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Climate News Roundup: Week of 2/19
Climate change increased likelihood of Russian 2010 heatwave, The Guardian, Feb 21 The extreme Russian heatwave of 2010 was made three times more likely because of man-made climate change, according to a study led by climate scientists and number-crunched by home PC users. But the size of the event was mostly within natural limits, said…
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Climates Services: Must Help Us Understand Risks
The point is setting priorities right, and for an agency like the World Food Programme, our focus is of course vulnerable people in the most vulnerable countries, countries where climate change is a multiplier of hunger risk. –- WFP’s Carlo Scaramella, in the fifth in a series of video interviews.
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MPA Student Explores Relationship between Social Justice and Environmental Sustainability
“In classes like Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Change in Africa, the link between social justice issues and climate change became very apparent to me, and I now feel equipped to use both my past work experience, the knowledge I have gained at Columbia and the skills I will acquire through my internship to…
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Fixing Climate: Beyond Carbon Dioxide
Climate scientists at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this week were elated to hear that the United States and five other countries had agreed to work toward cutting pollutants other than carbon dioxide thought to cause about a third of current human-influenced global warming. After all, many of them…
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The Economic Invisibility of Nature
In a talk at the TEDGlobal conference in July 2011, Pavan Sukhdev, CEO and founder of environmental consultation firm GIST Advisory, urges us to protect the coral reefs, as they are in serious danger of extinction. In his talk, Sukhdev invokes the “economic invisibility of nature” to describe the value of biodiversity and ecosystems services.
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Climate Services: Science=Credibility
It’s terribly important that those who provide climate services are backed up by science and most importantly, link with and understand the problems of the user community. – says John Zillman, former president of the World Meteorological Organization, in the fourth in a series of video interviews.
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Energy Efficiency: A Great (But Dull) Way to Save
Cutting energy use in a home or small business can save consumers plenty of money, so how come more private citizens aren’t doing it? Speakers at an Earth Institute-sponsored panel said in part it’s because the information people need is not accessible enough.
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A Climate Tipping Point for World Food Prices?
Increased growing-season heat due to climate change in coming decades could push staple U.S. crops off a cliff, and cause world food prices to jump, a Columbia University economist told a press briefing at a top scientific meeting this week. In a panel organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, economist Wolfram…
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Can Intensive Farming Save Tropical Forests?
With 7 billion people on the planet and some 40 percent of earth’s land surface already covered with croplands and pastures, the only remaining frontiers for agricultural expansion are dwindling tropical forests. Some see high-yield industrial-scale farming as a way to take the pressure off; the theory goes that if more produce can be grown…
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