State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: carbon dioxide

  • You Asked: Dinosaurs Survived When CO2 Was Extremely High. Why Can’t Humans?

    You Asked: Dinosaurs Survived When CO2 Was Extremely High. Why Can’t Humans?

    Our expert says: Although carbon dioxide levels have been much higher in the past, they generally increased slowly, giving plants and animals time to adapt. When the rate of climate change was staggeringly fast, like today, there were big problems.

  • Space Glaciers: Carbon Dioxide Ice Forms Glaciers on Mars

    Space Glaciers: Carbon Dioxide Ice Forms Glaciers on Mars

    A modeling study recently found that the carbon dioxide ice deposits at the South Pole of Mars flow as glaciers do, highlighting the importance of understanding ice in outer space.

  • Taro Takahashi, Who Uncovered Key Links Between Oceans and Climate

    Taro Takahashi, Who Uncovered Key Links Between Oceans and Climate

    Taro Takahashi, a seagoing scientist who made key discoveries about carbon dioxide and the earth’s climate, has died. In a career spanning more than 60 years, he and his colleagues documented how the oceans both absorb and give off huge amounts of carbon dioxide, exchanging it with the atmosphere.

  • As Oceans Warm, Microbes Could Pump More CO2 Back Into Air, Study Warns

    As Oceans Warm, Microbes Could Pump More CO2 Back Into Air, Study Warns

    A new study suggests bacteria may respire more carbon dioxide from the shallow oceans to the air as seas warm, reducing the deep oceans’ ability to store carbon.

  • Where Is All That Carbon Dioxide Going?

    Where Is All That Carbon Dioxide Going?

    Concurrent with the announcement that human carbon emissions reached a new peak this year, Galen McKinley, a researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, discusses the difficulties of tracking the sources and destinations of carbon dioxide.

  • The Science of Carbon Dioxide and Climate

    The Science of Carbon Dioxide and Climate

    The vast majority of scientists around the world agree that our climate is changing at a faster rate than ever recorded in human history because of our use of fuels such as coal and oil, so-called fossil fuels. The conclusion rests on basic physics known since the early 1800s, when physical scientists first recognized that…

  • In the Southern Ocean, a Carbon-Dioxide Mystery Comes Clear

    In the Southern Ocean, a Carbon-Dioxide Mystery Comes Clear

    Twenty thousand years ago, low concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere allowed the earth to fall into the grip of an ice age. But despite decades of research, the reasons why levels of the greenhouse gas were so low then have been difficult to piece together. New research, published today in the leading journal…

  • Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Scientists have developed a new approach to modeling the water and carbon cycles in the Amazon that could lead to better climate forecasts and improved water resource management.

  • Solving the Mysteries of Carbon Dioxide

    Solving the Mysteries of Carbon Dioxide

    About 50 percent of the CO2 produced by human activity remains in the atmosphere, warming the planet. But scientists don’t know where and how oceans and plants have absorbed the rest of the manmade CO2. To try to answer these questions, on July 2, 2014, NASA launched the $468 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), its…

Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.
  • You Asked: Dinosaurs Survived When CO2 Was Extremely High. Why Can’t Humans?

    You Asked: Dinosaurs Survived When CO2 Was Extremely High. Why Can’t Humans?

    Our expert says: Although carbon dioxide levels have been much higher in the past, they generally increased slowly, giving plants and animals time to adapt. When the rate of climate change was staggeringly fast, like today, there were big problems.

  • Space Glaciers: Carbon Dioxide Ice Forms Glaciers on Mars

    Space Glaciers: Carbon Dioxide Ice Forms Glaciers on Mars

    A modeling study recently found that the carbon dioxide ice deposits at the South Pole of Mars flow as glaciers do, highlighting the importance of understanding ice in outer space.

  • Taro Takahashi, Who Uncovered Key Links Between Oceans and Climate

    Taro Takahashi, Who Uncovered Key Links Between Oceans and Climate

    Taro Takahashi, a seagoing scientist who made key discoveries about carbon dioxide and the earth’s climate, has died. In a career spanning more than 60 years, he and his colleagues documented how the oceans both absorb and give off huge amounts of carbon dioxide, exchanging it with the atmosphere.

  • As Oceans Warm, Microbes Could Pump More CO2 Back Into Air, Study Warns

    As Oceans Warm, Microbes Could Pump More CO2 Back Into Air, Study Warns

    A new study suggests bacteria may respire more carbon dioxide from the shallow oceans to the air as seas warm, reducing the deep oceans’ ability to store carbon.

  • Where Is All That Carbon Dioxide Going?

    Where Is All That Carbon Dioxide Going?

    Concurrent with the announcement that human carbon emissions reached a new peak this year, Galen McKinley, a researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, discusses the difficulties of tracking the sources and destinations of carbon dioxide.

  • The Science of Carbon Dioxide and Climate

    The Science of Carbon Dioxide and Climate

    The vast majority of scientists around the world agree that our climate is changing at a faster rate than ever recorded in human history because of our use of fuels such as coal and oil, so-called fossil fuels. The conclusion rests on basic physics known since the early 1800s, when physical scientists first recognized that…

  • In the Southern Ocean, a Carbon-Dioxide Mystery Comes Clear

    In the Southern Ocean, a Carbon-Dioxide Mystery Comes Clear

    Twenty thousand years ago, low concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere allowed the earth to fall into the grip of an ice age. But despite decades of research, the reasons why levels of the greenhouse gas were so low then have been difficult to piece together. New research, published today in the leading journal…

  • Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Scientists have developed a new approach to modeling the water and carbon cycles in the Amazon that could lead to better climate forecasts and improved water resource management.

  • Solving the Mysteries of Carbon Dioxide

    Solving the Mysteries of Carbon Dioxide

    About 50 percent of the CO2 produced by human activity remains in the atmosphere, warming the planet. But scientists don’t know where and how oceans and plants have absorbed the rest of the manmade CO2. To try to answer these questions, on July 2, 2014, NASA launched the $468 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), its…