State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Greenland5

  • The Damaging Effects of Black Carbon

    The Damaging Effects of Black Carbon

    Air pollution, both outdoors and indoors, causes millions of premature deaths each year. The deaths are mainly caused by the inhalation of particulate matter, especially black carbon. But black carbon not only has impacts on human health, it also affects visibility, harms ecosystems, reduces agricultural productivity and exacerbates global warming.

  • A Prize-Winner Explains His Work

    A Prize-Winner Explains His Work

    Nicolás Young studies glaciers and ice sheets, and how they’ve changed in the past. His work earned him the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists last fall, which came with a $30,000 prize. You can hear him talk about his research in this new video, produced by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

  • Greenland Glaciers Retreating Faster than Any Time in Past 9,500 Years

    Greenland Glaciers Retreating Faster than Any Time in Past 9,500 Years

    A new study uses sediment cores to track the expansion and retreat of glaciers through time, and finds that they are retreating quickly and are more sensitive to temperature change than previously realized.

  • Melting Ice, Suntanned Rocks and an Award-Winning Postdoc

    Melting Ice, Suntanned Rocks and an Award-Winning Postdoc

    Nicolás Young was just named a winner of a 2015 Blavatnik Award for his work measuring ice sheets in changing climates of the past. His new projects are taking glacier tracking to the next level.

  • The Changing Upernavik Waterfront

    The Changing Upernavik Waterfront

    Project Background: Changing conditions in Greenland’s northwest glaciers over the last decade have led to a range of questions about water temperature and circulation patterns in the fjords where ocean water meets the glacial fronts.

  • Greenland Ice

    Greenland Ice

    If you went to Greenland, almost 80 North, And drilled your way down … a mile, then more, You’d find some strange layers, a story’d come forth A record of ice ages locked in a core.

  • 400 ppm World, Part 2: Rising Seas Come with Rising CO2

    400 ppm World, Part 2: Rising Seas Come with Rising CO2

    Every indication is that thermal expansion will not dominate rates of sea-level rise in the future. As Earth’s climate marches toward equilibration with present-day CO2 levels, the climate will continue to warm. And this warming threatens the stability of a potentially much, much larger source for sea-level rise — the world’s remaining ice sheets.

  • 400 ppm World, Part 1: Large Changes Still to Come

    400 ppm World, Part 1: Large Changes Still to Come

    Why should society care that CO2 is now as high as 400 ppm? The reasons are multiple, but all trace back to the relationship between CO2 and temperature.

  • IcePod Clears Hurdles and Takes to the Air

    IcePod Clears Hurdles and Takes to the Air

    The morning briefing room was filled with layers of engineers and technicians from the civilian side, matched with pilots, navigators and air support staff from the Air National Guard side. Spanning the middle were the two Systems Project Office (S.P.O.) representatives. Adding new instrumentation and equipment to any aircraft requires intense scrutiny, but on a…

  • The Damaging Effects of Black Carbon

    The Damaging Effects of Black Carbon

    Air pollution, both outdoors and indoors, causes millions of premature deaths each year. The deaths are mainly caused by the inhalation of particulate matter, especially black carbon. But black carbon not only has impacts on human health, it also affects visibility, harms ecosystems, reduces agricultural productivity and exacerbates global warming.

  • A Prize-Winner Explains His Work

    A Prize-Winner Explains His Work

    Nicolás Young studies glaciers and ice sheets, and how they’ve changed in the past. His work earned him the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists last fall, which came with a $30,000 prize. You can hear him talk about his research in this new video, produced by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

  • Greenland Glaciers Retreating Faster than Any Time in Past 9,500 Years

    Greenland Glaciers Retreating Faster than Any Time in Past 9,500 Years

    A new study uses sediment cores to track the expansion and retreat of glaciers through time, and finds that they are retreating quickly and are more sensitive to temperature change than previously realized.

  • Melting Ice, Suntanned Rocks and an Award-Winning Postdoc

    Melting Ice, Suntanned Rocks and an Award-Winning Postdoc

    Nicolás Young was just named a winner of a 2015 Blavatnik Award for his work measuring ice sheets in changing climates of the past. His new projects are taking glacier tracking to the next level.

  • The Changing Upernavik Waterfront

    The Changing Upernavik Waterfront

    Project Background: Changing conditions in Greenland’s northwest glaciers over the last decade have led to a range of questions about water temperature and circulation patterns in the fjords where ocean water meets the glacial fronts.

  • Greenland Ice

    Greenland Ice

    If you went to Greenland, almost 80 North, And drilled your way down … a mile, then more, You’d find some strange layers, a story’d come forth A record of ice ages locked in a core.

  • 400 ppm World, Part 2: Rising Seas Come with Rising CO2

    400 ppm World, Part 2: Rising Seas Come with Rising CO2

    Every indication is that thermal expansion will not dominate rates of sea-level rise in the future. As Earth’s climate marches toward equilibration with present-day CO2 levels, the climate will continue to warm. And this warming threatens the stability of a potentially much, much larger source for sea-level rise — the world’s remaining ice sheets.

  • 400 ppm World, Part 1: Large Changes Still to Come

    400 ppm World, Part 1: Large Changes Still to Come

    Why should society care that CO2 is now as high as 400 ppm? The reasons are multiple, but all trace back to the relationship between CO2 and temperature.

  • IcePod Clears Hurdles and Takes to the Air

    IcePod Clears Hurdles and Takes to the Air

    The morning briefing room was filled with layers of engineers and technicians from the civilian side, matched with pilots, navigators and air support staff from the Air National Guard side. Spanning the middle were the two Systems Project Office (S.P.O.) representatives. Adding new instrumentation and equipment to any aircraft requires intense scrutiny, but on a…