State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory145

  • George Kukla, Contrarian Climate Scientist

    George Kukla, a climate scientist who was among the first to warn of the power of global climate change and inspire government study, died on May 31 at his home in Suffern, N.Y. The cause was an apparent heart attack; he was 84. In a career spanning more than five decades, much of it spent…

  • How High Will Sea Levels Rise?

    How High Will Sea Levels Rise?

    Scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are trying to determine how high sea levels may rise in the future by studying the shorelines of the past. Led by a team of researchers including Lamont climate scientist and marine geologist Maureen Raymo, the goal of Pliomax is to increase the accuracy of global sea level estimates for…

  • Clock Is Ticking in West Antarctic

    Clock Is Ticking in West Antarctic

    “The high-resolution records that we’re getting and the high-resolution models we’re able to make now are sort of moving the questions a little bit closer into human, understandable time frames.”

  • Climate and the Opal Artisans of the Sea

    Climate and the Opal Artisans of the Sea

    Tiny one-celled organisms called radiolaria are ubiquitous in the oceans, but various species prefer distinct habitats. Thus it aroused considerable intrigue in 2012 when protozoa specialist O. Roger Anderson and colleagues published a study showing that radiolaria normally found near the equator were suddenly floating around in arctic waters above Norway. Was this a sign…

  • 3 Reports Bring a Wake-Up Call: Change the Conversation

    3 Reports Bring a Wake-Up Call: Change the Conversation

    Three scientific reports echo the message that climate change and its impacts are here and now, with more to come. So how to change the conversation to reach beyond the already informed and connect to a much larger population?

  • Photo Essay: Norwegian Rocks

    Photo Essay: Norwegian Rocks

    Geologist John Templeton recently spent a year on Norway’s west coast trying to understand how rocks now at the surface made an epic journey deep into Earth’s interior and back during the growth and subsequent collapse of the ancient Caledonian mountains. Check out a photo essay describing his work.

  • Barbados Corals

    Barbados Corals

    A new video, “Flip Flops and Outcrops,” captures good vibrations from a recent Columbia University geology field trip to the Caribbean island of Barbados

  • Climate Change Innovator Elected to National Academy

    Climate Change Innovator Elected to National Academy

    Peter Kelemen, a geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies rocks from the deep earth and, recently, their possible uses in battling climate change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

  • Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    On a high ridge in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, paleontologist Paul Olsen sits on the fallen trunk of a 215-million-year-old tree, now turned to stone. The tree once loomed 70 or 80 feet above a riverine landscape teeming with fish, turtles, giant crocodilians and tiny, early species of dinosaurs.

Composite banner with modern building at night and portrait of Dean Alexis Abramson that reads "Science for the Planet"

By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings

  • George Kukla, Contrarian Climate Scientist

    George Kukla, a climate scientist who was among the first to warn of the power of global climate change and inspire government study, died on May 31 at his home in Suffern, N.Y. The cause was an apparent heart attack; he was 84. In a career spanning more than five decades, much of it spent…

  • How High Will Sea Levels Rise?

    How High Will Sea Levels Rise?

    Scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are trying to determine how high sea levels may rise in the future by studying the shorelines of the past. Led by a team of researchers including Lamont climate scientist and marine geologist Maureen Raymo, the goal of Pliomax is to increase the accuracy of global sea level estimates for…

  • Clock Is Ticking in West Antarctic

    Clock Is Ticking in West Antarctic

    “The high-resolution records that we’re getting and the high-resolution models we’re able to make now are sort of moving the questions a little bit closer into human, understandable time frames.”

  • Climate and the Opal Artisans of the Sea

    Climate and the Opal Artisans of the Sea

    Tiny one-celled organisms called radiolaria are ubiquitous in the oceans, but various species prefer distinct habitats. Thus it aroused considerable intrigue in 2012 when protozoa specialist O. Roger Anderson and colleagues published a study showing that radiolaria normally found near the equator were suddenly floating around in arctic waters above Norway. Was this a sign…

  • 3 Reports Bring a Wake-Up Call: Change the Conversation

    3 Reports Bring a Wake-Up Call: Change the Conversation

    Three scientific reports echo the message that climate change and its impacts are here and now, with more to come. So how to change the conversation to reach beyond the already informed and connect to a much larger population?

  • Photo Essay: Norwegian Rocks

    Photo Essay: Norwegian Rocks

    Geologist John Templeton recently spent a year on Norway’s west coast trying to understand how rocks now at the surface made an epic journey deep into Earth’s interior and back during the growth and subsequent collapse of the ancient Caledonian mountains. Check out a photo essay describing his work.

  • Barbados Corals

    Barbados Corals

    A new video, “Flip Flops and Outcrops,” captures good vibrations from a recent Columbia University geology field trip to the Caribbean island of Barbados

  • Climate Change Innovator Elected to National Academy

    Climate Change Innovator Elected to National Academy

    Peter Kelemen, a geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies rocks from the deep earth and, recently, their possible uses in battling climate change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

  • Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    Amid a Fossil Bonanza, Drilling Deep into Pre-Dinosaurian Rocks

    On a high ridge in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, paleontologist Paul Olsen sits on the fallen trunk of a 215-million-year-old tree, now turned to stone. The tree once loomed 70 or 80 feet above a riverine landscape teeming with fish, turtles, giant crocodilians and tiny, early species of dinosaurs.