State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

oceans4

  • Tapping into Ocean Power

    Tapping into Ocean Power

    The oceans of the world are a vast unexploited source of clean, reliable and predictable renewable energy. Could this energy help replace fossil fuels and be a solution to climate change?

  • Project Aims to Map World’s Oceans by 2030

    Project Aims to Map World’s Oceans by 2030

    More than 85 percent of the ocean floor remains unmapped, leaving us in the dark about much of the earth’s topography. A global, non-profit effort will try to remedy that, and influence everything from climate research and weather prediction to mineral resource exploration and fisheries.

  • How Does the Ocean Drive Weather and Climate Extremes?

    How Does the Ocean Drive Weather and Climate Extremes?

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory scientists Ryan Abernathey and Richard Seager are investigating how processes in the ocean create extreme weather and climate conditions over land.

  • Shipboard Science: It’s All About Collaboration This Week

    Shipboard Science: It’s All About Collaboration This Week

    Early-career scientists aboard the UNOLS training cruise are getting to try new techniques and technologies, and collaborations are springing up everywhere.

  • The Magic of Exploring Under the Sea

    The Magic of Exploring Under the Sea

    It’s midnight on the ship, and the labs are filled with scientists busy examining samples. Two of them just got back from a trip to the seafloor, and the excitement is palpable.

  • Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Antarctic sea ice is constantly on the move as powerful winds blow it away from the coast and out toward the open ocean. A new study shows how that ice migration may be more important for the global ocean circulation than anyone realized.

  • Iron Fertilization Won’t Work in Equatorial Pacific, Study Suggests

    Iron Fertilization Won’t Work in Equatorial Pacific, Study Suggests

    Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of carbon-capturing algae, but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no effect.

  • In Greenland, Exactly Where Meltwater Enters the Ocean Matters

    In Greenland, Exactly Where Meltwater Enters the Ocean Matters

    In southern Greenland in summer, rivers have been streaming off the ice sheet, pouring cold fresh water into the fjords. A new study tracks where that meltwater goes—with surprising results.

  • Almost Home, with Another 7 Million Years of Climate History

    Almost Home, with Another 7 Million Years of Climate History

    Science at sea isn’t easy, but the benefits are huge, writes Sidney Hemming in her final post from a two-month expedition that collected millions of years of climate history in the deep-sea sediment from off southern Africa.

  • Tapping into Ocean Power

    Tapping into Ocean Power

    The oceans of the world are a vast unexploited source of clean, reliable and predictable renewable energy. Could this energy help replace fossil fuels and be a solution to climate change?

  • Project Aims to Map World’s Oceans by 2030

    Project Aims to Map World’s Oceans by 2030

    More than 85 percent of the ocean floor remains unmapped, leaving us in the dark about much of the earth’s topography. A global, non-profit effort will try to remedy that, and influence everything from climate research and weather prediction to mineral resource exploration and fisheries.

  • How Does the Ocean Drive Weather and Climate Extremes?

    How Does the Ocean Drive Weather and Climate Extremes?

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory scientists Ryan Abernathey and Richard Seager are investigating how processes in the ocean create extreme weather and climate conditions over land.

  • Shipboard Science: It’s All About Collaboration This Week

    Shipboard Science: It’s All About Collaboration This Week

    Early-career scientists aboard the UNOLS training cruise are getting to try new techniques and technologies, and collaborations are springing up everywhere.

  • The Magic of Exploring Under the Sea

    The Magic of Exploring Under the Sea

    It’s midnight on the ship, and the labs are filled with scientists busy examining samples. Two of them just got back from a trip to the seafloor, and the excitement is palpable.

  • Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Antarctic sea ice is constantly on the move as powerful winds blow it away from the coast and out toward the open ocean. A new study shows how that ice migration may be more important for the global ocean circulation than anyone realized.

  • Iron Fertilization Won’t Work in Equatorial Pacific, Study Suggests

    Iron Fertilization Won’t Work in Equatorial Pacific, Study Suggests

    Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of carbon-capturing algae, but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no effect.

  • In Greenland, Exactly Where Meltwater Enters the Ocean Matters

    In Greenland, Exactly Where Meltwater Enters the Ocean Matters

    In southern Greenland in summer, rivers have been streaming off the ice sheet, pouring cold fresh water into the fjords. A new study tracks where that meltwater goes—with surprising results.

  • Almost Home, with Another 7 Million Years of Climate History

    Almost Home, with Another 7 Million Years of Climate History

    Science at sea isn’t easy, but the benefits are huge, writes Sidney Hemming in her final post from a two-month expedition that collected millions of years of climate history in the deep-sea sediment from off southern Africa.