State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

200930

  • Meeting the Climate Challenge: The Columbia Climate Center Launch

    This blog’s proud parent, the Columbia Climate Center, is having its public launch on Tuesday, March 31—and you’re invited! We are hosting this event to spread the word about our new center and its mission, so it is a great opportunity for readers of Climate Matters to come and learn more about the climate challenge…

  • Ecosystems Push South

    Warming Climate Drives Plankton and Penguins Poleward

  • Wind Shifts May Stir CO2 From Antarctic Depths

    Releases May Have Speeded End of Last Ice Age—And Could Act Again

  • Sand Filtration

    Via ScienceDaily, Dr. James Amburgey, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has developed an inexpensive and low-tech way to treat water using sand.  According to Dr. Amburgey, all that is needed to create safe drinking water is PVC pipe, sand and inexpensive treatment chemicals. Previous technologies have used sand filtration, however, this current…

  • Aquaduct Bicycle

    Note: The following image links to a promotional video from Aquaduct In the most recent Innovate or Die contest sponsored by Google and Specialized, the grand prize winner was the Aquaduct, a pedal-powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. According to the website, As the rider pedals, a pump…

  • LifeStraw®

    According to the World Health Organization, 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease, and 84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 – 14. Access to safe and clean water is an option many people in developing countries don’t have. I think the picture above says all that is needed about the LifeStraw®,…

  • Jeffrey Sachs on African Aid

    Jeffrey Sachs speaks with BBC Africa Slowdown at the IMF conference in Dar es Salaam.

  • Snowstorms in a Warming World

    On March 2 snowstorms hit the eastern seaboard, coinciding with a widely publicized protest against the coal industry in Washington DC . This garnered some attention, with Time noting the irony of people chanting about global warming while shivering in the cold and snow. One might wonder if a March snowstorm is inconsistent with a…

  • Foot Forward

    In 1968, 14-year-old Paul Olsen of suburban Livingston, N.J., and his friend Tony Lessa heard that dinosaur tracks had been found in a nearby quarry. They raced over on their bikes.  “I went ballistic,” Olsen recalls. Over the next few years, the boys uncovered and studied thousands of tracks and other fossils there, often working into the night.  It opened the…

Photo of the Earth from space with the text "Lamont at AGU25" on top.

AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More

  • Meeting the Climate Challenge: The Columbia Climate Center Launch

    This blog’s proud parent, the Columbia Climate Center, is having its public launch on Tuesday, March 31—and you’re invited! We are hosting this event to spread the word about our new center and its mission, so it is a great opportunity for readers of Climate Matters to come and learn more about the climate challenge…

  • Ecosystems Push South

    Warming Climate Drives Plankton and Penguins Poleward

  • Wind Shifts May Stir CO2 From Antarctic Depths

    Releases May Have Speeded End of Last Ice Age—And Could Act Again

  • Sand Filtration

    Via ScienceDaily, Dr. James Amburgey, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has developed an inexpensive and low-tech way to treat water using sand.  According to Dr. Amburgey, all that is needed to create safe drinking water is PVC pipe, sand and inexpensive treatment chemicals. Previous technologies have used sand filtration, however, this current…

  • Aquaduct Bicycle

    Note: The following image links to a promotional video from Aquaduct In the most recent Innovate or Die contest sponsored by Google and Specialized, the grand prize winner was the Aquaduct, a pedal-powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. According to the website, As the rider pedals, a pump…

  • LifeStraw®

    According to the World Health Organization, 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease, and 84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 – 14. Access to safe and clean water is an option many people in developing countries don’t have. I think the picture above says all that is needed about the LifeStraw®,…

  • Jeffrey Sachs on African Aid

    Jeffrey Sachs speaks with BBC Africa Slowdown at the IMF conference in Dar es Salaam.

  • Snowstorms in a Warming World

    On March 2 snowstorms hit the eastern seaboard, coinciding with a widely publicized protest against the coal industry in Washington DC . This garnered some attention, with Time noting the irony of people chanting about global warming while shivering in the cold and snow. One might wonder if a March snowstorm is inconsistent with a…

  • Foot Forward

    In 1968, 14-year-old Paul Olsen of suburban Livingston, N.J., and his friend Tony Lessa heard that dinosaur tracks had been found in a nearby quarry. They raced over on their bikes.  “I went ballistic,” Olsen recalls. Over the next few years, the boys uncovered and studied thousands of tracks and other fossils there, often working into the night.  It opened the…