News and Events

Large tropical volcanoes have caused some of the world’s most destructive natural disasters, with eruptions spewing out massive streams of harmful gases and hot debris that can wipe out everything in their path. But, what about wider impacts on global climate? Large eruptions are well known to temporarily cool the planet, but the picture is less clear when it comes to changes in the global distribution of rainfall.

In a new study, a team of researchers from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the University at Albany and other institutions have used natural climate archives…

For the planet, the year without tourists was a curse and a blessing.

With flights canceled, cruise ships mothballed and vacations largely scrapped, carbon emissions plummeted. Wildlife that usually kept a low profile amid a crush of tourists in vacation hot spots suddenly emerged. And a lack of cruise ships in places like Alaska meant that humpback whales could hear each other’s calls without the din of engines. Read More

On January 29, Columbia announced the completion of its divestment from oil and gas companies and the formalization of “this policy of non-investment for the foreseeable future.” The decision came on the heels of several other climate-focused initiatives and was undoubtedly the result of long years of heated protest, dialogue, and deliberation among multiple committed parties on campus. Unsurprisingly, the announcement has inspired a wide range of responses, from admiration to hope, cynicism to outrage. Read More

“You Asked” is a series where Earth Institute experts tackle reader questions on science and sustainability. Over the past few years, we’ve received a lot of questions about carbon dioxide — how it traps heat, how it can have such a big effect if it only makes up a tiny percentage of the atmosphere, and more. With the help of Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, we answer several of those questions here.  Read More

If you had $100 million to spend, what would you do with it? That’s the amount of money Elon Musk has stated he’ll be spending on combating climate change, though he’s set on one particular type of technology: carbon capture. Unlike renewable energy or energy efficiency projects, carbon capture aims to zap carbon dioxide out of the air, either passively from the air or at industrial sites with lots of emissions.

But is that the best way to use $100 million to fight climate change? Some experts agree that carbon capture is ideal, while others say we should focus more on changing policy…

One of the few silver linings from the COVID-19 pandemic has been the significant reductionin greenhouse gas emissions as people stayed home to prevent the spread of the virus.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide dropped 7% in 2020, the biggest drop in history following the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century -- down 37 billion tons from 40.1 billion tons after years of increases, the Global Carbon Project announced earlier this month.

However, to meet the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, which are to keep global warming below a 2-degree Celsius rise from pre-Industrial…

Umair Irfan, a staff writer at Vox covering climate change and science, and Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, joined The Takeaway to talk about the impact of climate change in 2020 and how the new stimulus package might affect climate goals. Listen Here

Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is dedicated to the study of Earth and climate. This year, despite the pandemic that in March paused all fieldwork, the observatory stayed true to form, adding new knowledge about the planet, its inner workings, and its future changes. Here are a few highlights.  Read More

This year became one for the record books for yet another reason: The turbulent weather of 2020 smashed numerous records, from storms to wildfires to heat waves.

This year was the fifth year in a row that the Atlantic hurricane season was an above-normal active season, and 2020 is now in the record books as "the most active hurricane season on record" in the Atlantic, said Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.  Read More

A global pandemic is a good time to reflect on the reality that history is full of much more misery and strife. For example, even by the standards of Medieval Europe, when deadly wars, famines, and diseases were common, the 14th century is particularly heartbreaking. Among many notable and terrible events of that age, the Great Famine, the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death all stand out as infamous events in one of Europe’s most miserable centuries.

A new paper from our team at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, published in Communications…

A conversation on Texas Public Radio about climate change for Climate Week in Texas.  The invited guests on the show were:

• Jody Freeman, professor of law and founding director of the Environmental & Energy Law Program at Harvard University
• Abrahm Lustgarten, senior environmental reporter for ProPublica
• Jason Smerdon, research professor, co-director of the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development and faculty member of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

Read more and listen to the broadcast here.

PaleoDynamics lab member, Arianna Varuolo-Clarke, has successfully passed her oral qualifying exam in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.  Ari passed with flying colors and presented her qualifying paper titled "Diagnosing twentieth-century past and future centennial wetting trends in Southeastern South America in observations and climate model simulations."  Her work on this topic continues.  Look out for a soon to be submitted paper and her 2020 Fall AGU presentation on the topic titled "Gross discrepancies between observed and simulated secular wetting trends over…