This semester, visiting professor Laurence Tubiana, head of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in France, will be bringing her professional experience to bear as the instructor for two courses in the Earth Institute’s education programs, Political Economy of Energy and Climate Policy at the School of Continuing Education (SCE) and the International Political Economy of Biodiversity at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
by Kaci Fowler Yochanan Kushnir began his career as a meteorologist in the Israeli Navy, where he started as an operational marine forecaster, and with time became the Navy’s Chief Meteorology Officer. As part of his duties, Kushnir ventured out to sea to collect meteorological and oceanographic data for research. Motivated by these experiences, Kushnir [...]
“Thank you for coming on this gorgeous day, to sit in an airless, lightless room and discuss how to save the world,” said John Mutter, director of Columbia’s PhD in Sustainable Development and a member of the Earth Institute faculty, in welcoming the audience of the Sustainable Development Seminar, “The Population Bomb: Defused or Still Ticking?” The seminar brought together a panel of demography and population experts, who, Mutter calculated, shared a total of 121 years’ experience in the field. It became apparent, upon the beginning of the discussion, that the population bomb was not so much ticking, as exploding. The current world population, which is estimated to be 7 billion, is projected to reach 10.2 billion by 2100.
“What I like,” says Richard Seager, “is the fact that the Earth Institute has so many people working on the climate change and variability issue – from people like me doing the straight climate research to others working on how to build resilience to climate variability and change, to others working on how to prevent the worst climate change through, for example, carbon capture and storage. Whenever I am in that mix, conversations strike up that touch on areas of overlap, which, once opened, provide a wonderful flow of information between the areas of expertise. This sort of place, given its ability to tackle the climate problem in its entirety, could have a huge impact.”
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
