The beneficial effects of rising CO2 for plants disappear 
under flooding, a 33-year field experiment reveals.

We’re developing the tools to slow and reverse climate change. If we succeed, our species will be managing the planet’s atmosphere indefinitely.

CO2 molecules make up only a small percentage of the atmosphere, but their impact on our climate is huge. The reason comes down to physics and chemistry.

If CO2 is heavier than oxygen, why doesn’t it stay near the ground? The short answer: Earth’s atmosphere isn’t like a sealed bottle of wine.

Short answer: A little bit goes a long way.

Researchers and businesses are finding innovative ways to use carbon dioxide captured from power plants or the air.

An Earth Institute climate researcher breaks down why our atmosphere is the way it is, how it’s changed over time, and what the future may hold.

As the Arctic warms, the unfreezing of permafrost poses a threat to the planet.

The skin of the Earth is the color of tar,
Ridged, freshly healed like the seams of a scar.
Through salt-spattered sky, a gray-winged gull sails;
Steam gently rises, the island exhales.

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 first Earth remote sensing satellite dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide from space.