State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Climate247

  • Squeezing the Last Drops out of Sicily

    Squeezing the Last Drops out of Sicily

    If you were to drive south from Palermo, Sicily toward Monreale, you would be ringed in by green mountains, the sparkling white of ancient and modern buildings and the azure Mediterranean Sea receding behind you. Continuing south through the island’s mountainous interior, you would pass verdant agricultural fields on your way past Corleone, the namesake…

  • Switchyard Project: A Very Successful Year

    Switchyard Project: A Very Successful Year

    The 2011 field season has been a very very successful year, in fact the most successful one we have ever had. The weather has been great, the equipment proved to be mostly reliable, the people have been great and the samples are plenty.

  • Climate News Roundup: Week of 5/15

    Climate News Roundup: Week of 5/15

    Climate Scientist Fears His “Wedges” Made It Seem Too Easy, National Geographic, May 17 In their 2004 paper, “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies,” Princeton physics and engineering professor, Robert Socolow, and his colleague, ecologist Stephen Pacala proposed a theory to check any increase in greenhouse gas…

  • Switchyard Project: Melting Ice, a Fresher Arctic

    Switchyard Project: Melting Ice, a Fresher Arctic

    The freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean is increasing as the Earth’s climate warms. Chemical analysis indicates that the source is both melting ice and the Pacific Ocean.

  • The American Climate Gap

    The American Climate Gap

    There’s a growing gap between scientists’ view of climate change and that of the general public, and it has less to do with scientific “illiteracy,” and more to do with the psychology of how people frame their understanding of the world, say the authors of a paper just published in the journal American Psychologist.

  • Ohio and Mississippi River Floods in Photos

    Ohio and Mississippi River Floods in Photos

    Heavy rains over the American South and Midwest have deluged the region, causing unprecedented flood damage. View photos of the event from around the web.

  • Earth, Water and Sky –A Conversation with Pierre Gentine, a new Columbia Water Center Scientist

    Earth, Water and Sky –A Conversation with Pierre Gentine, a new Columbia Water Center Scientist

    Columbia Water Center welcomes Pierre Gentine, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, as an affiliate researcher. Pierre’s groundbreaking research on the way soil moisture interacts with the atmosphere has implications for many of CWCs initiatives—from developing more efficient irrigation systems, to water resource management, to understanding floods.…

  • Switchyard Project: New Sampling Record

    Switchyard Project: New Sampling Record

    On May 10, we celebrated the sampling of our 10th station yesterday. These are more stations than we were ever able to get water samples from. Because of the ongoing good weather, we will certainly get one more station today, and hopefully many more during the next couple of days. So watch the posted video and celebrate with…

  • Switchyard Project: Sampling Success

    Switchyard Project: Sampling Success

    The past 1½ weeks have been very successful. Our team from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was able to obtain water samples from eight stations, while the team from the University of Washington has already broken their all-time record of the past years of 18 stations. Today (May 7) is actually the first day we can’t fly…

Composite banner with modern building at night and portrait of Dean Alexis Abramson that reads "Science for the Planet"

By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings

  • Squeezing the Last Drops out of Sicily

    Squeezing the Last Drops out of Sicily

    If you were to drive south from Palermo, Sicily toward Monreale, you would be ringed in by green mountains, the sparkling white of ancient and modern buildings and the azure Mediterranean Sea receding behind you. Continuing south through the island’s mountainous interior, you would pass verdant agricultural fields on your way past Corleone, the namesake…

  • Switchyard Project: A Very Successful Year

    Switchyard Project: A Very Successful Year

    The 2011 field season has been a very very successful year, in fact the most successful one we have ever had. The weather has been great, the equipment proved to be mostly reliable, the people have been great and the samples are plenty.

  • Climate News Roundup: Week of 5/15

    Climate News Roundup: Week of 5/15

    Climate Scientist Fears His “Wedges” Made It Seem Too Easy, National Geographic, May 17 In their 2004 paper, “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies,” Princeton physics and engineering professor, Robert Socolow, and his colleague, ecologist Stephen Pacala proposed a theory to check any increase in greenhouse gas…

  • Switchyard Project: Melting Ice, a Fresher Arctic

    Switchyard Project: Melting Ice, a Fresher Arctic

    The freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean is increasing as the Earth’s climate warms. Chemical analysis indicates that the source is both melting ice and the Pacific Ocean.

  • The American Climate Gap

    The American Climate Gap

    There’s a growing gap between scientists’ view of climate change and that of the general public, and it has less to do with scientific “illiteracy,” and more to do with the psychology of how people frame their understanding of the world, say the authors of a paper just published in the journal American Psychologist.

  • Ohio and Mississippi River Floods in Photos

    Ohio and Mississippi River Floods in Photos

    Heavy rains over the American South and Midwest have deluged the region, causing unprecedented flood damage. View photos of the event from around the web.

  • Earth, Water and Sky –A Conversation with Pierre Gentine, a new Columbia Water Center Scientist

    Earth, Water and Sky –A Conversation with Pierre Gentine, a new Columbia Water Center Scientist

    Columbia Water Center welcomes Pierre Gentine, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, as an affiliate researcher. Pierre’s groundbreaking research on the way soil moisture interacts with the atmosphere has implications for many of CWCs initiatives—from developing more efficient irrigation systems, to water resource management, to understanding floods.…

  • Switchyard Project: New Sampling Record

    Switchyard Project: New Sampling Record

    On May 10, we celebrated the sampling of our 10th station yesterday. These are more stations than we were ever able to get water samples from. Because of the ongoing good weather, we will certainly get one more station today, and hopefully many more during the next couple of days. So watch the posted video and celebrate with…

  • Switchyard Project: Sampling Success

    Switchyard Project: Sampling Success

    The past 1½ weeks have been very successful. Our team from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was able to obtain water samples from eight stations, while the team from the University of Washington has already broken their all-time record of the past years of 18 stations. Today (May 7) is actually the first day we can’t fly…