State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: drought3

  • Yes, Climate Change is Making Wildfires Worse

    Yes, Climate Change is Making Wildfires Worse

    Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has found that rising temperatures influence wildfires in the American West.

  • Researchers Say an 1800s Global Famine Could Happen Again

    Researchers Say an 1800s Global Famine Could Happen Again

    The Global Famine was one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history, killing as many people as World War II. A new analysis suggests it could happen again, only worse because of climate change.

  • Using Tree Ring Records to Decode Earth’s Climate History

    Using Tree Ring Records to Decode Earth’s Climate History

    An interview with Ed Cook, one of the founding directors of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

  • How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food

    How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food

    As the world population continues to grow, global demand for food could increase dramatically by 2050. Yet the impacts of climate change threaten to decrease the quantity and quality of our food supplies.

  • Upping Our Game: Crop Insurance Project Proves Wildly Successful

    Upping Our Game: Crop Insurance Project Proves Wildly Successful

    A weather index insurance tool is graduating from research project to commercial product.

  • Cape Town Water Crisis Highlights a Worldwide Problem

    Cape Town Water Crisis Highlights a Worldwide Problem

    Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center, explains South Africa’s water shortage and why places in the U.S. could be at risk, too.

  • What Caused the Great Famine?

    What Caused the Great Famine?

    Scientists are unraveling the driving forces of one of the worst environmental disasters in human history, in hopes of predicting and preparing for the next global drought.

  • In Biblical Land, Searching for Droughts Past and Future

    In Biblical Land, Searching for Droughts Past and Future

    Human-influenced climate warming has already reduced rainfall and increased evaporation in the Mideast, worsening water shortages. Up to now, climate scientists had projected that rainfall could decline another 20 percent by 2100. But the Dead Sea cores suggest that things could become much worse, much faster.

  • Photo Essay: The Dead Sea, Living Waters and Megadrought

    Photo Essay: The Dead Sea, Living Waters and Megadrought

    Thousands of years before Biblical times, during a period when temperatures were unusually high, the lands around the Dead Sea now occupied by Israel, Jordan and surrounding nations suffered megadroughts far worse than any recorded by humans. Warming climate now threatens to return such conditions to this already hard-pressed region.

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.
  • Yes, Climate Change is Making Wildfires Worse

    Yes, Climate Change is Making Wildfires Worse

    Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has found that rising temperatures influence wildfires in the American West.

  • Researchers Say an 1800s Global Famine Could Happen Again

    Researchers Say an 1800s Global Famine Could Happen Again

    The Global Famine was one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history, killing as many people as World War II. A new analysis suggests it could happen again, only worse because of climate change.

  • Using Tree Ring Records to Decode Earth’s Climate History

    Using Tree Ring Records to Decode Earth’s Climate History

    An interview with Ed Cook, one of the founding directors of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

  • How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food

    How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food

    As the world population continues to grow, global demand for food could increase dramatically by 2050. Yet the impacts of climate change threaten to decrease the quantity and quality of our food supplies.

  • Upping Our Game: Crop Insurance Project Proves Wildly Successful

    Upping Our Game: Crop Insurance Project Proves Wildly Successful

    A weather index insurance tool is graduating from research project to commercial product.

  • Cape Town Water Crisis Highlights a Worldwide Problem

    Cape Town Water Crisis Highlights a Worldwide Problem

    Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center, explains South Africa’s water shortage and why places in the U.S. could be at risk, too.

  • What Caused the Great Famine?

    What Caused the Great Famine?

    Scientists are unraveling the driving forces of one of the worst environmental disasters in human history, in hopes of predicting and preparing for the next global drought.

  • In Biblical Land, Searching for Droughts Past and Future

    In Biblical Land, Searching for Droughts Past and Future

    Human-influenced climate warming has already reduced rainfall and increased evaporation in the Mideast, worsening water shortages. Up to now, climate scientists had projected that rainfall could decline another 20 percent by 2100. But the Dead Sea cores suggest that things could become much worse, much faster.

  • Photo Essay: The Dead Sea, Living Waters and Megadrought

    Photo Essay: The Dead Sea, Living Waters and Megadrought

    Thousands of years before Biblical times, during a period when temperatures were unusually high, the lands around the Dead Sea now occupied by Israel, Jordan and surrounding nations suffered megadroughts far worse than any recorded by humans. Warming climate now threatens to return such conditions to this already hard-pressed region.