columbia university

By Dan Nosowitz Palm trees. They’re associated with places that aren’t supposed to somehow get more snow on the last week in March, in violent opposition to that whole “out like a lamb” thing. But palm trees are popping up in more locations than ever before, and can serve as signposts since they can only […]

Climate change is already making people sicker, according to a deep-dive written by Renee Cho for Columbia University’s Earth Institute on Monday. Cho pointed to the example of doctors in Florida who are noticing that their patients run through prescriptions faster as conditions like asthma worsen due to heat waves. Indeed, Florida doctors have observed […]

By Tim Radford U.S. scientists have just added a new dimension of horror to the modern airport experience: global warming could take heat wave temperatures to the point where it becomes simply too hot to fly. And as the mercury rises, those aircraft that are cleared for takeoff may have been forced to take off […]

By Courtney St. John In case anyone doubts the death of coal, experts just issued the autopsy. A new report from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University looks at exactly what’s causing coal’s demise. It finds that cheap natural gas is responsible for roughly half the decline in U.S. coal consumption. Falling […]

By Paul Brown Climate change has already doubled the number of forest fires in the western U.S. since the 1980s—and it is a trend that will continue to increase, according to new research. The study says the rise in temperatures and aridity sucks the moisture out of the plants, trees, dead vegetation on the ground […]