State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Ecology39

  • Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    On a high ridge in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, paleontologist Paul Olsen sits on the fallen trunk of a 215-million-year-old tree, now turned to stone. The tree once loomed 70 or 80 feet above a riverine landscape teeming with fish, turtles, giant crocodilians and tiny, early species of dinosaurs.

  • Photo Essay: Unearthing the Lost World Below a Petrified Forest

    Photo Essay: Unearthing the Lost World Below a Petrified Forest

    In Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, researchers are scouring the fossil-rich surface and drilling deep into ancient rocks to learn what happened during the late Triassic, some 201 million to 235 million years ago.

  • Lords of the Past

    Lords of the Past

    With life, legged and finned, Earth had been teeming, Slitherers, predators, graceful trees tall … Now, of these species, we are only dreaming: Glossopteris, trilobites, eurypterids, all.

  • Getting a Whiff of Climate Change

    Getting a Whiff of Climate Change

    Monday was the day when millions of people in New York and New Jersey learned what climate change smells like, or at least what one of its aromas is.

  • Climate Change: a Matter of Public Health

    Climate Change: a Matter of Public Health

    People have tried to cast climate change as an environmental issue, a social justice issue and a development issue. Madeleine Thomson of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society argues climate change can be understood much better if we consider it an issue of global public health.

  • Student Research Showcase 2014

    Student Research Showcase 2014

    The Earth Institute, Columbia University was proud to support student research in the areas of environment and sustainable development at the annual Student Research Showcase on April 25, 2014. Student interns, research assistants and travel grant recipients, and their Faculty and Research Advisors, were honored for their research contributions that ranged in topics from biodiversity,…

  • In Haiti, Exploring What Drives People to Alter the Landscape

    In Haiti, Exploring What Drives People to Alter the Landscape

    Study of the Pedernales Watershed, located along Haiti’s southern national boundary with the Dominican Republic, may provide insights into the stark contrast in land cover patterns between the two countries.

  • IPCC Says Managing Risks of Climate Change is Critical

    IPCC Says Managing Risks of Climate Change is Critical

    Among the key findings of the WGII AR5 Report chapter on human security, a topic highlighted in the Report for the first time, is that societies in conflict are more vulnerable to climate change.

  • Certificate Program: Black Rock Forest Case Study

    Certificate Program: Black Rock Forest Case Study

    Forests are a vitally important habitat for much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. During this class you will learn key issues in forest ecology and management through an all-day field trip to Black Rock Forest, and study how pathogens and other invasive species affect forest structure and function.

Banner with images representing environmental issues and text "You Asked: Our Scientists and Experts Answer Your Burning Questions."

You Asked invites you to share your most pressing questions about climate, science, and sustainability. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School experts will respond with clear, evidence-based answers. Pose your questions and story ideas!

  • Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    On a high ridge in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, paleontologist Paul Olsen sits on the fallen trunk of a 215-million-year-old tree, now turned to stone. The tree once loomed 70 or 80 feet above a riverine landscape teeming with fish, turtles, giant crocodilians and tiny, early species of dinosaurs.

  • Photo Essay: Unearthing the Lost World Below a Petrified Forest

    Photo Essay: Unearthing the Lost World Below a Petrified Forest

    In Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, researchers are scouring the fossil-rich surface and drilling deep into ancient rocks to learn what happened during the late Triassic, some 201 million to 235 million years ago.

  • Lords of the Past

    Lords of the Past

    With life, legged and finned, Earth had been teeming, Slitherers, predators, graceful trees tall … Now, of these species, we are only dreaming: Glossopteris, trilobites, eurypterids, all.

  • Getting a Whiff of Climate Change

    Getting a Whiff of Climate Change

    Monday was the day when millions of people in New York and New Jersey learned what climate change smells like, or at least what one of its aromas is.

  • Climate Change: a Matter of Public Health

    Climate Change: a Matter of Public Health

    People have tried to cast climate change as an environmental issue, a social justice issue and a development issue. Madeleine Thomson of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society argues climate change can be understood much better if we consider it an issue of global public health.

  • Student Research Showcase 2014

    Student Research Showcase 2014

    The Earth Institute, Columbia University was proud to support student research in the areas of environment and sustainable development at the annual Student Research Showcase on April 25, 2014. Student interns, research assistants and travel grant recipients, and their Faculty and Research Advisors, were honored for their research contributions that ranged in topics from biodiversity,…

  • In Haiti, Exploring What Drives People to Alter the Landscape

    In Haiti, Exploring What Drives People to Alter the Landscape

    Study of the Pedernales Watershed, located along Haiti’s southern national boundary with the Dominican Republic, may provide insights into the stark contrast in land cover patterns between the two countries.

  • IPCC Says Managing Risks of Climate Change is Critical

    IPCC Says Managing Risks of Climate Change is Critical

    Among the key findings of the WGII AR5 Report chapter on human security, a topic highlighted in the Report for the first time, is that societies in conflict are more vulnerable to climate change.

  • Certificate Program: Black Rock Forest Case Study

    Certificate Program: Black Rock Forest Case Study

    Forests are a vitally important habitat for much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. During this class you will learn key issues in forest ecology and management through an all-day field trip to Black Rock Forest, and study how pathogens and other invasive species affect forest structure and function.