Geobulletin alpha

Professor Michael Puma on Unforeseen Dangers and Our Food System 

Dr. Michael Puma considers what can happen when events such as long-lasting droughts or volcanic explosions interrupt production of these crops. He has begun to assess the fragility of the intricate network of trade relationships that move important basic food items across national

Free Your Food: The Possibilities for an Unmonetized Food System 

Why would someone turn down a free lunch? And why is the concept of an un-monetized foodsystem (i.e. one that is not reliant upon money) so

Scientists’ Conference to Address Global Food Security 

Columbia University is teaming up with Cornell University to co-host the second International Global Food Security Conference to bring together 500-plus scientists to investigate the behavioral, biophysical, economic, institutional, political, social and technological drivers of current and future global food

Overuse of Water by Indian Farmers Threatens Supply 

Convincing farmers that it's worth it to reduce their water consumption will rest on our ability to help develop local groups to manage aquifers at the

Indian Sundarban 

We arrived in Kolkata, and filmed by the Hooghly River. While it is no longer the main channel of the Ganges, it is still the Holy Ganges and we saw a funeral procession spreading ashes of a loved one while filming there. Then a 5 hour trip by car, ferry, rickshaw and boat to the Indian Sundarbans. The mangrove forest here is undergoing more erosion and land loss than in Bangladesh, where more river sediments can replenish it. The water here is more saline and the trees are small. A tiger [...]

Geology and Filming in Mizoram 

In the small town of Kolasib, we stayed in Hotel Cloud 9. I had been told since I was a child that I was always off on Cloud 9 and now I was actually here. However, the electricity wasn’t for the first few hours, so showers were cold, but the dinner was

Tiger footprints and Dhaka 

We finished our time in the Sundarbans with a silent boat ride in a tidal creek. The highlight was sets of fresh tiger footprints. We then had a long sail back to Dhaka with only one stop at a village. We then had a whirlwind tour of Old Dhaka with enough shopping to send the students back

Salt Kilns and landscape change in the Sundarbans 

Leaving Hiron Point, we headed east through the Sundarbans to Kotka. At Kotka the students had walks through the forest seeing deer, wild boar and monkeys, while a smaller group also sampled near a set of 300 year old salt making kilns for OSL dating. We managed to finish while the tide inundated the site. We ended our day with a visit to an island that has recently emerged from the slain which the succession from bare sand to mangrove is

Polder 32 and Hiron Point 

We visited Polder 32, an embanked island in the delta that was flooded for almost two years when the embankment failed in several places during Cyclone Aila. In addition to the problem of increased subsidence due to the embankment, the area struggles for fresh water. Then we sailed to Hiron Point, a forest station in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. We serviced equipment we have here while our armed guards watch for

Working in the Bangladeshi countryside 

After traveling by boat for two days, including crossing the Sundarban Mangrove Forest, we finally arrived in Khulna. We drove to the site of our compaction meter and separated into teams servicing the instruments, investigating agricultural practices, measuring arsenic in the well water and taking sediment samples for dating. We had finally started our work in rural

Sailing around political unrest in Bangladesh 

With the roads in Bangladesh hazardous to drive because of the ongoing political unrest, our undergraduate sustainable development class managed to proceed with our class trip over Spring Break by doing all travel by

Upcoming Scientific Fieldwork, 2015 and Beyond 

  On every continent and ocean, Earth Institute field researchers study the dynamics of climate, geology, ecology, human history and more. Many projects have practical applications, from agriculture and water supplies to climate adaptation and natural hazards. Below is a list of expeditions in rough chronological order. Work in and around New York City is listed separately toward

Study Finds Genetic Clues to How Plants Adapt to Climate 

Using supercomputers to analyze hundreds of thousands of genetic markers in a thousand plant samples, scientists say they have found how a common weed uses its genetic code to adapt to changes in its environment such as freezing temperatures and drought. The findings add to our knowledge of how plant life evolves, and could be used to help breed crops that are more adaptable to climate change, the researchers

Photo Essay: Fire and Ice Off Cascadia 

A team of scientists traveled to the Pacific Northwest aboard the R/V Atlantis last fall to investigate whether the waxing and waning of ice ages and volcanic eruptions are somehow

Toxic Chemicals All Around Us: Is Green Chemistry the Answer? 

We live in a world filled with synthetic chemicals, many with known or suspected health hazards. Can green chemistry, the design of chemical products without hazardous substances, provide a solution to the problem of our increasingly chemical-laden

Earth Institute Spring 2015 Undergraduate Research Assistantship Opportunities 

The Earth Institute will offer six research assistant opportunities for undergraduate students during the spring 2015 semester. Undergraduates from Columbia and Barnard will be able to serve as research assistants on research projects related to sustainable development and the environment with distinguished faculty and researchers at the cutting edge of this burgeoning field. While research assistant positions at Columbia are generally awarded to graduate students, this program instead aims [...]

Matching Funds Boost Contributions Made through Dec. 31 

The Earth Institute will benefit this holiday season from matching gift funds from a dedicated Earth Institute donor, making your contribution all the more valuable. Thanks to the generosity of Betsee Parker, all contributions will be matched dollar for dollar up to $300,000 for contributions to the Earth Institute this holiday season. There’s no better time

Will Africa Finally Achieve a Green Revolution? 

Earth Institute agricultural scientist Pedro A. Sanchez argues in a new essay that new developments in both science and politics give him hope that sub-Saharan Africa will be able to feed itself by 2050, even with a projected population by then of about 2 billion

Warming Streams Have Cascading Impacts in the Amazon 

To protect a river, you must preserve its headwaters. Agricultural development is warming streams at the headwaters of the Xingu River, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Rising temperatures have local impacts that could cascade into regional changes, highlighting the importance of responsible land use outside of protected

MPA Alum Focuses on Marine Conservation 

Olivia Kemp, a 2013 alumna of the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program, is using the skills she developed in the program to develop her career focusing on conservation, food security and sustainable development. Now with Blue Ventures, Kemp is working with local communities in Madagascar to create a focus on community-led marine