The Earth Institute and Sustainability

The Earth Institute (EI) of Columbia University is an organization with the mission of creating “solutions for sustainable development.” This includes taking issues that are cross-cutting and believing that to solve one problem (i.e. climate change) requires taking on all the other challenges (i.e. education) that are related to it.

One of the greatest qualities of the organization is it's leadership. Jeffrey Sachs, a leading world economist, is not only the director of the EI but also a Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He also acts as special advisor to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and from 2002 to 2006 he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Millennium Development Goals. Additionally the EI has taken on a flexible leadership structure that invites participation from the many different parts of the EI and promotes community building.

The EI has a Management Team that handles the operational aspects of the EI, an Academic Committee tonsure the quality of research and education activities and and External Advisory Board that provides guidance regarding priorities in science, public policy and teaching. These three different administrative arms of the EI ensure that their objectives are met as efficiently and effectively as possible.

In creating solutions for sustainable development, the EI works in research, education and the practical application of research for solving real world challenges. One of the ways that they see this happening is by expanding the world's understanding of the Earth as an integrated system. Specifically the EI is working to advance nine interconnected global issues, including: climate and society, water, energy, poverty, ecosystems, public health, food and nutrition, hazards and finally urbanization (use the links to navigate to the EI's specific pages for each project). The EI works all support a fundamental belief within the organization that the Earth has within it, all the necessary tools that are needed to stop climate change, poverty and other critical global issues.

Partnerships for the EI are and should continue to be seen as an important part of the organization. Their websites claims that they will continue to “build partnerships with academia, corporations, nonprofits and individuals as well as governmental, multilateral and private institutions to find effective and sustainable solutions for the world's challenges.” The EI's website goes on to mention that by creating close ties with the stakeholders, in all aspects of their work, will help them in helping the world achieve sustainability.

Earth Institute logo photo from EI website
Earth Photo from State of the Planet, Blogs from the EI

Additional Resources for you to check out!

American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment

The White House on Energy and Environment

Link to my first bog entry about the Millennium Villages Project

Coping with Climate Change through Weather Insurance

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that focuses on creating long-lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. The vision of the organization and its member is to live in a just world without poverty. Oxfam America is just one of 15 organizations that are apart of internation confideration, Oxfam. Each of the 15 organizations are seperate from each other and are located around the world. Each organization tends to have a focus on certain issues. Oxfam America works on a wide arrange of issues, but their current campaigns focus on solutions to climate change, aid reform, and the rights of poor communites.

Oxfam and its partners believe that the accessibility of weather insurance to poor rural farmers is an important coping mechanism to farmers experiencing the adverse effects of climate change. In 2008, The Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) project began in the village of Adi Ha in Northern Ethiopia. The HARITA model of managing climate risk is based on three components: risk reduction, risk transfer, and prudent risk-taking. The risk reduction activities are completed by the entire community to reduce its risk of feeling the effects of droughts.

The risk transfer component of HARITA is weather insurance. The premiums from the weather insurance can be paid with cash or through the insurance for work (IFW) program. Poor farmers that participate in Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), a government-run food for work program, can pay for the insurance through labor. One of the most important aspects of weather insurance is that it makes poor farmers look less risky to banks and micro-finance institutions.

The prudent risk-taking component of HARITA is through micro-finance credit. Many farmers fear loan default for reasons they are unable to control, for example droughts. Farmers that purchase insurance are less scared to take out loans because they have insurance if a drought should occur. The insurance gives the farmers a sense of security, which provides them with more options to improve their next harvest with the help of micro-finance credit.

Because of the success of the pilot program in Adi Ha and the other four villages, Oxfam America and the World Food Programme (WFP) reached an agreement to launch a five-year program modeled after the HARITA project. The Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) will target the communities most vulnerable to climate change in other regions of Ethiopia and three other countries starting in 2011.

One criticism that I have of this project is that Oxfam does not have a solution to their continual payment of labor paid weather insurance. Oxfam needs to find outside funding to take over this part of the project otherwise the NGO will be responsible for paying it until the project ends.

For More Information:

A Tiny Seed and a Big Idea

Weather Insurance Coming to U.S. Farmers

World Bank Training 8 African Countries on Weather Insurance

Photo courtesy of: oxfamamerica.org

Climate Change and its Impact on Hunger

The affects of climate change are vast. The entire world and its inhabitants have been directly or indirectly affected by the consequences of climate change with some parts of the world feeling its affects more than others. According to a report from Oxfam America, over 1 billion people are already hungry, but projections show that over the next decade if the situation in the world does not improve, more than 100 million people will become food insecure as a result of climate change.

The cause of climate change is human generated. The United Nations notes on climate change that, “fossil fuels formed by long-dead plants and animals are the single biggest source of humanity’s greenhouse. Burning coal, oil and natural gas releases billion of tons of carbon every year...” These greenhouse gases blanket the atmosphere keeping the heat in and not allowing it to escape our atmosphere. In a report by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, (UN) the FAO discusses the affects of climate change on agricultural and forestry systems. In the short term, extreme events like droughts, floods and heat waves are expected to increase while the long term affects could be higher temperatures, elevation in CO2 emissions, and changes in rainfall.

Climate change is a current and future cause of hunger. In developing countries, like Ethiopia, it is greatly affected by climate change because of the country’s reliance on its agricultural sector. With a population of 90 million, 85% of Ethiopians are employed in agriculture (Central Intelligence Agency). Droughts have an adverse affect on not only the rural Ethiopians, but the entire country. Fluctuations in precipitation have a direct impact on the economic growth of Ethiopia because of its dependence on the agricultural sector for its GDP, and employment. Because of climate change, Ethiopia, a country that is already prone to droughts, may see more of its population being unable to provide for themselves. In my next blog entry, I will discuss an NGO that is working to limit the effects of climate change on the people of Ethiopia through practices of sustainable development.

For more information:

Chicago's plan to limit the affects of climate change: http://www.chicagoclimateaction.org/

Climate change info from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

World Food Programme Plan for climate change and hunger: http://www.wfp.org/content/climate-change-and-hunger-responding-challenge