State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

201521

  • A Sustainable City Would Continue to Keep Cars Out of Times Square

    A Sustainable City Would Continue to Keep Cars Out of Times Square

    The trade-off between regulating public behavior and free speech can be difficult, but must be taken on if we are to have public space in sustainable cities. Since we need more of these public spaces rather than fewer spaces, the behavior in Times Square is a challenge of governance that must be taken on by…

  • Photo Essay: The Mystery of North American Diamonds

    Photo Essay: The Mystery of North American Diamonds

    People have been finding loose diamonds across the United States and Canada since the early 1800s, but for the most part, no one knows where they came from. It was not until the 1990s that geologists tracked down the first commercial deposits, on the remote tundra of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Yaakov Weiss, a geochemist at…

  • Cracking Open Diamonds for Messages From the Deep Earth

    Cracking Open Diamonds for Messages From the Deep Earth

    “After a diamond captures something, from that moment until millions of years later in my lab, that material stays the same. We can look at diamonds as time capsules, as messengers from a place we have no other way of seeing.”

  • Tree Rings on Hawai’i Could Hold New Knowledge About El Niño

    Tree Rings on Hawai’i Could Hold New Knowledge About El Niño

    Annual tree rings are a rare find in the tropical islands of the eastern Pacific. The new discovery of trees with annual rings on a Hawaiian volcano could provide new climate data from a part of the world where much of the variability of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation originates.

  • Public Health and Climate Change in the Gulf Region

    Public Health and Climate Change in the Gulf Region

    The U.S. Gulf Coast has already felt the lasting effects of extreme weather on public health and infrastructure, and a new study says things could get worse with climate change.

  • Internship with Center on Sustainable Investment

    Internship with Center on Sustainable Investment

    The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute, is seeking an administrative assistant intern for Fall 2015.

  • The Most Valuable Skill? Creative Problem Solving

    The Most Valuable Skill? Creative Problem Solving

    “It took taking the Intro to Sustainable Development class for me to understand that this major is not only immediately applicable and vitally important, but also varied and interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout my college experience. Put simply, I discovered the passion that I hadn’t realized was there all along.”

  • Warming Climate Is Deepening California Drought

    Scientists Say Increasing Heat Drives Moisture from Ground

  • Mapping Land Claimed by Sea Level Rise

    Mapping Land Claimed by Sea Level Rise

    Understanding how coastal areas changed as the ocean rose in the past could help communities protect themselves from storm surge flooding in the future as the oceans warm and sea levels rise.

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

  • A Sustainable City Would Continue to Keep Cars Out of Times Square

    A Sustainable City Would Continue to Keep Cars Out of Times Square

    The trade-off between regulating public behavior and free speech can be difficult, but must be taken on if we are to have public space in sustainable cities. Since we need more of these public spaces rather than fewer spaces, the behavior in Times Square is a challenge of governance that must be taken on by…

  • Photo Essay: The Mystery of North American Diamonds

    Photo Essay: The Mystery of North American Diamonds

    People have been finding loose diamonds across the United States and Canada since the early 1800s, but for the most part, no one knows where they came from. It was not until the 1990s that geologists tracked down the first commercial deposits, on the remote tundra of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Yaakov Weiss, a geochemist at…

  • Cracking Open Diamonds for Messages From the Deep Earth

    Cracking Open Diamonds for Messages From the Deep Earth

    “After a diamond captures something, from that moment until millions of years later in my lab, that material stays the same. We can look at diamonds as time capsules, as messengers from a place we have no other way of seeing.”

  • Tree Rings on Hawai’i Could Hold New Knowledge About El Niño

    Tree Rings on Hawai’i Could Hold New Knowledge About El Niño

    Annual tree rings are a rare find in the tropical islands of the eastern Pacific. The new discovery of trees with annual rings on a Hawaiian volcano could provide new climate data from a part of the world where much of the variability of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation originates.

  • Public Health and Climate Change in the Gulf Region

    Public Health and Climate Change in the Gulf Region

    The U.S. Gulf Coast has already felt the lasting effects of extreme weather on public health and infrastructure, and a new study says things could get worse with climate change.

  • Internship with Center on Sustainable Investment

    Internship with Center on Sustainable Investment

    The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute, is seeking an administrative assistant intern for Fall 2015.

  • The Most Valuable Skill? Creative Problem Solving

    The Most Valuable Skill? Creative Problem Solving

    “It took taking the Intro to Sustainable Development class for me to understand that this major is not only immediately applicable and vitally important, but also varied and interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout my college experience. Put simply, I discovered the passion that I hadn’t realized was there all along.”

  • Warming Climate Is Deepening California Drought

    Scientists Say Increasing Heat Drives Moisture from Ground

  • Mapping Land Claimed by Sea Level Rise

    Mapping Land Claimed by Sea Level Rise

    Understanding how coastal areas changed as the ocean rose in the past could help communities protect themselves from storm surge flooding in the future as the oceans warm and sea levels rise.