http://earth.columbia.edu/ The latest research news and press releases from the Earth Institute en-us Sat, 4 Jul 2009 04:20:49 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss CakePHP kat@ei.columbia.edu arif@ei.columbia.edu 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 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2471 At a time when global markets and technological advances have exponentially expanded the impacts of natural resource consumption, the need for sustainable development and interdisciplinary problem-solving cannot be understated. The Earth Institute's Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI) provides support for researchers to address the far-reaching effects of human activity on natural systems. As des... Mon, May 11th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2471 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2467 The Earth Institute at Columbia University is pleased to announce the 2009-2010 Marie Tharp Fellows — two women who are making noteworthy contributions to the fields of geochemistry and paleoceanography. The 2009-2010 Marie Tharp Fellows are: Kathy Licht, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences, Indiana University, and Laura Robinson, Assistant Scientist in Marine Chemistry and Geochemist... Wed, May 6th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2467 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2464 The vast majority of the world’s glaciers are retreating as the planet gets warmer. But a few, including ones south of the equator, in South America and New Zealand, are inching forward.  A new study in the journal Science puts this enigma in perspective; for the last 7,000 years New Zealand’s largest glaciers have often moved out of step with glaciers in the no... Thu, Apr 30th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2464 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2374 The Earth Institute is soliciting proposals from Columbia University faculty and research staff to advance the goals and objectives of the Earth Institute’s Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI) and of the Earth Institute’s Earth Clinic. Deadline for submission is 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, 2009. Purpose of the Competitions Both competitions are designed to provide s... Thu, Apr 23rd 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2374 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2461 By Caitlin Kopcik To view the original story with images on the IRI website, please click here. Para Espanol, please click here. Rising global food prices and favorable rainfall patterns in recent decades have allowed farmers in South America's Southern Cone region to grow crops on formerly marginal lands. But if climate patterns shift and the rains start to fail, the region could face... Wed, Apr 22nd 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2461 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2455 Researchers have developed the first year-by-year record of rainfall in sub-Saharan West Africa for the past 3,000 years, and identified a daunting pattern: a 30-to-60-year cycle of serious droughts that last a decade or more, punctuated by killer megadroughts that last for centuries. The last great dry periods, from about AD 1100 to 1300, and 1400 to 1750, dwarfed the recent notorious Sahel... Tue, Apr 21st 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2455 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2454 We caught up with Katie Leonard, a fifth-year graduate student in Lamont-Doherty’s Ocean and Climate Physics Division, at the start of an eight-week research cruise to the South Polar Amundsen Sea aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer. Communication was problematic since, as Katie explained, transmission disruptions could occur when penguins stood on ice floes to the no... Mon, Apr 20th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2454 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2449 Scientists at the Earth Institute’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and other research institutions gathered recently for the co-sponsored ADVANCE 2009 Research Productivity Workshop. They discussed ways to conduct a large-scale natural experiment that would shed light on the impact of increases in oceanic carbon dioxide absorption on the oceanic carbon cycle in ways that studies... Wed, Apr 15th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2449 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2456 To view the original story with images on the IRI website, please click here. Millions of people in the tropics depend on coconuts for food, raw materials and livelihood. Coconuts are also a high value commercial crop. But like any crop, coconuts are at risk of drought and other prolonged events. By using climate science and better agricultural forecast models, the IRI has helped increase the r... Tue, Mar 31st 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2456 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2427 In the face of diminishing natural resources, exposure to pollution and extreme poverty, impoverished communities can greatly benefit from interventions such as improved cook stoves or new bicycles that can be made locally and sustainably. On Thursday, March 12, 2009, the Earth Clinic at the Earth Institute at Columbia University held a conference to showcase these and other interventions made pos... Fri, Mar 27th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2427 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2415 It is a bitter fact for millions of people living in epidemic malaria-prone regions that control and prevention organizations face a formidable foe, never sure when an epidemic may strike. And, while there has been an unprecedented increase in resources for malaria control in recent years, it is still crucial that these organizations make sure their resources are used to maximum effectiveness and ... Wed, Mar 25th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2415 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2404 Scientists from the Earth Institute at Columbia University recently highlighted a critical global issue that is highly susceptible to world market fluctuations and afflicts millions of people: chronic hunger. The Earth Institute’s Seminars on Sustainable Development address the Institute’s nine cross-cutting research themes. Climate and society, water, energy, and ecosystems h... Fri, Mar 20th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2404 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2397 Natural releases of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean due to shifting wind patterns could have amplified global warming at the end of the last ice age--and could be repeated as manmade warming proceeds, a new paper in the journal Science suggests. Many scientists think that the end of the last ice age was triggered by a change in Earth’s orbit that caused the northern part of... Thu, Mar 12th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2397 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2398 Adélie penguins are flocking closer to the South Pole. A new study in the leading journal Science explains why: they’re following the food supply, which is moving southward with changing climate. Krill, the shrimp-like critters that Adélies like to eat, feed on phytoplankton.  But as global temperatures rise, phytoplankton are declining in the north ... Thu, Mar 12th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2398 http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2393 To slow global warming, scientists are exploring ways to pull carbon dioxide from the air and safely lock it away. Trees already do this naturally through photosynthesis; now, in a new report, geologists have mapped large rock formations in the United States that can also absorb CO2, which they say might be artificially harnessed to do the task at a vastly increased pace. The report, by sci... Thu, Mar 5th 2009, 00:00 GMT http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2393