State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

climate37

  • A River Runs Through It: Predicting Floods in the Midwest

    A River Runs Through It: Predicting Floods in the Midwest

    Focusing on the American Midwest, Andrew Robertson analyzes the relationships between floods, weather and climate patters throughout the 20th century.

  • Tree Rings and Teachable Moments

    Tree Rings and Teachable Moments

    Nicole Davi, a postdoctoral scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, thinks tree rings are an ideal way to motivate students to collect and analyze data as well as to learn about climate change.

  • Managing Hazard Risk and Weather Extremes at AGU

    Managing Hazard Risk and Weather Extremes at AGU

    Researchers from the Earth Institute’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions will present their work at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco this week. Psychology doctoral candidate Katherine Thompson will present a poster entitled “The Psychology of Hazard Risk Perception”; and visiting research scholar Diana Reckien will present a poster entitled “Realities…

  • Predicting the Future of Soy in South America

    Predicting the Future of Soy in South America

    In this Q&A, Arthur M. Greene discusses improving climate and agricultural modeling in South America using a new stochastic simulation of future climate.

  • Visualizing Malaria from Space

    Visualizing Malaria from Space

    Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the impact climate variability and change can have on infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and bacterial meningitis. However, in order to study the relationships between climate and …

  • We Don’t Know All About Hurricanes–But We Know Enough to Act

    We Don’t Know All About Hurricanes–But We Know Enough to Act

    Sandy instantly brought a new kind of national media attention to the influence of global warming on weather disasters. After several years of near-silence on climate from our political leaders and the mainstream media, the renewed attention is profoundly welcome.

  • Expanding Our Vision Brings the Big Picture Into Focus

    Expanding Our Vision Brings the Big Picture Into Focus

    1500 feet above the ground surface is where our suite of instruments normally operates, but for this flight we are taking them up higher, much higher, in fact over 20 times our normal range to 33,000 feet. Our flight plan is to repeat lines surveyed in a previous years by NASA’s Land, Vegetation Ice Sensor…

  • 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.

  • The Story at Ronne

    The Story at Ronne

    Named after Edith Ronne, the first American woman to set foot on this southern continent, the Ronne Ice Shelf is tucked just to the East of the Antarctic Peninsula on the backside of the Transantarctic Mountains. With an area measured at 422,000 square kms, this is the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica. This vast…

Photo of the Earth from space with the text "Lamont at AGU25" on top.

AGU25, the premier Earth and space science conference, takes place December 15-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s theme—Where Science Connects Us—puts in focus how science depends on connection, from the lab to the field to the ballot box. Once again, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School scientists, experts, students, and educators are playing an active role, sharing our research and helping shape the future of our planet. #AGU25 Learn More

  • A River Runs Through It: Predicting Floods in the Midwest

    A River Runs Through It: Predicting Floods in the Midwest

    Focusing on the American Midwest, Andrew Robertson analyzes the relationships between floods, weather and climate patters throughout the 20th century.

  • Tree Rings and Teachable Moments

    Tree Rings and Teachable Moments

    Nicole Davi, a postdoctoral scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, thinks tree rings are an ideal way to motivate students to collect and analyze data as well as to learn about climate change.

  • Managing Hazard Risk and Weather Extremes at AGU

    Managing Hazard Risk and Weather Extremes at AGU

    Researchers from the Earth Institute’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions will present their work at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco this week. Psychology doctoral candidate Katherine Thompson will present a poster entitled “The Psychology of Hazard Risk Perception”; and visiting research scholar Diana Reckien will present a poster entitled “Realities…

  • Predicting the Future of Soy in South America

    Predicting the Future of Soy in South America

    In this Q&A, Arthur M. Greene discusses improving climate and agricultural modeling in South America using a new stochastic simulation of future climate.

  • Visualizing Malaria from Space

    Visualizing Malaria from Space

    Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the impact climate variability and change can have on infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and bacterial meningitis. However, in order to study the relationships between climate and …

  • We Don’t Know All About Hurricanes–But We Know Enough to Act

    We Don’t Know All About Hurricanes–But We Know Enough to Act

    Sandy instantly brought a new kind of national media attention to the influence of global warming on weather disasters. After several years of near-silence on climate from our political leaders and the mainstream media, the renewed attention is profoundly welcome.

  • Expanding Our Vision Brings the Big Picture Into Focus

    Expanding Our Vision Brings the Big Picture Into Focus

    1500 feet above the ground surface is where our suite of instruments normally operates, but for this flight we are taking them up higher, much higher, in fact over 20 times our normal range to 33,000 feet. Our flight plan is to repeat lines surveyed in a previous years by NASA’s Land, Vegetation Ice Sensor…

  • 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.

  • The Story at Ronne

    The Story at Ronne

    Named after Edith Ronne, the first American woman to set foot on this southern continent, the Ronne Ice Shelf is tucked just to the East of the Antarctic Peninsula on the backside of the Transantarctic Mountains. With an area measured at 422,000 square kms, this is the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica. This vast…