State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Climate195

  • Antarctica’s Retreating Ice

    Antarctica’s Retreating Ice

    While the ice sheets on West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula are usually the ones to make the news in relation to climate change, recent studies have documented transformations that are taking place on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as well. On the continent as a whole, large areas of ice have already melted and…

  • The Centrality of Sustainability

    The most powerful political argument for protecting the planet is that to retain what we have, we must gradually change how we deliver the goods and services that people enjoy. The argument that people must give up what they enjoy does not win elections.

  • Anthropocene and Its Victims: Migration as Failure or Adaptive Strategy?

    Anthropocene and Its Victims: Migration as Failure or Adaptive Strategy?

    Gemenne argues that climate change is a form of political persecution, that victims of the anthropocene are also victims of political persecution, thus, we should reinstate the term “climate refugee.”

  • Sediment Cores from Exuma’s Shores

    Sediment Cores from Exuma’s Shores

    Because we know little about hurricane behavior during periods when Earth was warmer or colder than at present, it’s challenging to construct models to predict future trends in hurricane activity as Earth’s climate changes. To remedy this problem, researchers have been working to reconstruct records of hurricane strikes in the past.

  • How the Transition to Renewable Energy Could Come

    In the United States, our political process sends us strong signals about what problems and proposals can achieve agenda status. Increased federal support for science and technology will not be easy, but unlike a carbon tax, it is capable of drawing bipartisan support.

  • Mt. Everest Not Safe from Climate Change

    Mt. Everest Not Safe from Climate Change

    Climate change has many asking if the days of being able to summit the world’s highest peak are numbered.

  • ‘Faux pause’

    ‘Faux pause’

    New data support the conclusion The “hiatus” was mostly illusion…

  • Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images

    Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images

    Two women investigating climate change from different perspectives—Christine McCarthy, a geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Denise Iris, a multimedia artist from Brooklyn—had a chance to spend several days together recently. In the Rock Mechanics Lab at Lamont, where McCarthy works, and a nearby “cold room” chilled to the climate of an industrial freezer, they…

  • Students Learn About a Plan to Rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley

    Students Learn About a Plan to Rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley

    Nine Columbia graduate students landed in Amman, Jordan last Friday night, after over 20 hours of travel, to begin the field study component of their course in Regional Environmental Sustainability in the Middle East. Though exhausted, they were eager to get to the hotel to meet students from Tel Aviv University – who had crossed…

Collage of Turkiye beach scene and Columbia University Campus with text: UN Climate Change Conference COP31, Antalya, Turkiye, Nov 9-20, 2026

COP31, the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, aims to advance dialogue, strengthen consensus, and accelerate climate action on a global scale. From November 9–20, 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, heads of state, ministers, scientists, business leaders, and civil society will gather to advance efforts in emission targets, climate finance, and adaptation and resilience. Once again, our experts, students, and global thought leaders from Columbia Climate School and across Columbia University are contributing to key events, sharing insights, and helping shape the dialogue toward ambitious, science-based solutions. Learn More

  • Antarctica’s Retreating Ice

    Antarctica’s Retreating Ice

    While the ice sheets on West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula are usually the ones to make the news in relation to climate change, recent studies have documented transformations that are taking place on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as well. On the continent as a whole, large areas of ice have already melted and…

  • The Centrality of Sustainability

    The most powerful political argument for protecting the planet is that to retain what we have, we must gradually change how we deliver the goods and services that people enjoy. The argument that people must give up what they enjoy does not win elections.

  • Anthropocene and Its Victims: Migration as Failure or Adaptive Strategy?

    Anthropocene and Its Victims: Migration as Failure or Adaptive Strategy?

    Gemenne argues that climate change is a form of political persecution, that victims of the anthropocene are also victims of political persecution, thus, we should reinstate the term “climate refugee.”

  • Sediment Cores from Exuma’s Shores

    Sediment Cores from Exuma’s Shores

    Because we know little about hurricane behavior during periods when Earth was warmer or colder than at present, it’s challenging to construct models to predict future trends in hurricane activity as Earth’s climate changes. To remedy this problem, researchers have been working to reconstruct records of hurricane strikes in the past.

  • How the Transition to Renewable Energy Could Come

    In the United States, our political process sends us strong signals about what problems and proposals can achieve agenda status. Increased federal support for science and technology will not be easy, but unlike a carbon tax, it is capable of drawing bipartisan support.

  • Mt. Everest Not Safe from Climate Change

    Mt. Everest Not Safe from Climate Change

    Climate change has many asking if the days of being able to summit the world’s highest peak are numbered.

  • ‘Faux pause’

    ‘Faux pause’

    New data support the conclusion The “hiatus” was mostly illusion…

  • Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images

    Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images

    Two women investigating climate change from different perspectives—Christine McCarthy, a geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Denise Iris, a multimedia artist from Brooklyn—had a chance to spend several days together recently. In the Rock Mechanics Lab at Lamont, where McCarthy works, and a nearby “cold room” chilled to the climate of an industrial freezer, they…

  • Students Learn About a Plan to Rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley

    Students Learn About a Plan to Rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley

    Nine Columbia graduate students landed in Amman, Jordan last Friday night, after over 20 hours of travel, to begin the field study component of their course in Regional Environmental Sustainability in the Middle East. Though exhausted, they were eager to get to the hotel to meet students from Tel Aviv University – who had crossed…