State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: water pollution2

  • Uncovering Impacts of Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea

    Uncovering Impacts of Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea

    From late December 2015 through January, a team of Earth Institute scientists and human rights lawyers from Columbia University worked in the highlands of Papua New Guinea to deliver the results of an independent study of water quality and human rights to the indigenous communities living near an industrial gold mine.

  • Hospitalizations Increase Near Fracking Sites, Study Shows

    Hospitalizations Increase Near Fracking Sites, Study Shows

    People living in areas of Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing is booming are suffering increasing rates of hospitalization, a new study says. The study is one of a small but growing number suggesting that the practice could be affecting human health.

  • H. James Simpson; Tracked Pollutants in the Hudson and Far Beyond

    H. James Simpson; Tracked Pollutants in the Hudson and Far Beyond

    H. James Simpson, a geochemist who pioneered important studies of water pollutants in the Hudson River and abroad, died May 10. He had been affiliated with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for 50 years. The cause was Parkinson’s disease, said his family; he was 72.

  • How Much Arsenic is Too Little?

    How Much Arsenic is Too Little?

    Five hundred utilities in the U.S. provide drinking water with unsafe levels of arsenic, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But how many people are getting too much arsenic in their water is much less clear, according to a study conducted in part by the Columbia Water Center.

  • Nature’s Toxic Crusaders

    Nature’s Toxic Crusaders

    Can mushrooms help clean up oil spills? Can oysters filter sewage pollution? Industrial waste is being injected into the planet’s soil and water as a result of human activity. Pioneers in the field of conservation and sustainability are employing nature’s own biological task force to help clean up.

  • A Solution to the Problem of Lawns?

    A Solution to the Problem of Lawns?

    Given the growing intensity of the global water crisis, to spend such enormous amounts of water on something that for practical purposes does little more than enslave millions of American homeowners by chaining them to their lawnmowers and sprinklers every Saturday…

  • Recruiting Tiny Organisms to Detect Water Pollution

    Recruiting Tiny Organisms to Detect Water Pollution

    Climate change has huge implications for water pollution, so with increasing climate change effects and the concern that many regions on the planet are approaching peak water, timely water pollution detection is critical.

  • Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup

    Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup

    “Humanity’s plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint,” said Captain Charles Moore, who, in 1997, discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Its name is misleading because the huge expanse of floating marine debris is actually more like a soup of confetti-sized plastic bits, produced by the runoff of our throwaway lifestyle that…

  • How Hamburgers Pollute Our Water

    How Hamburgers Pollute Our Water

    Most Americans have no idea where the hamburgers and fried chicken we love come from, or what their environmental impacts are. But the way most meat in the U.S. is produced today has serious repercussions for our soil, air, and especially water.

Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.
  • Uncovering Impacts of Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea

    Uncovering Impacts of Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea

    From late December 2015 through January, a team of Earth Institute scientists and human rights lawyers from Columbia University worked in the highlands of Papua New Guinea to deliver the results of an independent study of water quality and human rights to the indigenous communities living near an industrial gold mine.

  • Hospitalizations Increase Near Fracking Sites, Study Shows

    Hospitalizations Increase Near Fracking Sites, Study Shows

    People living in areas of Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing is booming are suffering increasing rates of hospitalization, a new study says. The study is one of a small but growing number suggesting that the practice could be affecting human health.

  • H. James Simpson; Tracked Pollutants in the Hudson and Far Beyond

    H. James Simpson; Tracked Pollutants in the Hudson and Far Beyond

    H. James Simpson, a geochemist who pioneered important studies of water pollutants in the Hudson River and abroad, died May 10. He had been affiliated with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for 50 years. The cause was Parkinson’s disease, said his family; he was 72.

  • How Much Arsenic is Too Little?

    How Much Arsenic is Too Little?

    Five hundred utilities in the U.S. provide drinking water with unsafe levels of arsenic, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But how many people are getting too much arsenic in their water is much less clear, according to a study conducted in part by the Columbia Water Center.

  • Nature’s Toxic Crusaders

    Nature’s Toxic Crusaders

    Can mushrooms help clean up oil spills? Can oysters filter sewage pollution? Industrial waste is being injected into the planet’s soil and water as a result of human activity. Pioneers in the field of conservation and sustainability are employing nature’s own biological task force to help clean up.

  • A Solution to the Problem of Lawns?

    A Solution to the Problem of Lawns?

    Given the growing intensity of the global water crisis, to spend such enormous amounts of water on something that for practical purposes does little more than enslave millions of American homeowners by chaining them to their lawnmowers and sprinklers every Saturday…

  • Recruiting Tiny Organisms to Detect Water Pollution

    Recruiting Tiny Organisms to Detect Water Pollution

    Climate change has huge implications for water pollution, so with increasing climate change effects and the concern that many regions on the planet are approaching peak water, timely water pollution detection is critical.

  • Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup

    Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup

    “Humanity’s plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint,” said Captain Charles Moore, who, in 1997, discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Its name is misleading because the huge expanse of floating marine debris is actually more like a soup of confetti-sized plastic bits, produced by the runoff of our throwaway lifestyle that…

  • How Hamburgers Pollute Our Water

    How Hamburgers Pollute Our Water

    Most Americans have no idea where the hamburgers and fried chicken we love come from, or what their environmental impacts are. But the way most meat in the U.S. is produced today has serious repercussions for our soil, air, and especially water.