State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Natural Disasters45

  • Fund Pledges $2.5 Million for Disaster Preparedness Center

    Fund Pledges $2.5 Million for Disaster Preparedness Center

    The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute maintains a strong working partnership with the Children’s Health Fund, a national organization that supports pediatric care for underserved children. Over the past decade, the center has engaged in a number of projects funded by the fund, which recently announced its renewed support with a…

  • Project Aims to Strengthen Climate Resilience

    Project Aims to Strengthen Climate Resilience

    The Caribbean, Asia’s Indo-Gangetic Plain and West Africa are three regions known to be extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change, particularly to droughts, extreme weather events and stresses on food production, water resources and coastal areas. A new five-year project jointly led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the University…

  • 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.

  • Keeping an Eye on Coastal Erosion

    Keeping an Eye on Coastal Erosion

    Searching for a fast, simple and low-cost way to monitor Earth’s changing coastlines, a team of scientists, including Lamont-Doherty Observatory postdoctoral researcher and marine scientist Alessio Rovere, has found an innovative use for drones.

  • Bricks, an Archeological Site and Home

    Bricks, an Archeological Site and Home

    It was time to pack up and leave. Shofiq, who is from Sylhet, was dropped off near his home and the fellowship of the rocks was broken. We settled in for another long drive. We made an impromptu stop at one of the numerous brick factories scattered across Bangladesh. Here, the workers immediately started snapping…

  • Field School: Sylhet Tectonics

    Field School: Sylhet Tectonics

    Most field trips have a “death march” hiking a long way through forest, swamps, hills or deserts to get to a remote outcrop. We have a “death bus ride” instead.

  • Mekong Delta and Three Gorges Dam: World’s First Climate Change Resettlements?

    Mekong Delta and Three Gorges Dam: World’s First Climate Change Resettlements?

    Many resettlers are economically better off, but the dislocations remain significant, especially for older resettlers, who have a harder time getting work in the newly developed industrial sector. Although the plight of some resettlers has been quite difficult (one older man competed fiercely to serve as a porter for us for the royal sum of…

  • A Life Well Mapped

    A Life Well Mapped

    Mark Becker believed in the power of geospatial data and analysis to motivate our stewardship of the environment and guide development of sustainable approaches that balance human and environmental needs.

  • Field School: The Brahmaputra River

    Field School: The Brahmaputra River

    The first day was very light for the jet-lagged students, just a short introduction to the field school and some background, and then introductions all around as we started to get to know each other. The final group of nine students finally arrived around 9 p.m. They were the most worn-out, bedraggled bunch of travelers…

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

  • Fund Pledges $2.5 Million for Disaster Preparedness Center

    Fund Pledges $2.5 Million for Disaster Preparedness Center

    The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute maintains a strong working partnership with the Children’s Health Fund, a national organization that supports pediatric care for underserved children. Over the past decade, the center has engaged in a number of projects funded by the fund, which recently announced its renewed support with a…

  • Project Aims to Strengthen Climate Resilience

    Project Aims to Strengthen Climate Resilience

    The Caribbean, Asia’s Indo-Gangetic Plain and West Africa are three regions known to be extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change, particularly to droughts, extreme weather events and stresses on food production, water resources and coastal areas. A new five-year project jointly led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the University…

  • 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.

  • Keeping an Eye on Coastal Erosion

    Keeping an Eye on Coastal Erosion

    Searching for a fast, simple and low-cost way to monitor Earth’s changing coastlines, a team of scientists, including Lamont-Doherty Observatory postdoctoral researcher and marine scientist Alessio Rovere, has found an innovative use for drones.

  • Bricks, an Archeological Site and Home

    Bricks, an Archeological Site and Home

    It was time to pack up and leave. Shofiq, who is from Sylhet, was dropped off near his home and the fellowship of the rocks was broken. We settled in for another long drive. We made an impromptu stop at one of the numerous brick factories scattered across Bangladesh. Here, the workers immediately started snapping…

  • Field School: Sylhet Tectonics

    Field School: Sylhet Tectonics

    Most field trips have a “death march” hiking a long way through forest, swamps, hills or deserts to get to a remote outcrop. We have a “death bus ride” instead.

  • Mekong Delta and Three Gorges Dam: World’s First Climate Change Resettlements?

    Mekong Delta and Three Gorges Dam: World’s First Climate Change Resettlements?

    Many resettlers are economically better off, but the dislocations remain significant, especially for older resettlers, who have a harder time getting work in the newly developed industrial sector. Although the plight of some resettlers has been quite difficult (one older man competed fiercely to serve as a porter for us for the royal sum of…

  • A Life Well Mapped

    A Life Well Mapped

    Mark Becker believed in the power of geospatial data and analysis to motivate our stewardship of the environment and guide development of sustainable approaches that balance human and environmental needs.

  • Field School: The Brahmaputra River

    Field School: The Brahmaputra River

    The first day was very light for the jet-lagged students, just a short introduction to the field school and some background, and then introductions all around as we started to get to know each other. The final group of nine students finally arrived around 9 p.m. They were the most worn-out, bedraggled bunch of travelers…