State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

climate variability3

  • El Niño and a Pathogen Killed Costa Rican Toad, Study Finds

    Challenges Evidence That Global Warming Was the Cause

  • El Niño Conditions Imminent

    According to Tony Barnston at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, El Niño conditions are now evolving in the tropical Pacific. El Niño is the name given to sustained sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies greater than 0.5°C across the central tropical Pacific Ocean; it is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern…

  • Innovative Insurance Aims to Buffer Poor from Climate Risks

    New Report Details Policies Based on Weather

  • East African Drought Linked to Climate Change?

    When African finance and environmental ministers met last month to discuss climate-related challenges to the Millennium Development Goals, East African rains were on the agenda. Millions of Kenyans currently face food shortages as a result of successive failed rains, and periodic droughts cost the region 5-8% of GDP. A look at the climatology reveals that…

  • Health people, meet climate people!

    Since Monday, 12 public-health professionals and climate scientists from ten countries have been at Columbia University’s Lamont campus to learn how to use climate information to make better decisions in health-care planning and disease prevention. They’re taking part in the second Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health, organized by the International Research Institute…

  • Water Expert Wins Presidential Award

    Water-resources expert Casey Brown has been named one of 56 recipients of the 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor given by the U.S. government that recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their career. Brown is a scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate…

  • Q&A with Akong Charles Ndika, M.A. in Climate and Society Alumnus

    Q&A with Akong Charles Ndika, M.A. in Climate and Society Alumnus Akong Charles Ndika was a student in the first Climate and Society class to graduate in 2005. Prior to beginning the Climate and Society program, Ndika worked as an environmental and energy policy journalist and activist with Global Village, and NGO in his home country of…

  • In Philippines, El Niño Means Drought

    Casey Brown arrived in Manila in early November on the heels of Typhoon Cimaron, a “super typhoon” that clocked 125-mile-per-hour winds. It was the second deadliest typhoon to hit the island nation since 1998. But for Manila, home to more than 10 million people, it is drought — not typhoons — that has led to…

  • Climate Forecasting Systems Help Predict Malaria Risk in Africa

    A recent study published in Nature shows that climate forecasts can help predict malaria epidemics many months in advance. These predictions can alert health service managers to changes in epidemic risk five months before the peak malaria season and four months earlier than predictions based on actual rainfall. The study appears in the February 2…

  • El Niño and a Pathogen Killed Costa Rican Toad, Study Finds

    Challenges Evidence That Global Warming Was the Cause

  • El Niño Conditions Imminent

    According to Tony Barnston at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, El Niño conditions are now evolving in the tropical Pacific. El Niño is the name given to sustained sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies greater than 0.5°C across the central tropical Pacific Ocean; it is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern…

  • Innovative Insurance Aims to Buffer Poor from Climate Risks

    New Report Details Policies Based on Weather

  • East African Drought Linked to Climate Change?

    When African finance and environmental ministers met last month to discuss climate-related challenges to the Millennium Development Goals, East African rains were on the agenda. Millions of Kenyans currently face food shortages as a result of successive failed rains, and periodic droughts cost the region 5-8% of GDP. A look at the climatology reveals that…

  • Health people, meet climate people!

    Since Monday, 12 public-health professionals and climate scientists from ten countries have been at Columbia University’s Lamont campus to learn how to use climate information to make better decisions in health-care planning and disease prevention. They’re taking part in the second Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health, organized by the International Research Institute…

  • Water Expert Wins Presidential Award

    Water-resources expert Casey Brown has been named one of 56 recipients of the 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor given by the U.S. government that recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their career. Brown is a scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate…

  • Q&A with Akong Charles Ndika, M.A. in Climate and Society Alumnus

    Q&A with Akong Charles Ndika, M.A. in Climate and Society Alumnus Akong Charles Ndika was a student in the first Climate and Society class to graduate in 2005. Prior to beginning the Climate and Society program, Ndika worked as an environmental and energy policy journalist and activist with Global Village, and NGO in his home country of…

  • In Philippines, El Niño Means Drought

    Casey Brown arrived in Manila in early November on the heels of Typhoon Cimaron, a “super typhoon” that clocked 125-mile-per-hour winds. It was the second deadliest typhoon to hit the island nation since 1998. But for Manila, home to more than 10 million people, it is drought — not typhoons — that has led to…

  • Climate Forecasting Systems Help Predict Malaria Risk in Africa

    A recent study published in Nature shows that climate forecasts can help predict malaria epidemics many months in advance. These predictions can alert health service managers to changes in epidemic risk five months before the peak malaria season and four months earlier than predictions based on actual rainfall. The study appears in the February 2…