State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory158

  • Latest Korea Nuke Test Dwarfed Previous Ones

    Seismic Waves Show Steady Progress to Bigger Bomb, Say Scientists

  • Lamont Oceanographer Recognized for Pioneering Work on Global Ocean Currents

    An oceanographer who has painstakingly collected measurements from each of the world’s oceans to understand how the oceans move heat and freshwater around the planet to influence climate is the winner of the 2013 Prince Albert 1 Medal for outstanding contributions to oceanography, given by the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean…

  • Cat Puns, Scientists and Social Media

    Cat Puns, Scientists and Social Media

    Social media plus scientists plus Chemistry Cat puns is a great formula for a talk, right?

  • 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.

  • Panel on New York’s Future After Sandy

    Panel on New York’s Future After Sandy

    In a live webcast this afternoon from Hunter College, Earth Institute scientists Cynthia Rosenzweig and Klaus Jacob will join a panel on “Hurricane Sandy and Challenges to the NY Metropolitan Region.”

  • If You’re Not Going to San Francisco

    If You’re Not Going to San Francisco

    Keep an eye on State of the Planet over the next week for updates on the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

  • Frozen Water on Mercury, NASA Confirms

    Frozen Water on Mercury, NASA Confirms

    Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, may hold at least 100 billion tons of ice in permanently shaded craters near its north pole, NASA scientists announced Thursday. The findings come as NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft nears its second year of orbit around Mercury. MESSENGER’s lead investigator, Sean Solomon, is director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth…

  • 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…

Banner with images representing environmental issues and text "You Asked: Our Scientists and Experts Answer Your Burning Questions."

You Asked invites you to share your most pressing questions about climate, science, and sustainability. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia Climate School experts will respond with clear, evidence-based answers. Pose your questions and story ideas!

  • Latest Korea Nuke Test Dwarfed Previous Ones

    Seismic Waves Show Steady Progress to Bigger Bomb, Say Scientists

  • Lamont Oceanographer Recognized for Pioneering Work on Global Ocean Currents

    An oceanographer who has painstakingly collected measurements from each of the world’s oceans to understand how the oceans move heat and freshwater around the planet to influence climate is the winner of the 2013 Prince Albert 1 Medal for outstanding contributions to oceanography, given by the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean…

  • Cat Puns, Scientists and Social Media

    Cat Puns, Scientists and Social Media

    Social media plus scientists plus Chemistry Cat puns is a great formula for a talk, right?

  • 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.

  • Panel on New York’s Future After Sandy

    Panel on New York’s Future After Sandy

    In a live webcast this afternoon from Hunter College, Earth Institute scientists Cynthia Rosenzweig and Klaus Jacob will join a panel on “Hurricane Sandy and Challenges to the NY Metropolitan Region.”

  • If You’re Not Going to San Francisco

    If You’re Not Going to San Francisco

    Keep an eye on State of the Planet over the next week for updates on the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

  • Frozen Water on Mercury, NASA Confirms

    Frozen Water on Mercury, NASA Confirms

    Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, may hold at least 100 billion tons of ice in permanently shaded craters near its north pole, NASA scientists announced Thursday. The findings come as NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft nears its second year of orbit around Mercury. MESSENGER’s lead investigator, Sean Solomon, is director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth…

  • 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…