State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

General47

  • Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids, networks of linked energy sources that are connected to the main grid, but are able to operate independently if power is lost, are the building blocks of the 21st century smart grid. Why aren’t there more of them?

  • Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant Positions Open

    Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant Positions Open

    The Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development is currently accepting applications for fall semester 2017 teaching assistant positions. Applicants must be current full-time Columbia University students enrolled in a degree granting program. Applications will only be accepted by graduate students and undergraduate juniors or seniors.

  • Institute Seeks Book Proposals for Sustainability Primers

    Institute Seeks Book Proposals for Sustainability Primers

    The Education Committee of the Earth Institute faculty is seeking book proposals for a new series of sustainability primers to be published by Columbia University Press. Proposals are due by May 29, 2017.

  • Tell the World Your Columbia Sustainability Story

    Tell the World Your Columbia Sustainability Story

    Have a great Columbia sustainability story to tell? ColumbiaYOU is a story-sharing platform that celebrates the rich and diverse Columbia community—in other words, YOU. We’re inviting you—students, alumni, faculty and researchers—to share your sustainability story just in time for Earth Day, April 22.

  • Earth Institute Photography Exhibit Opens at Low Memorial Library

    Earth Institute Photography Exhibit Opens at Low Memorial Library

    A new photography exhibit in the Rotunda at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library highlights the variety and global reach of the Earth Institute’s mission

  • Patient Capital: Financing Nonprofits

    Patient Capital: Financing Nonprofits

    Nonprofit organizations face pressures to focus spending on external operations and pull back on central administrative costs, but this emphasis can undermine the ability of the organization to effectively deliver its services. The concept of “patient capital” offers another point of view.

  • What’s So Funny About Science?

    What’s So Funny About Science?

    An astrophysicist, a TV comedy writer and the author of an opera about the Big Bang walk into a room…

  • ‘Tail Risk’: a Chat with Scientist Radley Horton

    ‘Tail Risk’: a Chat with Scientist Radley Horton

    We’re talking to experts around the Earth Institute about what they’re working on, what they would like people to know about it, and what inspired them to go into their field.

  • James Hansen Honored for Pioneering Work in Climate Change Modeling

    James Hansen Honored for Pioneering Work in Climate Change Modeling

    James Hansen, director of the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at the Earth Institute and former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is being honored with the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change.

Photo of the Earth from space with the text "Lamont at AGU25" on top.

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

  • Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids, networks of linked energy sources that are connected to the main grid, but are able to operate independently if power is lost, are the building blocks of the 21st century smart grid. Why aren’t there more of them?

  • Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant Positions Open

    Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant Positions Open

    The Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development is currently accepting applications for fall semester 2017 teaching assistant positions. Applicants must be current full-time Columbia University students enrolled in a degree granting program. Applications will only be accepted by graduate students and undergraduate juniors or seniors.

  • Institute Seeks Book Proposals for Sustainability Primers

    Institute Seeks Book Proposals for Sustainability Primers

    The Education Committee of the Earth Institute faculty is seeking book proposals for a new series of sustainability primers to be published by Columbia University Press. Proposals are due by May 29, 2017.

  • Tell the World Your Columbia Sustainability Story

    Tell the World Your Columbia Sustainability Story

    Have a great Columbia sustainability story to tell? ColumbiaYOU is a story-sharing platform that celebrates the rich and diverse Columbia community—in other words, YOU. We’re inviting you—students, alumni, faculty and researchers—to share your sustainability story just in time for Earth Day, April 22.

  • Earth Institute Photography Exhibit Opens at Low Memorial Library

    Earth Institute Photography Exhibit Opens at Low Memorial Library

    A new photography exhibit in the Rotunda at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library highlights the variety and global reach of the Earth Institute’s mission

  • Patient Capital: Financing Nonprofits

    Patient Capital: Financing Nonprofits

    Nonprofit organizations face pressures to focus spending on external operations and pull back on central administrative costs, but this emphasis can undermine the ability of the organization to effectively deliver its services. The concept of “patient capital” offers another point of view.

  • What’s So Funny About Science?

    What’s So Funny About Science?

    An astrophysicist, a TV comedy writer and the author of an opera about the Big Bang walk into a room…

  • ‘Tail Risk’: a Chat with Scientist Radley Horton

    ‘Tail Risk’: a Chat with Scientist Radley Horton

    We’re talking to experts around the Earth Institute about what they’re working on, what they would like people to know about it, and what inspired them to go into their field.

  • James Hansen Honored for Pioneering Work in Climate Change Modeling

    James Hansen Honored for Pioneering Work in Climate Change Modeling

    James Hansen, director of the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at the Earth Institute and former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is being honored with the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change.