General118
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Faculty Profile: Jason Smerdon
“Much of sustainable development is about where the world is headed in the future, anticipating the changes that are to come and evaluating the choices that we have available to address them. But understanding how natural and socioeconomic systems will change in the future, including the climate system, often requires that we look to the…
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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…
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Sustainability Management Student Enhances Energy Efficiency Work
As a “career-changer,” M.S. in Sustainability Management (MSSM) student Laura Humphrey felt that she could not consider herself successful until her daily work reflected her core values. Currently, Laura works as a Senior Associate at ICF International in the Energy Efficiency division. Laura believes that her graduate studies have informed her work at ICF because…
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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.
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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,…
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Undergraduate Students Working Toward Sustainable Solutions
This spring, sustainable development seniors worked with clients on a range of projects aimed at combatting local and international challenges to sustainability, as part of the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development. Spring 2013 projects include the Department of Defense’s Net Zero Energy Initiative, Bike New York, the City as a Living Laboratory, and a Storm…
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I’ll Go on a Cross-Date if You Show Me Some Rings
Ever since I’ve started learning to cross-date tree core samples, I’ve learned I have a type. I prefer my tree cores to be black oaks, middle-aged, with some nice big rings to show me. Alright, fine, I can deal with some smaller rings every now and then. As long as they’re some nice marker rings.…
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Water Security: Finding Solutions for a World at Risk
“This is a mess, and it is a mess that we have not attended to yet,” Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs said at a conference on water security held today at Columbia University. “Humanity is the driver, but we don’t have our hands on the steering wheel very much.”
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Partnering to Expand Access to Water: PepsiCo and CWC Announce Achievement of Safe Water Goal
Earth Institute partner PepsiCo has achieved its stated goal of partnering with organizations, including the Columbia Water Center, to provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2015.
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
