News
The Midwinter Climate Institute 2025 has just concluded, leaving behind a wave of inspiration and new resources for 500 New York City Public School (NYCPS) educators committed to integrating climate change education (CCE) into their classrooms. Held over three days—two in-person sessions at Teachers College, Columbia University, and one remote learning day—this Institute provided a collaborative space for K-12 teachers to engage with experts, exchange best practices, and explore multidisciplinary approaches to climate education. Funded by the NYC Mayor’s Office, anc co-sponsored by The Earth Network: Climate Education for a Resilient Future and Subject to Climate, the initiative is part of a broader effort to embed CCE in all NYCPS schools, aligning with the city's strategy to empower Sustainability Coordinators, implement Climate Action Days, and provide robust professional development opportunities for educators.
On January 9, as deadly wildfires raged across the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of structures and displacing tens of thousands of residents, Columbia University hosted the first day of its Attribution Science and Climate Law Conference. Co-organized by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School, the conference brought together scientists, legal experts, policymakers and advocates to explore how advancements in climate attribution science can shape litigation, policy and governance.
Attribution science is a rapidly evolving field that aims to explain how human-induced climate change intensifies and influences the frequency of extreme weather events. The destruction unfolding in California offers yet another reminder of the urgency of these discussions, and the critical need for science-driven legal and policy solutions to the climate crisis.
More than 13,000 droughts spanning years have overwhelmed our planet across nearly four decades. These severe droughts are becoming hotter, longer and more devastating as our planet’s global temperature increases, new research has found.
Some of the worst drought effects appear in grassland areas — such as in eastern Australia as well as in the western United States, where Los Angeles is battling a spate of deadly and destructive wildfires. Additionally, researchers recently identified thousands of other multiyear droughts that may be overlooked on a global scale.
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Still, assessing multiyear droughts and changes to them “nevertheless remains a challenge,” in part because of uncertainties in data and relatively limited information about soil moisture, said climate researcher Jason Smerdon, a professor at Columbia University who was not involved in the study.
The Center for Science and Society is pleased to announce four new members to our Executive Committee. These faculty members join a diverse community of researchers and scholars from across Columbia University who provide oversight on the Center's programming, fundraising, and future directors. Read More
Our group had a big week at AGU! There was lots of activity in the poster halls and many excellent sessions. Check out all of the action shots below.
Check out all of our lab presentations at AGU. They are listed below in chronological order. Come by and say hi!
MONDAY
Tehreem Qureshi, Anson H Cheung, Yelin Jiang, Jason E Smerdon
Zhaoxiangrui He, Ernesto Tejedor, Jason E Smerdon, Mathias F Vuille, Lorenzo M Polvani, Ibuki Sugiura, and Richard Seager
TUESDAY
Ibuki Sugiura, Richard Seager, and Jason E Smerdon
Hannah Byrne, Jason E Smerdon, Richard Seager, and Ibuki Sugiura
WEDNESDAY
2021 and 2022: Extreme Global Drought Across a Comprehensive Assessment of Soil-Moisture Datasets
Aandishah Samara, Jason E Smerdon, and Richard Seager
Jason E Smerdon, Hannah Byrne, and Richard Seager
Implications of Baseline Methodologies on Drought Monitoring and Management in a Changing Climate
Zhiying Li, Richard Seager, Jason E Smerdon, and Justin S Mankin
Yelin Jiang, Jason E Smerdon, Richard Seager, Benjamin Cook, and Mingfang Ting
Growing Effect of Forest Fire on Streamflow in the Western United States
Park Williams, Ben Livneh, Karen A McKinnon, Winslow Hansen, Benjamin Cook, Justin S Mankin, Jason E Smerdon, Arianna Marie Varuolo-Clarke, Nels R Bjarke, Caroline Juang
THURSDAY
Decadally synchronous Pan-Pacific hydroclimate extremes over the last millennium
Anson H Cheung and Jason E Smerdon
FRIDAY
Day of Rest!
The Columbia Climate School announces the launch of a new dual degree program with the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Commencing in September 2025, students enrolled in this dual degree program will receive both a Master of Science in Climate and a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design upon successful completion of their studies.
Addressing the climate crisis requires leaders who can synthesize knowledge and skills across different fields, and bring those perspectives together to create interdisciplinary climate solutions. By integrating climate expertise with architecture and urban design, the MS in Climate and MS in Architecture and Urban Design dual degree program equips future scholars and practitioners with the tools to build sustainable and climate-responsive communities. “The new Climate School-GSAPP dual degree is a fantastic opportunity for students interested in the intersection of climate and the built environment,” says Climate School interim dean Jeff Shaman. “It provides enrollees deep training in both disciplines and a clear career path for work on adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development.”
Just in time for New York City’s Climate Week, the Columbia Climate School is proud to announce a new master’s degree program: the M.S. in Climate. This is a two-year, 50-credit degree that will prepare young and mid-career professionals and future academics to be climate leaders at community, state, national and international levels. The first cohort will begin classes in fall 2025.
The new degree program expands the scope of what the Climate School can offer students, while allowing them to explore important new opportunities within the climate sector.
“The M.S. in Climate program is a critical new offering that will expand Climate School educational opportunities, as taught by some of the most highly qualified scholars of climate,” said Jeffrey Shaman, interim dean of the Climate School. “It will seed the world with energetic, superbly trained, transdisciplinary scholars who will help tackle the many climate and sustainability challenges we are confronting.”
We hosted our second annual lab potluck (thanks for organizing Aandishah!) with an expanded group of members from the Smerdon and Seager labs. It was a nice chance to welcome the new semester and Shane with good food and some excellent frisbee skills! There was even a cameo appearance from Aandishah's kitten. We are already hungry for next year's event!
The Smerdon Climate Lab is excited to welcome Shane Russett as a new graduate student in the group! Shane joined Columbia in fall 2024 as a first-year graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He has interests in paleoclimate, hydroclimate variability and human history and will be working in collaboration with Rhiannon Stephens in the Columbia History Department.
Shane earned a B.A. in Atmospheric Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022. His senior honors thesis, advised by Whendee Silver, investigated soil carbon stocks after the addition of compost and silicate-bearing mineral amendments. He received the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Hollings Scholarship, and worked at NOAA to analyze model projections of future climate and pollution across decadal and seasonal timescales. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Shane worked in environmental consulting as an air quality analyst before beginning graduate school.
Welcome Shane!
Group members Aandishah and Ibuki are attending the 2024 CESM Tutorial at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado this week. But it hasn't been all tutorializing! They are also getting the chance to enjoy a little outdoor time and even had the chance to connect with Ari Varuolo-Clarke, a recent group alumna. It's nice to see them all in the same grid cell!
On May 6, 2024, while Columbia’s Morningside Campus was still closed due to student protests, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences held its annual awards ceremony to honor our treasured students and alumni. In his opening remarks, GSAS Dean Carlos Alonso noted, “this ceremony is a celebration of the very elements about Columbia that will allow us to regain our equilibrium when the current dismal situation abates: superlative teaching and mentoring, world-class research, and the training of graduates who will change the world through their contributions.”
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The winners of the Faculty Mentoring Award, chosen by the GSAS students, through the Arts and Sciences Graduate Council (ASGC), were Jason E. Smerdon, a Professor of Climate from the Columbia Climate School, Co-Senior Director for Education, and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development. Professor Smerdon, when accepting said that “I am humbled before my colleagues. We mentor by committee. It’s a team effort.”
Known for its glowing swaths of yellow, orange and red, the U.S. Drought Monitorhas warned farmers, residents and officials throughout the nation of impending water scarcity every week since 1999.
Backed by data on soil moisture, temperature, snow cover, meltwater runoff, reservoir levels and more, the map has become an essential instrument for determining the outlook of water supplies, declaring drought emergencies and deciding where and when government aid should be distributed, among other things.
But this critical diagnostic tool is also struggling to keep pace with climate change as longer and more persistent dry spells plague the American West and take an increasing toll on groundwater reserves and the Colorado River, according to a recent study published in the journal AGU Advances.
See also the Dartmouth News Release
Reconstructions of summer temperatures across western North America spanning the past 500 years suggest that concurrent heat and drought conditions, known as “hot drought,” have been unprecedented in frequency and severity over the past century. The findings are derived from tree-ring chronologies that show how changing temperatures relate to changes in soil moisture. They add to growing evidence that human-influenced warming has exacerbated climate extremes across the region.
The study, by researchers at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other institutions, was just published in the journal Science Advances.
Additional Coverage
Third graders at Public School 103 in the north Bronx sat on a rug last month while their teacher, Kristy Neumeister, led a book discussion.
The book, “Rain School,” is about children who live in a rural region of Chad, a country in central Africa. Every year, their school must be rebuilt because storms wash it away.
“And what’s causing all these rains and storms and floods?” asked Ms. Neumeister.
“Carbon,” said Aiden, a serious-looking 8-year-old.