State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Author: EICES Guest Blogger

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  • Nature-Based Solutions: The Missing Ingredient in Climate Adaptation?

    Nature-Based Solutions: The Missing Ingredient in Climate Adaptation?

    Restoring natural ecosystems can make communities more resilient to climate change while offering other benefits along the way.

  • What’s Needed for a Sustainable, Equitable and Healthy Food System?

    What’s Needed for a Sustainable, Equitable and Healthy Food System?

    A report integrates the environmental, health, and social impacts of agriculture into one framework to help us make informed decisions about food.

  • This Index Measures Progress and Sustainability Better Than GDP

    This Index Measures Progress and Sustainability Better Than GDP

    By accounting for human, social, and natural resources, the Inclusive Wealth Index can help guide sustainable development.

  • For Sustainability, Rethink Our Systems

    For Sustainability, Rethink Our Systems

    Increasingly, systems thinking is embraced as a critical framework for approaching sustainability and resilience. Such an approach helps us look beyond an analytical, cause-and-effect mode of doing business that often only yields short-term solutions and unintended consequences.

  • Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    On July 1, single-use styrofoam products will cease to be in circulation in New York City due to a new regulation. The ban, which will be implemented in all five boroughs, will require that no manufacturer or business sell, give or use any single-use styrofoam product including coffee cups, foam trays and packing materials like…

  • Copy Cat!: Fighting the Global Water Scarcity Issue

    Copy Cat!: Fighting the Global Water Scarcity Issue

    According to the World Water Management Institute, over one-third of the human population is affected by water scarcity. Advances in physical understanding, its applications, and the study of our environment and bio-mimicry help us develop more effective ways to fight freshwater scarcity around the world.

  • A Business Case for Restoring and Protecting Ecosystems

    A Business Case for Restoring and Protecting Ecosystems

    Jeffery Potent writes about how corporations are thinking about their impact on ecosystems in terms of economic quantification in order to achieve more sustainable practices. His upcoming EICES certificate course will also explore how leading corporations are innovating to address environmental and social issues from a business perspective.

  • Studies Find Climate Change to Disrupt Antarctic and Tropical Ecosystems

    Studies Find Climate Change to Disrupt Antarctic and Tropical Ecosystems

    A recent study finds that West Antarctica’s ecosystem is highly correlated to its climate. As a result, climate change will have a negative impact on its ecological relationships, from plankton to penguins. Antarctica isn’t alone – climate change will also affect tropical ocean ecosystems by causing mass coral bleaching.

  • Exploring Ecology and History in Bermuda

    Exploring Ecology and History in Bermuda

    I learned about the coral reef ecology course in Bermuda offered through the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES) at Columbia University after developing an interest in marine science over the past year. My background is in newspaper journalism, but I’m now a communications professional at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), devoted to promoting…

  • Nature-Based Solutions: The Missing Ingredient in Climate Adaptation?

    Nature-Based Solutions: The Missing Ingredient in Climate Adaptation?

    Restoring natural ecosystems can make communities more resilient to climate change while offering other benefits along the way.

  • What’s Needed for a Sustainable, Equitable and Healthy Food System?

    What’s Needed for a Sustainable, Equitable and Healthy Food System?

    A report integrates the environmental, health, and social impacts of agriculture into one framework to help us make informed decisions about food.

  • This Index Measures Progress and Sustainability Better Than GDP

    This Index Measures Progress and Sustainability Better Than GDP

    By accounting for human, social, and natural resources, the Inclusive Wealth Index can help guide sustainable development.

  • For Sustainability, Rethink Our Systems

    For Sustainability, Rethink Our Systems

    Increasingly, systems thinking is embraced as a critical framework for approaching sustainability and resilience. Such an approach helps us look beyond an analytical, cause-and-effect mode of doing business that often only yields short-term solutions and unintended consequences.

  • Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    On July 1, single-use styrofoam products will cease to be in circulation in New York City due to a new regulation. The ban, which will be implemented in all five boroughs, will require that no manufacturer or business sell, give or use any single-use styrofoam product including coffee cups, foam trays and packing materials like…

  • Copy Cat!: Fighting the Global Water Scarcity Issue

    Copy Cat!: Fighting the Global Water Scarcity Issue

    According to the World Water Management Institute, over one-third of the human population is affected by water scarcity. Advances in physical understanding, its applications, and the study of our environment and bio-mimicry help us develop more effective ways to fight freshwater scarcity around the world.

  • A Business Case for Restoring and Protecting Ecosystems

    A Business Case for Restoring and Protecting Ecosystems

    Jeffery Potent writes about how corporations are thinking about their impact on ecosystems in terms of economic quantification in order to achieve more sustainable practices. His upcoming EICES certificate course will also explore how leading corporations are innovating to address environmental and social issues from a business perspective.

  • Studies Find Climate Change to Disrupt Antarctic and Tropical Ecosystems

    Studies Find Climate Change to Disrupt Antarctic and Tropical Ecosystems

    A recent study finds that West Antarctica’s ecosystem is highly correlated to its climate. As a result, climate change will have a negative impact on its ecological relationships, from plankton to penguins. Antarctica isn’t alone – climate change will also affect tropical ocean ecosystems by causing mass coral bleaching.

  • Exploring Ecology and History in Bermuda

    Exploring Ecology and History in Bermuda

    I learned about the coral reef ecology course in Bermuda offered through the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES) at Columbia University after developing an interest in marine science over the past year. My background is in newspaper journalism, but I’m now a communications professional at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), devoted to promoting…