News

This week, we are launching a test of “IceTracker”—a tool that allows users to see the trajectories of Arctic sea ice forward or backward from any day between 1981 and 2012, as well as sea-ice speed, air temperature, water depth and the age of the sea ice.

Understanding the climate history of Mono Lake will help scientists understand the future impact of climate change. This is no esoteric question for Los Angeles, which depends in part on Mono Lake’s watershed for drinking water, green lawns, agriculture and industry.

Scientists from Columbia University’s Earth Institute will present important research results and special events at the Dec. 9-13 San Francisco meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest gathering of earth and space scientists. Here is a guide in rough chronological order.

The jury is still out on how tropical storms will change as climate warms, but rising sea levels will almost certainly place more coastal property at risk of flooding, says a team of scientists writing in the journal Nature.

The most anticipated event of the Antarctic Forum was the visit to China’s oldest Antarctic Station. Named for one of China’s most incredible human achievements, the station has grown to 15 buildings from its original handful of structures.

Remove outside distractions. Place participants in close proximity. Provide opportunities for intellectual stimulation and open dialogue. Promote group activities that are unique and extreme in nature to build common references between the participants. These are the ingredients for structuring an environment for creative group dynamics and problem solving. This is the structure of the Antarctic Forum.

If you want to excite and inspire people about committing to environmental conservation and harmonious social development, why not load them onto a ship and take them to the ends of the Earth?

Tourists flock to Italy to see Michelangelo’s David and other iconic hunks of Renaissance stone, but in a trip over spring break, a group of Columbia students got to visit rocks that have shaped the world in even more profound ways.

The Sahara wasn’t always a desert. Trees and grasslands dominated the landscape from roughly 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. Then, abruptly, the climate changed. A study by Lamont-Doherty’s Peter deMenocal says it took just a few hundred years to happen.

Who’s studying Earth’s climate? Why? Where? How? And what are they learning? Panelists will explore these questions and discuss creative methods that can be used to better communicate climate science to the public.