State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law18

  • Michael Gerrard to Head Institute Faculty

    Michael Gerrard to Head Institute Faculty

    Columbia Law School Professor Michael B. Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, has been named chair of the faculty of the Earth Institute.

  • Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate Kick-Off

    Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate Kick-Off

    This week marks the launch of the new Columbia Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate, a cross-disciplinary collaboration between a variety of centers, research groups and individuals from across Columbia University. The Initiative, led by Adam Sobel, kicked off on Monday evening with a World Leaders Forum panel event in Low Library. Panelists discussed a…

  • An Evening with the Writers of the Clean Air Act: Insight into the ‘Golden Age’ of Environmental Law

    An Evening with the Writers of the Clean Air Act: Insight into the ‘Golden Age’ of Environmental Law

    At a panel discussion this week, Leon Billings and Thomas Jorling, two senior staff members who helped craft the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other major environmental legislation in the 1970s, spoke about the bipartisan effort to pass that legislation, and the partisan divide that stymies Congress today.

  • How Can Federal and City Governments Cooperate? The Case of Green Infrastructure

    How Can Federal and City Governments Cooperate? The Case of Green Infrastructure

    With support from the Earth Institute, writers Caswell Holloway, Carter Strickland, Michael Gerrard, and Daniel Firger recently published “Solving the CSO Conundrum: Green Infrastructure and the Unfulfilled Promise of Federal-Municipal Cooperation” in Harvard Environmental Law Review. The authors propose regulatory and policy reform to develop comprehensive, locally led infrastructure and sustainability initiatives that improve public…

  • Major Gift Will Expand Center for Climate Change Law

    Major Gift Will Expand Center for Climate Change Law

    Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law will be newly expanded with a major gift from the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. The center, an affiliate of the Earth Institute, has been renamed the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

  • What Hurricane Sandy Was Not

    What Hurricane Sandy Was Not

    “It is often said that generals always prepare to fight the last war. We need to be sure that we do not just prepare for the last disaster, and put all of our limited resources in guarding against that one, without thinking about the other things that could happen.”

  • A Major Legal Victory for Climate Science

    A Major Legal Victory for Climate Science

         Though most attention last week focused on the Supreme Court ruling upholding federal reform of the health-care system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued the most important judicial decision on climate change in five years.  That decision upholds the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases, and it…

Blue banner with kids and Earth photos. Text: "Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House, Saturday, October 17, 2026, 10am-4pm.

On Saturday, October 17, 2026 from 10am to 4pm, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House—our biggest, best science fun and discovery event of the year—will take place on our beautiful campus in Palisades, NY. Mark your calendar and join us for this free, family-friendly celebration of science! RSVP Today!

  • Michael Gerrard to Head Institute Faculty

    Michael Gerrard to Head Institute Faculty

    Columbia Law School Professor Michael B. Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, has been named chair of the faculty of the Earth Institute.

  • Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate Kick-Off

    Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate Kick-Off

    This week marks the launch of the new Columbia Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate, a cross-disciplinary collaboration between a variety of centers, research groups and individuals from across Columbia University. The Initiative, led by Adam Sobel, kicked off on Monday evening with a World Leaders Forum panel event in Low Library. Panelists discussed a…

  • An Evening with the Writers of the Clean Air Act: Insight into the ‘Golden Age’ of Environmental Law

    An Evening with the Writers of the Clean Air Act: Insight into the ‘Golden Age’ of Environmental Law

    At a panel discussion this week, Leon Billings and Thomas Jorling, two senior staff members who helped craft the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other major environmental legislation in the 1970s, spoke about the bipartisan effort to pass that legislation, and the partisan divide that stymies Congress today.

  • How Can Federal and City Governments Cooperate? The Case of Green Infrastructure

    How Can Federal and City Governments Cooperate? The Case of Green Infrastructure

    With support from the Earth Institute, writers Caswell Holloway, Carter Strickland, Michael Gerrard, and Daniel Firger recently published “Solving the CSO Conundrum: Green Infrastructure and the Unfulfilled Promise of Federal-Municipal Cooperation” in Harvard Environmental Law Review. The authors propose regulatory and policy reform to develop comprehensive, locally led infrastructure and sustainability initiatives that improve public…

  • Major Gift Will Expand Center for Climate Change Law

    Major Gift Will Expand Center for Climate Change Law

    Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law will be newly expanded with a major gift from the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. The center, an affiliate of the Earth Institute, has been renamed the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

  • What Hurricane Sandy Was Not

    What Hurricane Sandy Was Not

    “It is often said that generals always prepare to fight the last war. We need to be sure that we do not just prepare for the last disaster, and put all of our limited resources in guarding against that one, without thinking about the other things that could happen.”

  • A Major Legal Victory for Climate Science

    A Major Legal Victory for Climate Science

         Though most attention last week focused on the Supreme Court ruling upholding federal reform of the health-care system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued the most important judicial decision on climate change in five years.  That decision upholds the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases, and it…