The largest ever recorded earthquake in Japan’s history has triggered a sequence of events that have killed thousands, crushed and submerged cities and towns and left a financial toll that will take years for an already struggling economy to recover. Videos and stories slowly began to emerge as the sun rose in Japan the day [...]
Tag: earthquake
Learning From Japan’s Catastrophe
The images and stories of the devastation caused by Japan’s massive earthquake is heart wrenching. We see countless examples of extraordinary acts of human courage and generosity as the local, national and world communities struggle to respond to this catastrophe. Japan, a nation that has long ensured that its buildings were built to withstand earthquakes [...]
New York Earthquake Barely Causes a Stir
Though the earthquake that no one really noticed yesterday was the largest to hit the New York area in 18 years, it’s important to note that it wasn’t an unusual event. One person in a WNYC story was quoted as saying that he had fun. Researchers at the Earth Institute have kept close tabs on [...]
Dr. Betsee Parker Donates to the Haiti Program
A $125,000 gift from longtime donor and Benefactor Dr. Betsee Parker will benefit the crucial work of the Earth Institute’s Haiti Program. Tatiana Wah, a professor at the New School in New York (on leave), where she is a renowned scholar and practitioner of Haitian economic and social development, leads the Haiti program with Earth Institute Director Jeff Sachs. Tatiana and Jeff advise the Government of Haiti on a range of strategic issues and have prepared several key documents for the government during the past year, both before and after the earthquake. Professor Sachs is also advising the United Nations Secretary-General and United Nations agencies on Haiti-related issues, including in the post-earthquake crisis.
A Sustainable Future for Haiti
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck southern Haiti on January 12 caused massive destruction to human life and infrastructure—as many as 3 million people have been affected. The Earth Institute’s Haiti Policy Advisor, Tatiana Wah, who was in the country at the time of the earthquake, works with the Haitian government to develop, analyze, implement [...]
The Haiti Earthquake
The quake in Haiti came suddenly—but the results were predictable. At the moment it struck, scientists from the Earth Institute and other parts of Columbia University were in Port-au-Prince with a UN-sponsored project assessing how to reduce the nation’s obvious vulnerability to natural disasters. It is clear that the extreme toll came as much from poverty [...]
Reactions to Haiti Earthquake
Scientists from Columbia University’s Earth Institute and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have provided some photographs and commented analysis of the earthquake in Haiti.
