News from the Columbia Climate School

Author: Kevin Krajick5

Kevin Krajick was from 2007-2025 the senior editor for science news at the Earth Institute and the Columbia Climate School. He grew up in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of upstate New York, where he worked at his high-school newspaper. He has since reported from all 50 U.S. states and 30-some countries, writing about science, medicine, crime, immigration and other issues. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Science, Smithsonian and many other publications. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Public Service for his reporting on organized crime’s links to the toxic waste-disposal industry. He is two-time winner of the American Geophysical Union’s Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism, and his work has been featured repeatedly in the yearly book “Best American Science and Nature Writing.” His 2001 book “Barren Lands” is the true account of how two prospectors discovered vast deposits of diamonds in Canada’s remote far north. Krajick holds degrees in comparative literature and journalism from Columbia University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family.

Upcoming Scientific Fieldwork, 2023 and Beyond

Climate School researchers are carrying out fieldwork on every continent and every ocean. A guide to upcoming projects.
Ivan Tolstoy, Who Elucidated Travels of Sound Through Oceans and Air, and Helped Map Seabeds, Dies at 99

From beginnings as an exile from the Russian Revolution, a life spent studying geology and long-distance acoustics at sea and in the atmosphere.
1,000-Plus Years of Tree Rings Confirm Historic Extremity of 2021 Western North America Heat Wave

Scientists quickly pronounced the summer 2021 heat wave that hit western North America to be unprecedented, but they had no long-term physical proof. Now they do.
Cutting Confederate Ties, the U.S. Navy Names Ships for a Pioneering Female Oceanographer and a Daring Enslaved Pilot

Marie Tharp was a marine scientist in a man’s world. Robert Smalls was a skilled sailor, but held as a slave. Both are now being honored by the U.S. Navy.
Explorer of Deep Earth Wins Vetlesen Prize

Using sophisticated equipment, David Kohlstedt has recreated the pressure, temperature and chemical conditions in the Earth’s mantle, which humans cannot observe directly. His findings have laid the basis for understanding many of the processes that drive the planet’s dynamics.
New York City’s Greenery Absorbs a Surprising Amount of Its Carbon Emissions

A hyper-local study of vegetation shows that the city’s trees and grass often cancel out all the CO2 released from cars, trucks and buses on summer days.
With Major Prize, a Project to Turn Carbon Emissions to Stone Gains Momentum

With the award of a 2022 Earthshot prize, new technology to remove carbon from the air by speeding up natural underground chemical reactions moves closer to reality.
American Geophysical Union 2022: Key Research From the Columbia Climate School

A guide to some of the most provocative and groundbreaking talks at the world’s largest gathering of earth and space scientists.
A Study Offers New Insights Into the Record 2021 Western North America Heat Wave

Several weeks during summer 2021 saw heat records in the western United States and Canada broken not just by increments, but by tens of degrees, an event of unprecedented extremity. To what degree was it climate change, bad luck, or a combination?

Upcoming Scientific Fieldwork, 2023 and Beyond

Climate School researchers are carrying out fieldwork on every continent and every ocean. A guide to upcoming projects.
Ivan Tolstoy, Who Elucidated Travels of Sound Through Oceans and Air, and Helped Map Seabeds, Dies at 99

From beginnings as an exile from the Russian Revolution, a life spent studying geology and long-distance acoustics at sea and in the atmosphere.
1,000-Plus Years of Tree Rings Confirm Historic Extremity of 2021 Western North America Heat Wave

Scientists quickly pronounced the summer 2021 heat wave that hit western North America to be unprecedented, but they had no long-term physical proof. Now they do.
Cutting Confederate Ties, the U.S. Navy Names Ships for a Pioneering Female Oceanographer and a Daring Enslaved Pilot

Marie Tharp was a marine scientist in a man’s world. Robert Smalls was a skilled sailor, but held as a slave. Both are now being honored by the U.S. Navy.
Explorer of Deep Earth Wins Vetlesen Prize

Using sophisticated equipment, David Kohlstedt has recreated the pressure, temperature and chemical conditions in the Earth’s mantle, which humans cannot observe directly. His findings have laid the basis for understanding many of the processes that drive the planet’s dynamics.
New York City’s Greenery Absorbs a Surprising Amount of Its Carbon Emissions

A hyper-local study of vegetation shows that the city’s trees and grass often cancel out all the CO2 released from cars, trucks and buses on summer days.
With Major Prize, a Project to Turn Carbon Emissions to Stone Gains Momentum

With the award of a 2022 Earthshot prize, new technology to remove carbon from the air by speeding up natural underground chemical reactions moves closer to reality.
American Geophysical Union 2022: Key Research From the Columbia Climate School

A guide to some of the most provocative and groundbreaking talks at the world’s largest gathering of earth and space scientists.
A Study Offers New Insights Into the Record 2021 Western North America Heat Wave

Several weeks during summer 2021 saw heat records in the western United States and Canada broken not just by increments, but by tens of degrees, an event of unprecedented extremity. To what degree was it climate change, bad luck, or a combination?