Climate Change

The impacts of climate change don’t always come one at a time. A recent workshop focused on what’s needed to predict and adapt when multiple climate-related disasters happen simultaneously.

A new study reveals the inner workings of tidally triggered earthquakes and finds that even the slightest stress can set off a tremor.

Lynn Sykes, a pivotal figure in the development of plate tectonics, discusses a new memoir of his career.

Lamont paleoclimatologist William D’Andrea studies past climates to see how societies such as the Vikings and the Rapanui of Easter Island dealt with environmental change. His work may help us adapt to a hotter future.

Join us on Saturday, June 1st to explore one of New York’s most underrated treasures: our productive waterways!

Climatologist Radley Horton from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory testified before the Senate’s Subcommittee on Science, Oceans, Fisheries, and Weather. Senator and chairman of the subcommittee Cory Gardner, R-Colo., convened the hearing — titled “Atmospheric Science Research and Forecasting Innovation” — to examine the current state of atmospheric and forecast research.

In an unusual new study, scientists say they have detected a growing fingerprint of human-driven global warming on global drought conditions starting as far back as 1900.

Columbia Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory seismologist Göran Ekström has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

A Lamont climate researcher breaks down why our atmosphere is the way it is, how it’s changed over time, and what the future may hold.

The new findings offer clues about how the solar system formed and how rocky planets change over time.

In celebration of Earth Month and Earth Day, our scientists are tackling reader questions on science and sustainability.

New research shows that the Larsen C ice shelf—the fourth largest ice shelf in Antarctica, located just south of the former Larsen B shelf—experienced an unusual spike in late summer and early autumn surface melting in the years 2015 to 2017.

This year’s theme encourages students to explore the relationship between human beings and water through various art forms.

A team of scientists working in Antarctica faces a host of new challenges.

Equipped with a field testing kit originally developed within Columbia’s Earth Institute, the “Lead-Free Kids Peru” project has tested hundreds of soil samples for the toxic metal — and dug up some startling results in the process.

In the early spring, volcanologists monitoring the ground around Kilauea, the most active volcano on the island of Hawai’i, noticed a significant increase in seismicity, a sign of an impending eruption. Meanwhile, in Palisades, New York, Lamont volcanologist Einat Lev was also watching developments at Kilauea closely, scanning United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports and keeping in regular touch with friends and colleagues directly tasked with monitoring volcanic activity.

A discussion on the challenges women scientists often face, and what we can all do to help.

Rainy weather is becoming increasingly common over parts of the Greenland ice sheet, triggering sudden melting events that are eating at the ice and priming the surface for more widespread future melting, says a new study.

Satellite imagery of earth’s vegetation, measurements of carbon dioxide in the air and computer models all help scientists understand how climate is affecting carbon dynamics and the world’s forests.

Newly analyzed drill cores taken from the bottom of Greece’s Gulf of Corinth show that sediment flow into the basin has varied dramatically over the past 500,000-plus years, as the earth passed in and out of ice ages, and humans later dominated the surrounding landscape.

In a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Environment, Radley Horton delivered sobering remarks about how climate change will impact our coastlines, economy, and society at large.

On February 21, scientists learned the essentials of science communication during a half-day workshop at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Tributes continue pouring in as Lamont mourns the loss of Wally Broecker "grandfather of climate science."

A new study shows that phosphorus and nitrogen should be reduced to mitigate harmful algae blooms in coastal NY waters.

Attaching the sensors that will help us study erosion rates required vacuum grease, patience, and a lot of masking tape.

On the volcanic Indian Ocean island of Anjouan, scientists are investigating a rock that apparently formed on a far-off continent.

After bad weather and a busy week of packing and preparation, the team is finally ready to strike out on its own in the coldest, driest, and windiest place on the planet.

The team is using two techniques to study weathering and erosion in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys.

The Real-Time Earth initiative is upgrading the technological capabilities of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and transforming the way its scientists study our planet.

Fieldwork in Antarctica adds a whole new layer to the meaning of planning. When heavily field based projects are planned, it is common for preliminary fieldwork to precede the larger project.

A team of autonomous ocean robots deployed in January 2018 has carried out the first year-long observations under an Antarctic ice shelf.

On every continent and every ocean, Earth Institute researchers are studying climate, geology, natural hazards and other dynamics of the planet. Here is a list of projects in rough chronological order for the coming year and beyond.

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is considered a key driver of winter weather patterns over the northern hemisphere. In recent years, research has claimed a correlation between the NAO and the 11-year solar cycle. A new paper debunks that claim.

What’s a bog corer? And how do seeds help scientists learn about the earth’s past? A paleoecologist explains the most important items in her toolkit.

The current megadrought in the American West may be one of the most severe in the past 1200 years—and climate change is partially to blame.

Yutian Wu received funding from the Center for Climate and Life to investigate whether the loss of Arctic sea ice promotes severe weather over North America.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that limiting global warming to 1.5˚C will require removing CO_² from the atmosphere. How feasible is this?

A Q&A with Jason Smerdon, coauthor of the newly revised Climate Change: The Science of Global Warming and Our Energy Future.

The Trump administration is attempting to rescind almost all the policies to fight climate change proposed or enacted by the Obama administration. Could this send us over the climate tipping points?

An interview with Ed Cook, one of the founding directors of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Two Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory scientists affiliated with the Center for Climate and Life are leading research that examines some of the ways climate change affects the health of the ocean.

The world is warming and our air conditioners are making it worse. Here are some less energy-intensive ways to survive the rising heat.

The sounds from icebergs are constant—a bit of groaning as the waves shift the ice, and then a sharp popping like gunfire as the ice fractures, beginning its weakening.

Two new papers find that the line that divides the moist East and arid West is edging eastward due to climate change—and the implications for farming and other pursuits could be huge.

What does it take for palm trees to expand into northern parts of the world that have long been too cold for palm trees to survive? A new study, led by Lamont researcher Tammo Reichgelt, attempts to answer this question. 

Climate scientists say that killer heat waves will become increasingly prevalent in many regions as climate warms. However, most projections leave out a major factor that could worsen things: humidity, which can greatly magnify the effects of heat alone. Now, a new global study projects that in coming decades the effects of high humidity in many areas will dramatically increase.

Two solar array farms in Orange County, New York, will be completed at the end of November, poised to provide power to and reduce the carbon footprint of the Lamont Campus.

Ancient humans migrated out of Africa to escape a drying climate, says a new study–a finding that contradicts previous suggestions that ancient people were able to leave because a then-wet climate allowed them to cross the generally arid Horn of Africa and Middle East.

The 2004 disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicted the cataclysmic effects—superstorms, tornadoes and deep freezes— resulting from the impacts of climate change. In the movie, global warming had accelerated the melting of polar ice, which disrupted circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, triggering violent changes in the weather. Scientists pooh-poohed the dire scenarios in the movie, but affirmed that climate change could indeed affect ocean circulation—could it shut down the Gulf Stream?

Rainfall patterns in the Sahara during the six-thousand-year “Green Sahara” period have been revealed by analyzing marine sediments, according to new research.

What is now the Sahara Desert was the home to hunter-gathers who made their living off the animals and plants that lived in the region’s savannahs and wooded grasslands 5,000 to 11,000 years ago.

Twenty-three million years ago, the Antarctic Ice Sheet began to shrink, going from an expanse larger than today’s to one about half its modern size. Computer models suggested a spike in carbon dioxide levels as the cause, but the evidence was elusive – until now. Ancient fossilized leaves retrieved from a lake bed in New Zealand now show for the first time that carbon dioxide levels increased dramatically over a relatively short period of time as the ice sheet began to deteriorate. The findings raise new questions about the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet today as atmospheric CO₂ concentrations rise to levels never before experienced by humans.

A storm that dumped as much as 20 inches of rain over three days flooded thousands of homes in Louisiana in mid-August. Lamont's Adam Sobel writes about the discussion around the role of climate change and attribution studies.  

The tropics are already hot, and they’re getting hotter as global temperatures rise. A new study offers a glimpse into just how severely a couple more degrees could disrupt the region’s ecological map. The authors, from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of California, Berkeley, looked at potential effects of a 2°C rise in the average global temperature this century and asked: what would happen if all species tried to migrate to keep their average environmental temperature unchanged?

If you asked scientists a few years ago if a specific hurricane has been caused by climate change, most would have told you that, while it raises the risks, no single weather event could yet be attributed to climate change. That’s starting to change. In a new report, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences, including Lamont Professor Adam Sobel, assesses the young field of attribution studies for several types of extreme events. It recommends future research and guidance to help the field advance and contribute to understanding of the risks ahead.

The Columbia Center for Climate & Life at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has announced its 2016 Fellows. Michael Puma is focusing on food security and climate shocks, and Park Williams is exploring the influence of climate change on droughts and wildfires.

Much of the modern understanding of climate change is underpinned by pioneering studies done at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Starting in the 1950s and continuing today, researchers at sea, on land and in the lab have worked in disciplines including oceanography, atmospheric physics, magnetism, geochemistry, glacial geology, paleontology, tree-ring studies and more.

A new study finds that the Horn of Africa has become progressively drier over the past century and that it is drying at a rate that is both unusual in the context of the past 2,000 years and in step with human-influenced warming. The study also projects that the drying will continue as the region gets warmer. If the researchers are right, the trend could exacerbate tensions in one of the most unstable regions in the world.

Tiny Iceland is a prime exemplar of the complexities wrought by warming climate. It is 11 percent covered by ice, but it is basically also one very large, very active volcanic system. The island has seen fast-increasing temperatures since the 1970s, and glaciers–a big source of tourism and runoff for hydropower–are visibly receding. This cuts various ways. Iceland gets almost all its electricity and heat from hydropower and geothermal wells. Increased glacial runoff means increased generation potential; on the other hand, in 50 or 100 years, Iceland may be mostly land and very little ice, and the runoff could dry up.

Peter Kelemen, a geologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies rocks from the deep earth and, recently, their possible uses in battling climate change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

A recent slowdown in global warming has led some skeptics to renew their claims that industrial carbon emissions are not causing a century-long rise in Earth’s surface temperatures. But rather than letting humans off the hook, a new study in the leading journal Science adds support to the idea that the oceans are taking up some of the excess heat, at least for the moment. In a reconstruction of Pacific Ocean temperatures in the last 10,000 years, researchers have found that its middle depths have warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years than they did during apparent natural warming cycles in the previous 10,000. 

Summers on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard are now warmer than at any other time in the last 1,800 years, including during medieval times when parts of the northern hemisphere were as hot as, or hotter, than today, according to a new study in the journal Geology.

During the last ice age, glaciers dominated New Zealand’s Southern Alps until warming temperatures some 20,000 years ago sent them into retreat. Scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, with their colleagues, are investigating the rocky remnants these glaciers left behind to learn precisely when the ice withdrew, and what glacier retreats globally can tell us about the climate system. A new video produced by the American Museum of Natural History describes the process of surface exposure dating used to extract this information from glacial moraines.

City streets can be mean, but somewhere near Brooklyn, a tree grows far better than its country cousins, due to chronically elevated city heat levels, says a new study. The study, just published in the journal Tree Physiology, shows that common native red oak seedlings grow as much as eight times faster in New York’s Central Park than in more rural, cooler settings in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. Red oaks and their close relatives dominate areas ranging from northern Virginia to southern New England, so the study may have wide implications for changing climate and forest composition over a wide region.

The world’s oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.

In many ways, the tiny, landlocked eastern Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan sits apart from the modern world; its rugged landscapes cradle swift-flowing rivers, expansive old-growth forests and hundreds of glaciers. Combining selective modernization with ancient traditions, it is the only country that uses Gross National Happiness as a metric for success. But the world is intruding. Rapid climate change is melting glaciers across the Himalayas, creating deadly flash-flood hazards and threatening a water system that feeds agriculture and hydropower here and for more than a billion people in the plains below.

The frigid seabottom off Antarctica holds a surprising riot of life: colorful carpets of sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other soft, bottom-dwelling animals,shown on images from robotic submarines. Now, it appears that many such communities could fast disappear, due to warming climate.

During the last ice age, the Rhone Glacier was the dominant glacier in the Alps, covering a significant part of Switzerland. Over the next 11,500 years or so, the glacier, which forms the headwaters of the Rhone River, has been shrinking and growing again in response to shifts in climate.

Vintners in the Burgundy region of France have been tracking their harvests since the 14th century, and they know as well as anyone the importance of picking their grapes at just the right moment to produce the best possible glass of Pinot noir.

Columbia scientists have played a pioneering role in understanding climate change, from its potential effect on critical resources such as water and energy to finding ways vulnerable communities can better adapt.

Columbia University's the Record devotes its January 31, 2011 issue to climate matters, and Lamont-Doherty researchers feature prominently. 

Every day since Jan. 1, 1896, an observer has hiked up a grey outcrop of rock to a spot at The Mohonk Preserve, a resort and nature area some 90 miles north of New York City, to record daily temperature and other conditions there.

The United Nations has awarded Taro Takahashi, a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, its highest honor for environmental leadership, the Champions of the Earth award, for his research on the oceans’ uptake of carbon dioxide and its implications for global warming. He was presented with a trophy and a $40,000 prize on Thursday, April 22, in a ceremony in South Korea.

Since arriving at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 1952, for a college summer internship, Wally Broecker has come up with some of the most important ideas in modern climate science. He was one of the first researchers to recognize the potential for human-influenced climate change, and to testify before Congress about its dangers..

Natalie Boelman is an ecologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies the effects of climate change on organisms throughout the food chain. She first visited the Alaskan Arctic in 2001, and will return to the North Slope this spring and summer to continue a wildfire-mapping project and to set up a field study that will look at how warming-induced changes are affecting migratory songbirds that breed on the tundra each summer.

Selected posts from a continuing series of essays and interviews from LDEO scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty.

Training teachers to do science in the field or laboratory measurably increases the academic performance of their students and may have far-reaching economic benefits, according to a study published this week in the journal Science. The number of high school students passing New York State’s standardized tests, the Regents exams, is raised by as much as 10 percentage points if the teachers participated in Columbia University’s Summer Research Program for Science Teachers, the study found.

Warming Climate Drives Plankton and Penguins Poleward   

Adélie penguins are flocking closer to the South Pole. A new study in the leading journal Science explains why: they’re following the food supply, which is moving southward with changing climate.

North American Ice Sheet Dwindled Fast in Conditions Like Today's

In the face of warming climate, researchers have yet to agree on how much and how quickly melting of the Greenland ice sheet may contribute to sea level rise.

July 15, 2007 - The 11th Hour is a 2007 feature film documentary created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio on the state of the natural environment.

Lamont’s own Associate Professor Peter deMenocal is one the climate change experts interviewed in the film.

The retreat of a massive ice sheet that once covered much of northern Europe has been described for the first time, and researchers believe it may provide a sneak preview of how present-day ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica will act in the face of global warming.

The Maurice Ewing, owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (L-DEO), is the only research vessel devoted to obtaining images of the deep earth for fundamental earth science research.