State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Climate180

  • Horn of Africa Drying in Sync With Climate

    Study Suggests Worsening Future for Troubled Region

  • Growing Up in an Era of Extreme Events: What We Need to Know Now

    NEW YORK (October 7, 2015)—The recent flooding in South Carolina is yet another reminder of just how much destruction natural disasters can cause and how ill prepared communities throughout the US continue to be. Extreme events such as flooding, drought, and storms are leading to not only short-term economic and health impacts but are setting…

  • Joaquin? There’s No Perfect Forecast, So Stay Tuned

    Joaquin? There’s No Perfect Forecast, So Stay Tuned

    What will Hurricane Joaquin do? The science of predicting that is getting better, but still uncertain. The debate today is over whether there will be a U.S. landfall now in five or more days’ time or not; 30 years ago there would have been no point in even having that discussion.

  • How Superstorm Sandy Inspired an Award-Winning Book

    How Superstorm Sandy Inspired an Award-Winning Book

    “A lot of the challenge is understanding what we as a species should do, because the disasters are getting more prevalent. In the last hundred years, both in human and financial costs, damages are skyrocketing. Most of that is just more people living in dangerous places, but climate change will be more of a factor…

  • Tropical Rainfall from Hours to Millennia

    Tropical Rainfall from Hours to Millennia

    Most of Earth’s rainfall occurs in a tropical zonal band that circles the Earth. Understanding how this band will responds to climate change requires us to combine time scales from hours to millennia.

  • The Climate of Things

    The Climate of Things

    In his talk on “The Climate of Things,” Professor Dan Rabinowitz of Tel Aviv University argued that the magnitude of climate change warrants a reexamination of modernist social science. Rather than using other disciplines to guide knowledge of the universe, his “fifth environmental paradigm” uses the climate crisis to reexamine the validity of those other…

  • Ancient Pollen Points to Mega-Droughts in California Thousands of Years Ago

    Ancient Pollen Points to Mega-Droughts in California Thousands of Years Ago

    Ancient pollen spores that were in the air when mammoths roamed Southern California are providing new insights into historic droughts in the region, including how a series of mega droughts 25,500 to 27,500 years ago changed the ecological landscape.

  • One-Two Punch of Rising Seas, Bigger Storms May Greatly Magnify U.S. East Coast Floods

    New Study Quantifies Synergy of Two Climate Hazards

  • Arctic Oil Drilling: Deluding Communities About the Benefits of Resource Extraction

    We continue to need resources that the earth provides and someday we may even mine other planets. But communities that rely on mining alone, or even depend on resource extraction as their primary source of revenue, are asking to be left behind in the modern global economy.

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

  • Horn of Africa Drying in Sync With Climate

    Study Suggests Worsening Future for Troubled Region

  • Growing Up in an Era of Extreme Events: What We Need to Know Now

    NEW YORK (October 7, 2015)—The recent flooding in South Carolina is yet another reminder of just how much destruction natural disasters can cause and how ill prepared communities throughout the US continue to be. Extreme events such as flooding, drought, and storms are leading to not only short-term economic and health impacts but are setting…

  • Joaquin? There’s No Perfect Forecast, So Stay Tuned

    Joaquin? There’s No Perfect Forecast, So Stay Tuned

    What will Hurricane Joaquin do? The science of predicting that is getting better, but still uncertain. The debate today is over whether there will be a U.S. landfall now in five or more days’ time or not; 30 years ago there would have been no point in even having that discussion.

  • How Superstorm Sandy Inspired an Award-Winning Book

    How Superstorm Sandy Inspired an Award-Winning Book

    “A lot of the challenge is understanding what we as a species should do, because the disasters are getting more prevalent. In the last hundred years, both in human and financial costs, damages are skyrocketing. Most of that is just more people living in dangerous places, but climate change will be more of a factor…

  • Tropical Rainfall from Hours to Millennia

    Tropical Rainfall from Hours to Millennia

    Most of Earth’s rainfall occurs in a tropical zonal band that circles the Earth. Understanding how this band will responds to climate change requires us to combine time scales from hours to millennia.

  • The Climate of Things

    The Climate of Things

    In his talk on “The Climate of Things,” Professor Dan Rabinowitz of Tel Aviv University argued that the magnitude of climate change warrants a reexamination of modernist social science. Rather than using other disciplines to guide knowledge of the universe, his “fifth environmental paradigm” uses the climate crisis to reexamine the validity of those other…

  • Ancient Pollen Points to Mega-Droughts in California Thousands of Years Ago

    Ancient Pollen Points to Mega-Droughts in California Thousands of Years Ago

    Ancient pollen spores that were in the air when mammoths roamed Southern California are providing new insights into historic droughts in the region, including how a series of mega droughts 25,500 to 27,500 years ago changed the ecological landscape.

  • One-Two Punch of Rising Seas, Bigger Storms May Greatly Magnify U.S. East Coast Floods

    New Study Quantifies Synergy of Two Climate Hazards

  • Arctic Oil Drilling: Deluding Communities About the Benefits of Resource Extraction

    We continue to need resources that the earth provides and someday we may even mine other planets. But communities that rely on mining alone, or even depend on resource extraction as their primary source of revenue, are asking to be left behind in the modern global economy.