State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Earth Sciences96

  • Fossil Fuels Do Far More Harm Than Nuclear Power

    Fossil Fuels Do Far More Harm Than Nuclear Power

    Pushker Kharecha and James E. Hansen write about their recent paper on the long-term health effects of nuclear power versus fossil fuels, and argue that nuclear power needs to be part of the solution to climate change.

  • Careers in Earth Science

    Careers in Earth Science

    Last year, President Obama launched Educate to Innovate, a campaign designed to improve the participation and performance of the nation’s students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

  • Plumbing the Deep Ocean Floor

    Plumbing the Deep Ocean Floor

    A video profile of the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository—the world’s largest collection of deep sea sediments, some as old as 100 million years. The 19,000 cores, largely collected by Lamont’s own research vessels, are a central resource for the global scientific community, which uses them for studies of earth’s past and current environment, especially in regard…

  • Greenhouse Gases Like Steroids for Extreme Weather

    Greenhouse Gases Like Steroids for Extreme Weather

    The fourth seminar in the Earth Institute’s Sustainable Development Seminar Series, “Ch Ch Ch Changes – recent trends in temperature extremes and hydroclimate,” brought together experts in the fields of climate change and hydrology to discuss emerging trends in global weather events.

  • Phosphorus: Essential to Life—Are We Running Out?

    Phosphorus: Essential to Life—Are We Running Out?

    Phosphorus is essential to human health and vital for food production. But are we using up phosphorus faster than we can economically extract it?

  • A Library of Giant Landslides

    A Library of Giant Landslides

    A new method for detecting big landslides is allowing scientists to understand the dynamics of these elusive events almost instantly, without traipsing to remote mountains or scrambling up rugged peaks months, or even years, later. In a recent study in the journal Science, Göran Ekström and Colin Stark, geophysicists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,…

  • Wastewater Injection Spurred Biggest Earthquake Yet, Says Study

    2011 Oklahoma Temblor Came Amid Increased Manmade Seismicity

  • Megavolcanoes Tied to Pre-Dinosaur Mass Extinction

    An Apparent Sudden Climate Shift Could Have Analog Today

  • A New Primer on Sea Level

    A New Primer on Sea Level

    The threat of sea-level rise–actually, its ongoing reality–has been on many more minds since New York and surrounding areas were walloped during Hurricane Sandy by a record-high storm surge, abetted by a water level that has risen steadily over the last century. That level will keep rising if climate keeps warming, and so, probably, will…

Overhead view of Columbia campus with text Columbia Climate School Class Day 2026: Congratulations Graduates

Congratulations to our Columbia Climate School Class of 2026 and all of our 2026 Columbia University graduates! Learn more about our May 15 Climate School Class Day celebration. 💙 #Columbia2026 #ColumbiaClimate2026

  • Fossil Fuels Do Far More Harm Than Nuclear Power

    Fossil Fuels Do Far More Harm Than Nuclear Power

    Pushker Kharecha and James E. Hansen write about their recent paper on the long-term health effects of nuclear power versus fossil fuels, and argue that nuclear power needs to be part of the solution to climate change.

  • Careers in Earth Science

    Careers in Earth Science

    Last year, President Obama launched Educate to Innovate, a campaign designed to improve the participation and performance of the nation’s students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

  • Plumbing the Deep Ocean Floor

    Plumbing the Deep Ocean Floor

    A video profile of the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository—the world’s largest collection of deep sea sediments, some as old as 100 million years. The 19,000 cores, largely collected by Lamont’s own research vessels, are a central resource for the global scientific community, which uses them for studies of earth’s past and current environment, especially in regard…

  • Greenhouse Gases Like Steroids for Extreme Weather

    Greenhouse Gases Like Steroids for Extreme Weather

    The fourth seminar in the Earth Institute’s Sustainable Development Seminar Series, “Ch Ch Ch Changes – recent trends in temperature extremes and hydroclimate,” brought together experts in the fields of climate change and hydrology to discuss emerging trends in global weather events.

  • Phosphorus: Essential to Life—Are We Running Out?

    Phosphorus: Essential to Life—Are We Running Out?

    Phosphorus is essential to human health and vital for food production. But are we using up phosphorus faster than we can economically extract it?

  • A Library of Giant Landslides

    A Library of Giant Landslides

    A new method for detecting big landslides is allowing scientists to understand the dynamics of these elusive events almost instantly, without traipsing to remote mountains or scrambling up rugged peaks months, or even years, later. In a recent study in the journal Science, Göran Ekström and Colin Stark, geophysicists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,…

  • Wastewater Injection Spurred Biggest Earthquake Yet, Says Study

    2011 Oklahoma Temblor Came Amid Increased Manmade Seismicity

  • Megavolcanoes Tied to Pre-Dinosaur Mass Extinction

    An Apparent Sudden Climate Shift Could Have Analog Today

  • A New Primer on Sea Level

    A New Primer on Sea Level

    The threat of sea-level rise–actually, its ongoing reality–has been on many more minds since New York and surrounding areas were walloped during Hurricane Sandy by a record-high storm surge, abetted by a water level that has risen steadily over the last century. That level will keep rising if climate keeps warming, and so, probably, will…