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Founded | 1995 |
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Founder | Peter B. de Menocal |
Location | |
Locations |
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Key people | Alex N. Halliday (director) |
Affiliations | Columbia University |
Website | www |
The Earth Institute is a research institute at Columbia University created in 1995 for addressing complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with a focus on sustainable development. With an interdisciplinary approach, this includes research in climate change, geology, global health, economics, management, agriculture, ecosystems, urbanization, energy, hazards, and water. The Earth Institute's activities are guided by the idea that science and technological tools that already exist could be applied to greatly improve conditions for the world's poor, while preserving the natural systems that support life on Earth.
The Earth Institute supports projects in the biological, engineering, social, and health sciences.
The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a research institution specializing in the Earth science and climate change. Though part of Columbia University, it is located on a separate closed campus in Palisades, New York. [1]
The Observatory was one of the centers of research that led to the development of the theory of Plate Tectonics as well as many other notable scientific developments.AC4's current director is Joshua Fisher who joined in 2014. The center is organized around four focus areas, named Complexity, Peace and Sustainability; Environment, Peace, and Sustainability; Youth, Peace and Security; and Women, Peace and Security which is led by Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee as executive director.
The Center for Climate and Life is a multidisciplinary climate science research initiative based at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. The center advances research focused on how climate change affects access to basic resources such as food, water, shelter and energy. The center's founder and director is Peter B. de Menocal, a paleoclimatologist and Columbia University Dean of Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Established in 1994, the Center for Climate Systems Research is a key Earth Institute center that has 25+ scientists and staff researching the Earth's climate. As Columbia's Gateway to NASA and Beyond, the center has a special relationship with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, as it is co-located with GISS in Columbia University's Armstrong Hall above Tom's Restaurant in New York City. Here, Columbia and NASA scientists jointly work together to gain a greater understanding of climate sensitivity and variability including the forcing and feedback mechanisms that influence climate, particularly with regard to how this can impact humanity and environmental stability. [2] The director of CCSR is Dr. Michael J. Puma.
The Columbia Water Center was founded in 2008 and is looking into the assessment, understanding and resolution of the global crisis of water scarcity. The center aims to design reliable, sustainable models of water management and development that can be implemented on local, regional and global levels. [3] The Columbia Water Center conducts projects both domestically and internationally, with projects currently underway in India, Mali, Brazil, and China. The current director of CWC is Upmanu Lall.
The Center for River and Estuaries is focused on the better understanding of rivers and estuaries worldwide. This includes the distribution, transport, and flux of contaminants, sediments, nutrients, organic material, carbon, and aerosols. The center also studies the evolution and linkage of marshes and wetlands. [4]
The center is divided into three main areas of research: [5] maintenance of the Hudson River and New York Harbor, finding solutions to use the water system without harming the ecosystems of the watershed, and maintaining the diverse estuary fisheries for commercial and recreational use.
The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES), formerly known as the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), has been actively involved in protecting biodiversity and ecosystems.
The Earth Engineering Center was established in 1996 and serves as the principal engineering unit of the Earth Institute. The EEC aims to find solutions to achieve sustainable development of Earth's resources including water, energy, minerals, materials, and the environment at large. It includes over 20 members of the Engineering School faculty at Columbia and specialists from other Columbia schools as well as environmental organizations and other universities. The EEC is a part of the Henry Krumb School of Mines and linked to the earth and environmental engineering department. Its current director is Professor Nickolas Themelis.[ citation needed ]
Lenfest research areas include advanced fuel concepts, carbon sequestration, and small scale energy conversion systems (e.g., Fischer–Tropsch process). [6]
The Center for Sustainable Development is a research unit of The Earth Institute of Columbia University charged with managing social science activities. The mission of CGSD is to apply social science approaches to international development problems. The center collaborates with the faculty of the social science departments of Columbia University and is primarily focused on interdisciplinary research and policy application.
The Center for the Study of Science and Religion is a collaborative forum designed to examine the issues "lying at the boundary of scientific and religious ways of comprehending the world." [7] CSSR works across disciplines and schools in an effort to have social scientists incorporate religion and rituals in the modeling and prediction of human behavior, particularly in the areas of social planning, research and policy. The director is Robert Pollack.
The Center on Capitalism and Society seeks to determine the means by which a country can successfully achieve economic success through its ability to generate and develop sound commercial ideas. The center's work is based upon a theory of capitalism where entrepreneurs and financiers are the key actors and the discovery of viable ideas is the essential activity. The director is Professor of Economics and Nobel-Laureate Edmund Phelps.
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development was established in 2004 by the Volvo Research and Education Foundations and seeks the creation of sustainable cities, both physically and socially. The center's first project was to develop land use and transport planning in developing countries that promote sustainable growth. The director is Jacqueline Klopp.
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network was established in 1989 as an independent NGO to research the interaction between man and the environment. In 1998, CIESIN became part of the Columbia University Earth Institute. Offices are located at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. CIESIN provides a large amount of data and information about the Earth to meet the needs of both scientists and decision makers by means of education, consultation, and training. The center is focused on applying modern information technology towards many research problems to meet this goal. Specifically CIESIN was one of the first groups that developed and provided interactive Informatics tools using the internet. [8] The current Office of Directors include director Robert S. Chen, Deputy Directory Marc Levy, and Communications Coordinator Elisabeth Sydor.
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society was established in 1996 and became part of the Earth Institute in 2005. [9] The IRI's mission is to enhance society's capability to understand, anticipate and manage the impacts of climate in order to improve human welfare and the environment, especially in developing countries. (see Effects of global warming) The IRI conducts this mission through strategic and applied research, education, capacity building, and by providing forecasts and information products, with an emphasis on practical and verifiable utility and partnership. The institute was directed by Lisa Goddard who led efforts to forecast climate change. [10]
The Center for Hazards and Risk Research is focused on hazard assessment and risk management by advancing predictive capability and integrating core sciences to that effort. Physical and social scientists work to reduce impacts on society from hazards, both natural and man-made. Its director is Art Lerner-Lam.
The center is an academic center which focuses on the areas of research, policy, and practice. The center's 20 affiliated faculty represent a broad range of disciplines including, public health, medicine, engineering, nursing, and The Earth Institute. The center is led by Irwin Redlener.
The aim of the program Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions is to help people understand global climate change — and how the factors that drive climate are changing. The research areas that the team intends to focus on are as follows:
The Program on Child Well-Being and Resilience will serve as an academic center for Columbia University faculty and researchers, across various academic departments and schools, to support greater understanding of the issues, challenges, and opportunities involving children and youth.
The Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management researches public policy, management and financial tools that can enable organizations to incorporate the physical dimensions of sustainability into routine organizational decision making.
The following unites were established jointly by the Earth Institute and another entity
The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions was established under the National Science Foundation's Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU) program. CRED serves to research decision making under climate uncertainty and environmental risk. The center's objectives include promoting scientific information and communication for a collective response to climate change and variability. CRED is also affiliated with the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP). Its directors are David Krantz, Elke Weber, Benjamin Orlove, and Kenneth Broad. [11]
The Laboratory of Populations is a joint venture between Rockefeller University and Columbia that researches populations and their changes, including the spread of disease and social structures. Sciences used to that effort include demography, epidemiology, and statistical modeling to best measure the various changes in populations that are always in flux. Its director is Joel Cohen.
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law develops legal techniques to fight climate change, trains law students and lawyers in their use, and provides the public with up-to-date resources on key topics in climate law and regulation. It works closely with the scientists at Columbia University's Earth Institute and with governmental, nongovernmental and academic organizations. Its activities are spearheaded by Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center and Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, and Michael Burger, Executive Director of the Sabin Center.
The Urban Design Lab is an interdisciplinary research unit of Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York City. Established in 2005, it advances design-based solutions to issues in sustainable development and global urbanization. Richard Plunz, founder of the UDL, currently directs the program.
The Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment is a joint center of the Earth Institute and Columbia Law School. CCSI conducts research, performs policy and advisory work, facilitates multi-stakeholder dialogues and teaches about issues related to sustainable investment. In particular, these issues include the sustainability of investments in extractive industries, land and agriculture, their relationship with investment policy and law, and cross-cutting topics such as the relationship between sustainable investment and climate change. [12] CCSI is led by Lisa Sachs. [13]
The Earth Institute is a member of or closely affiliated with the below entities.
The Black Rock Forest Consortium is a collection of universities, schools, and institutions that operate the 3,750-acre (15.2 km2) Black Rock Forest in the Hudson Highlands. The forest acts as a field station for research, education, and conservation. Its director is William Schuster.
The Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center (CEEC) at SEAS is using a multiscale approach to discover groundbreaking technology and accelerate commercialization. CEEC joins faculty and researchers from across the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences who study electrochemical energy with interests ranging from electrons to devices to systems. Industry partnerships enable the realization of breakthroughs in electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Its co-directors are Alan West and Daniel Steingart.
CEEP at SIPA undertakes original research into the causes of environmental change, the consequences of this change for humanity, and the policies that can prevent and – where possible – reverse harmful environmental change to ensure sustainable development. CEEP’s goal is to share this knowledge with policymakers, fellow researchers, students, and concerned citizens worldwide. A defining feature of the center's research is the integration of analytic approaches from economics with the natural sciences and engineering. Its co-directors are Douglas Almond and Wolfram Schlenker.
The Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) envisions a world where value is measured according to the sustained well-being of all people and our planet. The center works to cultivate the public consciousness needed to make changes in policy and culture that will establish a new value system that is based on this vision of the world. This mission is advanced through four core programs that complement and connect to each other in all our public programs, academics and movement-building: Eco-ministry; Environmental Justice and Civic Engagement; Original Caretakers; Sustainability and Global Affairs. Its director is Karenna Gore.
The Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is an interdisciplinary research center supporting collaborative projects that address gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of inequality to foster ethical and progressive social change. Bringing Arts and Sciences faculty into conversation with faculty from Columbia’s professional schools and Global Centers, along with scholars, artists, writers, and policymakers in the United States and abroad, CSSD deepens Columbia’s partnerships at home and abroad. The center's work has two overarching research themes: Women Creating Change and Imagining Justice. Its co-directors are Paige West and Catherine LaSota.
The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies was established in 1961 as the Goddard Space Flight Center Institute for Space Studies. It is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Division. Research at GISS emphasizes a broad study of global climate change. Goals include basic research in space sciences in support of Goddard programs. Its director is Gavin Schmidt.
The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy is a German research institution for sustainability research, focusing on impacts and practical application. It explores and develops models, strategies, and instruments to support sustainable development at local, national, and international levels. Research at the Wuppertal Institute focuses on ecology and its relation to economy and society. Special emphasis is put on analyzing and supporting technological and social innovations that decouple the prosperity of economic growth from the use of natural resources. The organization's activities focus on developing transformation processes aimed at shaping a climate-friendly and resource-efficient world.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies, highlightning the degradation of the planet's life-supporting systems on which humanity depends. A world economy that continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels translates into ongoing air and water pollution, acidification of the oceans, and rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These changes threaten the survival of species already suffering from widespread habitat loss, pushing them closer to extinction. Recent analyses show that humanity has already transgressed six out of nine critical planetary boundaries that define Earth's safe operating space — and is close to crossing a seventh.
The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) is the research arm of the social sciences at Columbia University, formerly known as the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences. ISERP works to produce pioneering social science research and to shape public policy by integrating knowledge and methods across the social scientific disciplines. ISERP organizes an active intellectual community at Columbia University through its Faculty Fellows program, research centers, projects, and training initiatives.
Steven A. Cohen is an American academic who has taught public management and environmental policy at Columbia University since 1981. He is the former executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and now serves as a senior advisor for the institute. He is a professor in the practice of public affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He is also the director of the Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy in the School of International and Public Affairs and the director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management in the School of Professional Studies. He served on the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (2002–2004). He currently serves on the board of directors of Homes for the Homeless, faculty advisory committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University, and the admissions committee of the Lotos Club. Cohen is the lead independent director of the board of directors of the Willdan Group, Inc. Cohen also sits on the judging committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation. He served on the advisory board of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment (2016-2022).
The Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a joint initiative between the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale Law School.
Domenico Grasso is an American engineer, professor and the sixth chancellor of the University of Michigan–Dearborn. He has previously served as provost of the University of Delaware, vice president for research and dean of two different colleges at the University of Vermont. Grasso is Smith College's Picker Engineering Program's founding director.
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is a German government-funded research institute addressing crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts, and sustainable development. Ranked among the top environmental think tanks worldwide, it is one of the leading research institutions and part of a global network of scientific and academic institutions working on questions of global environmental change. It is a member of the Leibniz Association, whose institutions perform research on subjects of high relevance to society.
The Columbia Water Center (CWC) was established in January 2008 by Columbia University as part of the Earth institute to research and address global water-related challenges, including water scarcity, access and quality alongside Climate risks and changes.
Marilyn A. Brown is a Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after 22 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she held various leadership positions. Her work was cited by President Clinton as providing the scientific justification for signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. With Eric Hirst, she coined the term "energy efficiency gap" and pioneered research to highlight and quantify the unexploited economic potential to use energy more productively.
North American collegiate sustainability programs are institutions of higher education in the United States, Mexico, and Canada that have majors and/or minors dedicated to the subject of sustainability. Sustainability as a major and minor is spreading to more and more colleges as the need for humanity to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle becomes increasingly apparent with the onset of global warming. The majors and minors listed here cover a wide array of sustainability aspects from business to construction to agriculture to simply the study of sustainability itself.
Ambuj D. Sagar is the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. As of October 2022, he has been appointed as the deputy director at IIT Delhi. His interests broadly lie in science and technology policy, environmental policy, and development policy, with a particular focus on the interactions between technology and society. While his current research focuses mainly on energy innovation and climate policy, he also studies, more broadly, various facets of technology innovation, environmental policy politics and processes, and engineering education and research.
The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau. A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation."
The Center for Climate and Life is a multidisciplinary climate science research initiative based at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), a research unit of Columbia University. Center research focuses on how climate change affects access to basic resources such as food, water, shelter and energy. The center's founder and director is Peter B. de Menocal, a paleoclimatologist and Columbia University dean of science in the faculty of arts and sciences.
The Institute for Energy Efficiency (IEE) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). IEE is an interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to the development of science and technologies that increase energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and support an efficient and sustainable energy future.
Jennie C. Stephens is an academic researcher, professor, author, and social justice advocate. She is Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also affiliated with the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the department of Cultures, Societies & Global Studies.
The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is a school at Stanford University focusing on climate change and sustainability. The school also researches many domains of fossil fuel extraction and development. It opened on September 1, 2022, as Stanford's first new school since the School of Humanities and Sciences in 1948. It is considered one of the largest climate change–related schools in the United States.