State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Natural Disasters45

  • Seismic Stomp

    Seismic Stomp

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Natalie Accardo recently returned from Tanzania and Malawi, where she installed seismic instruments in both countries alongside Lamont seismologists Donna Shillington and Jim Gaherty. Natalie produced this video, which shows the scientists and their Tanzanian colleagues conducting a “stomp test” at one of their sites in the Tanzanian village of…

  • Our Fiscal Year Ends June 30: Donate Now to Help Us Finish Strong!

    Our Fiscal Year Ends June 30: Donate Now to Help Us Finish Strong!

    The end of our fiscal year is just one week away and we need your support more than ever. This year, the generosity of Earth Institute supporters allowed our award-winning scientists and researchers to pursue groundbreaking initiatives in the fields of earth and environmental sciences, ecology, engineering and architecture, law, medicine and public health, economics,…

  • 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…

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

  • Seismic Stomp

    Seismic Stomp

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Natalie Accardo recently returned from Tanzania and Malawi, where she installed seismic instruments in both countries alongside Lamont seismologists Donna Shillington and Jim Gaherty. Natalie produced this video, which shows the scientists and their Tanzanian colleagues conducting a “stomp test” at one of their sites in the Tanzanian village of…

  • Our Fiscal Year Ends June 30: Donate Now to Help Us Finish Strong!

    Our Fiscal Year Ends June 30: Donate Now to Help Us Finish Strong!

    The end of our fiscal year is just one week away and we need your support more than ever. This year, the generosity of Earth Institute supporters allowed our award-winning scientists and researchers to pursue groundbreaking initiatives in the fields of earth and environmental sciences, ecology, engineering and architecture, law, medicine and public health, economics,…

  • 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…