State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: eco matters

  • We Were So Young and Naive. And We Got Things Done.

    We Were So Young and Naive. And We Got Things Done.

    A journalist looks back on his efforts to cover the first Earth Day.

  • Climate-Driven Fires Could Turn Yellowstone Forests to Grassland By Midcentury

    Climate-Driven Fires Could Turn Yellowstone Forests to Grassland By Midcentury

    A new study shows that some of Yellowstone National Park’s forests may be at a climate tipping point, and could be replaced by grassland by the middle of this century.

  • Photo Essay: When People Must Make Way for Nature

    Photo Essay: When People Must Make Way for Nature

    The forested Kanha Tiger Reserve, in the highlands of central India, is home to an abundance of rare wildlife. It also used to be home to thousands of people—that is, until they were moved out by the government to make way for endangered creatures.

  • Geology and Filming in Mizoram

    Geology and Filming in Mizoram

    In the small town of Kolasib, we stayed in Hotel Cloud 9. I had been told since I was a child that I was always off on Cloud 9 and now I was actually here. However, the electricity wasn’t for the first few hours, so showers were cold, but the dinner was hot.

  • Salt Kilns and Landscape Change in the Sundarbans

    Salt Kilns and Landscape Change in the Sundarbans

    Leaving Hiron Point, we headed east through the Sundarbans to Kotka. At Kotka the students had walks through the forest seeing deer, wild boar and monkeys, while a smaller group also sampled near a set of 300 year old salt making kilns for OSL dating. We managed to finish while the tide inundated the site.…

  • Polder 32 and Hiron Point

    Polder 32 and Hiron Point

    We visited Polder 32, an embanked island in the delta that was flooded for almost two years when the embankment failed in several places during Cyclone Aila. In addition to the problem of increased subsidence due to the embankment, the area struggles for fresh water. Then we sailed to Hiron Point, a forest station in…

  • Working in the Bangladeshi Countryside

    Working in the Bangladeshi Countryside

    After traveling by boat for two days, including crossing the Sundarban Mangrove Forest, we finally arrived in Khulna. We drove to the site of our compaction meter and separated into teams servicing the instruments, investigating agricultural practices, measuring arsenic in the well water and taking sediment samples for dating. We had finally started our work…

  • Sailing Around Political Unrest in Bangladesh

    Sailing Around Political Unrest in Bangladesh

    With the roads in Bangladesh hazardous to drive because of the ongoing political unrest, our undergraduate sustainable development class managed to proceed with our class trip over Spring Break by doing all travel by boat.

  • Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    On July 1, single-use styrofoam products will cease to be in circulation in New York City due to a new regulation. The ban, which will be implemented in all five boroughs, will require that no manufacturer or business sell, give or use any single-use styrofoam product including coffee cups, foam trays and packing materials like…

Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.
  • We Were So Young and Naive. And We Got Things Done.

    We Were So Young and Naive. And We Got Things Done.

    A journalist looks back on his efforts to cover the first Earth Day.

  • Climate-Driven Fires Could Turn Yellowstone Forests to Grassland By Midcentury

    Climate-Driven Fires Could Turn Yellowstone Forests to Grassland By Midcentury

    A new study shows that some of Yellowstone National Park’s forests may be at a climate tipping point, and could be replaced by grassland by the middle of this century.

  • Photo Essay: When People Must Make Way for Nature

    Photo Essay: When People Must Make Way for Nature

    The forested Kanha Tiger Reserve, in the highlands of central India, is home to an abundance of rare wildlife. It also used to be home to thousands of people—that is, until they were moved out by the government to make way for endangered creatures.

  • Geology and Filming in Mizoram

    Geology and Filming in Mizoram

    In the small town of Kolasib, we stayed in Hotel Cloud 9. I had been told since I was a child that I was always off on Cloud 9 and now I was actually here. However, the electricity wasn’t for the first few hours, so showers were cold, but the dinner was hot.

  • Salt Kilns and Landscape Change in the Sundarbans

    Salt Kilns and Landscape Change in the Sundarbans

    Leaving Hiron Point, we headed east through the Sundarbans to Kotka. At Kotka the students had walks through the forest seeing deer, wild boar and monkeys, while a smaller group also sampled near a set of 300 year old salt making kilns for OSL dating. We managed to finish while the tide inundated the site.…

  • Polder 32 and Hiron Point

    Polder 32 and Hiron Point

    We visited Polder 32, an embanked island in the delta that was flooded for almost two years when the embankment failed in several places during Cyclone Aila. In addition to the problem of increased subsidence due to the embankment, the area struggles for fresh water. Then we sailed to Hiron Point, a forest station in…

  • Working in the Bangladeshi Countryside

    Working in the Bangladeshi Countryside

    After traveling by boat for two days, including crossing the Sundarban Mangrove Forest, we finally arrived in Khulna. We drove to the site of our compaction meter and separated into teams servicing the instruments, investigating agricultural practices, measuring arsenic in the well water and taking sediment samples for dating. We had finally started our work…

  • Sailing Around Political Unrest in Bangladesh

    Sailing Around Political Unrest in Bangladesh

    With the roads in Bangladesh hazardous to drive because of the ongoing political unrest, our undergraduate sustainable development class managed to proceed with our class trip over Spring Break by doing all travel by boat.

  • Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    Say Goodbye to Styrofoam

    On July 1, single-use styrofoam products will cease to be in circulation in New York City due to a new regulation. The ban, which will be implemented in all five boroughs, will require that no manufacturer or business sell, give or use any single-use styrofoam product including coffee cups, foam trays and packing materials like…