Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Cornell is a global leader in sustainability and climate change research, teaching and engagement. Our campuses are living laboratories for developing, testing and implementing solutions that address these most challenging issues.


Climate change likely to alter NY’s Oneida Lake by 2099

By the end of this century, climate change will alter Oneida Lake enough to remove oxygen from its bottom waters, alter its species composition and eradicate its remaining cold water fish species.

UN officials brief Cornell students on new global tasks

In an exclusive symposium designed for Cornell students, officials from the United Nations detailed a new 15-year initiative on battling climate change worldwide.

Cornell sinks teeth into four new MOOCs

Cornell will offer four new massive open online courses - or MOOCs - in 2016. Learn abouts sharks, GMOs, engineering simulations and how mergers and acquisitions get done.

Space-age technology points African herders in right direction

Development workers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Institute for Computational Sustainability are using satellites and mobile phones to help herders in Kenya find food for their animals

Distemper virus affects wild carnivores of all stripes

Scientists are urging swift action to combat canine distemper virus, which is killing such endangered species as Amur tigers and lions in Africa. The virus is closely related to the virus that causes measles in humans.

Faculty members combat crop molds in kids’ diets

With support from Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, faculty members are researching harmful molds in food that damage the health of African mothers and babies.

Public warmer on 'climate change' than 'global warming'

There's still disagreement on "global warming," Cornell and USC researchers discover, but a frosty winter is building support for the concept of "climate change."

'Megadrought' likely for western U.S. by end of century

The consequences of climate change look bleak for the Southwest and much of America's breadbasket, the Great Plains. A "megadrought" will likely occur late in this century journal Science Advances.

Study: Global rainfall satellites require massive overhaul

A Cornell study warns that the existing system of space-based rainfall observation satellites requires a serious overhaul or many countries, particularly in the developing world, could face major flooding.