State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Water33

  • Sandy’s Surge Affected More Than 1.4 Million in 11 States

    Sandy’s Surge Affected More Than 1.4 Million in 11 States

    Based on a model used by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the map shows coastal areas likely to have been inundated by the storm surge resulting from Hurricane Sandy, in relationship to residential population.

  • Next, Imbabura

    Next, Imbabura

    Today was a much longer climb up Imbabura, passing through more páramo until reaching our first Polylepis trees. Conveniently, they were marked by a little wooden sign. These are the trees that I hope to sample next week on Chimborazo.

  • Climbing Fuya Fuya

    Climbing Fuya Fuya

    After trudging through the paramo, our route becomes a high-altitude scramble on an exposed rocky granite spine with sheer drop-offs on either side. The surge of adrenaline keeps our minds off the thin air.

  • Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    The water documentary “A Thirsty World” combines French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography with down-to-earth messages, a mélange that calls attention to problems of water security on a global scale.

  • Preparing for Chimborazo

    Preparing for Chimborazo

    I am staying with a friend’s family in Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, and tomorrow will meet up with my climbing partner, Pablo Puruncajas, to prepare for our expedition. I am here to collect tree ring samples and put up a weather station on Chimborazo, Ecuador’s tallest peak, to provide climate data about this region, which…

  • Bharungamari – End of the Road

    Bharungamari – End of the Road

    For our final installation, we had to go from the edge of the Bay of Bengal almost to Bangladesh’s northern border with India, a trip of over 350 miles. Along the way we stopped at Humayun’s childhood home, had several flats and picked up a student of Humayun’s from the town where we installed it.…

  • Hiron Point in Sundarban

    Hiron Point in Sundarban

    We traveled by boat to the south part of the Sundarbans near the Indian Ocean to install a GPS at Hiron Point, this isolated facility also hosts a tide gauge recording long-term water level changes due to rising sea level and land subsidence. Our GPS will help distinguish how much of each there is in…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Leaving Dhaka, we spend an entire day getting to Khepupara in southern Bangladesh. Then we spent a long morning installing a GPS to monitor subsidence of the delta before heading back on the road again.

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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!

  • Sandy’s Surge Affected More Than 1.4 Million in 11 States

    Sandy’s Surge Affected More Than 1.4 Million in 11 States

    Based on a model used by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the map shows coastal areas likely to have been inundated by the storm surge resulting from Hurricane Sandy, in relationship to residential population.

  • Next, Imbabura

    Next, Imbabura

    Today was a much longer climb up Imbabura, passing through more páramo until reaching our first Polylepis trees. Conveniently, they were marked by a little wooden sign. These are the trees that I hope to sample next week on Chimborazo.

  • Climbing Fuya Fuya

    Climbing Fuya Fuya

    After trudging through the paramo, our route becomes a high-altitude scramble on an exposed rocky granite spine with sheer drop-offs on either side. The surge of adrenaline keeps our minds off the thin air.

  • Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    Putting the Focus on ‘A Thirsty World’

    The water documentary “A Thirsty World” combines French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photography with down-to-earth messages, a mélange that calls attention to problems of water security on a global scale.

  • Preparing for Chimborazo

    Preparing for Chimborazo

    I am staying with a friend’s family in Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, and tomorrow will meet up with my climbing partner, Pablo Puruncajas, to prepare for our expedition. I am here to collect tree ring samples and put up a weather station on Chimborazo, Ecuador’s tallest peak, to provide climate data about this region, which…

  • Bharungamari – End of the Road

    Bharungamari – End of the Road

    For our final installation, we had to go from the edge of the Bay of Bengal almost to Bangladesh’s northern border with India, a trip of over 350 miles. Along the way we stopped at Humayun’s childhood home, had several flats and picked up a student of Humayun’s from the town where we installed it.…

  • Hiron Point in Sundarban

    Hiron Point in Sundarban

    We traveled by boat to the south part of the Sundarbans near the Indian Ocean to install a GPS at Hiron Point, this isolated facility also hosts a tide gauge recording long-term water level changes due to rising sea level and land subsidence. Our GPS will help distinguish how much of each there is in…

  • Polder 32

    Polder 32

    Polder 32 is one of the many inland islands in Bangladesh that was enclosed by an embankment to protect it from flooding. When that embankment failed during Cyclone Aila in 2009, the island was flooded for almost 2 years. Subsidence of the ground inside the embankment with no sedimentation to compensate made it worse. We…

  • Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Khepupara to Kokilmoni

    Leaving Dhaka, we spend an entire day getting to Khepupara in southern Bangladesh. Then we spent a long morning installing a GPS to monitor subsidence of the delta before heading back on the road again.