue to rise with manmade climate change, says a new study. In recent years, experts have debated whether human-induced global warming will cause crops to suffer or flourish, depending on the region and th... Fri, Sep 11th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2531 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2525 The Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, has partnered with Harlem faith leaders, community activists and Columbia University students to develop a “green map” of Harlem in its Green Mapping for Eco-Justice project.  Started in March 2009, the project is an initiative to promote environmental justice by highli... Thu, Aug 27th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2525 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2522 For the first time in history, more people reside in urban centers than rural areas, making sustainable and interdisciplinary urban design more important than ever. One strategy that addresses a number of key urban afflictions—from urban heat to stormwater runoff pollution— is the use of green roofs, which can transform the otherwise harsh environments of urban rooftops into co... Fri, Aug 14th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2522 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2514 Can climate change policy be advanced by changing one little “dirty word”? A survey by the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED), based at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, suggests that Americans are more willing to pay an added amount to mitigate carbon-dioxide emission... Tue, Aug 4th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2514 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2512 A new study of sea level fluctuations over the last 22,000 years is the latest to predict that rising seas could reach close to one meter by the end of this century, consistent with the most recent sea level projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The estimate, published July 26 in the journal Nature Geoscience, is not as dire as the three-meter (nine-foo... Mon, Jul 27th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2512 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2510 Susana Adamo, associate research scientist with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, was recently awarded a grant for collaborative studies in Argentina following the release of a pioneering report she co-authored that links climate change with forced human migration. Born and raised in Argentina, Adamo recently recei... Tue, Jul 21st 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2510 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2509 U.S. scientists working on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico have made the most promising discovery so far of marine gas hydrate, a possible new energy source. Globally, gas hydrate--an icelike substance formed mainly of methane and water--is thought to be more abundant than oil, coal and conventional natural gas combined. However, it has proved difficult to find deposits that are conc... Thu, Jul 2nd 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2509 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2505 CHICAGO, June 30, 2009 – Supporting rigorous professional training for future leaders in the field of sustainable development, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced today grants totaling $7.6 million to nine universities in seven countries to establish new Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) programs.  The Foundation has committed $15 million ... Tue, Jun 30th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2505 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2506 NEW YORK, June 22 -- With the financial support and collaboration of The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University is launching an ambitious initiative to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in ten African countries under the Millennium Villages project.  The initiative will advance the development of a professional cadre of approximatel... Tue, Jun 30th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2506 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2504 In poorer areas of the world, farmers, herders, fishermen and others whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment rarely have backup in the form of insurance. Now, an innovative type of insurance may offer them protection against variability in climate, says a new report. Instead of paying based on proven losses to crops or other products, index insurance uses an index, such as... Wed, Jun 24th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2504 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2501 Researchers have reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet, shedding new light on its role in the earth’s cycles of cooling and warming. The study, in the June 19 issue of the journal Science, is the latest to rule out a drop in CO2 as the cause for earth’s ice ages growing longer and more intense some 850,... Thu, Jun 18th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2501 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2500 Scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), based at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, predict high probability for El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO, commonly referred to as El Niño) conditions from July 2009 through to the end of the year. The El Niño phenomenon is a fluctuation in ocean surface water temperature t... Wed, Jun 17th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2500 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2498 The Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) launched its new book, Urban Climate Change Crossroads, in early April at the Ecopolis conference in Rome. Edited by UDL director Richard Plunz and program coordinator Maria Paola Sutto, the book documents the goings-on at the previous Ecopolis conference, also held in Rome, in February 2008. The Ecopolis conference is one of the premier gath... Mon, Jun 15th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2498 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2499 The Columbia Water Center (CWC), a research unit of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, is involved in a wide range of international, interdisciplinary efforts to sustainably manage the most critical resource for land-dwelling life on Earth: fresh water. Largely due to exponential population growth, increased energy use, urbanization and the fallout of short-sighted water management planning... Mon, Jun 15th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2499 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2495 By mid-century, people may be fleeing rising seas, droughts, floods and other effects of changing climate, in migrations that could vastly exceed the scope of anything before, says a major new report. The document, authored by researchers at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), the United Nations University and CARE Internationa... Wed, Jun 10th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2495 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2496 As threats from climate change become more visible, two critical issues that cannot be ignored are energy and water. Supply and demand are key indicators to gauge the current and future availability of these resources. In recognizing the need for further analysis and cross-disciplinary action in these fields, the Earth Institute’s Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI) allocated funding toward t... Tue, Jun 9th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2496 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2479 Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, has agreed to serve as board chairman of the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). "I think there's so much that the IRI can do. Climate change gives us an opportunity to reengage with the rest of world,... Thu, May 28th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2479 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2475 Seismologists who have intensively studied North Korea’s nuclear testing efforts say Monday’s blast was certainly a nuclear bomb, roughly five times larger than the country’s first test in 2006. The scientists, at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, say signals picked up by seismic stations including one in China close by, showed cl... Wed, May 27th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2475 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2476 Landslides kill at least a thousand people each year but because they are often triggered by earthquakes or heavy rains, the danger remains poorly understood. "In densely populated areas, landslides take no prisoners. They’ll wipe out an entire village at once. Even a small landslide can kill hundreds of people,” said Art Lerner-Lam, Doherty Senior Research Scientist ... Wed, May 27th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2476 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2473 Nearly ten years after the Earth Institute was created, the social scientists of the Program on Science, Technology, and Global Development (PSTGD) are still devoted to understanding the uneven benefits from major scientific and technological innovations that shape our world and the way that we interact with them.  Their reasons for doing so are many, but one key motivator is that this is... Tue, May 26th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2473 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2472 The new Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., has won three top architecture awards. Recognized for its environment-friendly features, the building houses more than 80 staff, many of whom have long been at the forefront of global climate research. Scientists in Lamont’s geochemistry division study... Tue, May 12th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2472