We know very little about what “peace” is (and what it isn’t), the conditions that promote it, the motives that drive people to work for it, how to measure it, and how to build a climate and infrastructure that sustains it. Why? Because we don’t study peace. We study war, violence, aggression and conflict—and peace in the context of those states and processes—but few study peace directly.
Collaboration between government and the private sector will be essential to substantially increasing job opportunities. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September 2012 – its lowest level since January 2009.
“Field Trip: A Climate Cabaret,” at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory Open House on Oct. 6, will use song and dance to focus on the research of prominent female scientists.
Each fall the Earth Institute offers a unique insight into the cutting-edge research of institute centers and units and the policy implications of that research in the Earth Institute Practicum. The practicum provides an opportunity to learn about issues in sustainable development, sustainability management and environmental science from faculty and researchers in these areas.
Lamont-Doherty geophysicist Robin Bell pays tribute to colleague Kim Kastens who is retiring from Lamont after 31 years. Kastens was the first woman co-chief scientist on the JOIDES Resolution, first woman faculty member to join Columbia’s geology department, founder of Columbia’s joint journalism and environmental science master’s program and a pioneer in the field of geoscience education research.
The Columbia Climate Center led PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership receives a $5.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of six awards under the Climate Change Education Partnership-Phase II program.
UNESCO Director General Irena Bokova said sustainable development cannot be achieved by political agreements, financial incentives or technological solutions alone. There must be a fundamental change in the ways individuals think and act.
It’s a Saturday morning, and most kids between the ages of 12 and 14 are sleeping in, off to rehearsals or sports team practice, or grudgingly helping with household chores. At Columbia University, a group of middle-school students are eagerly engaging in the scientific method.
Undergraduate students learn about summer field opportunities in Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico offered through the Summer Ecosystems Experience for Undergraduate (SEE-U) program at Columbia.
Earth Institute scientists explore how the physical world works on every continent — over and under the arctic ice, in the grasslands of Mongolia, on volcanoes in Patagonia, over subduction zones in Papua New Guinea, and on the streets of New York City.
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.
