12 months in Review: Our Top Stories of 2022
Photo: Kerry Key/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
2022 has been a superb 12 months for climate motion. The Inflation Reduction Act will invest $370 billion toward a low-carbon economy. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law guarantees to scale back U.S. carbon emissions while making our infrastructure more resilient to climate change impacts. And wealthy nations agreed to create a fund that can help developing countries who’re suffering the worst damages from the changing climate.
Here on the Columbia Climate School, we celebrated our first graduating class of scholars, who at the moment are on the market on the earth making a difference. We recently announced that we’re partnering within the creation of a recent major for undergraduate students specializing in Climate System Science. And on State of the Planet, we published a whole bunch of stories aimed toward helping people higher understand our current, past, and future climate, and what’s needed to construct a safer and healthier future. You’ll be able to try a few of our favorites below.
The 12 months hasn’t been without its setbacks. The world still might not be doing “enough,” but we’re finally doing something, and that matters. Sustainability is a journey — not a destination — and we’re comfortable to be on the journey with you. Comfortable holidays, and see you in the brand new 12 months!
A few of our hottest posts from 2022
Most covered within the media
Photo: Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute
- Dinosaurs Took Over Amid Ice, Not Warmth, Says a Recent Study of Ancient Mass Extinction – There’s recent evidence that ancient high latitudes, to which early dinosaurs were largely relegated, usually froze over, and that the creatures adapted—an apparent key to their later dominance.
- Scientists Say a Shipwreck Off Patagonia Is a Long-Lost 1850s Rhode Island Whaler – In 1858, a sailing ship left Warren, R.I., to hunt the globe for whales, and never returned. Where did it find yourself? Researchers from the southern and northern hemispheres joined to analyze.
- In Sediments Below Antarctic Ice, Scientists Discover a Giant Groundwater System – For the primary time, scientists have mapped intimately water locked in a deep basin far under the Antarctic ice. The invention could have implications for the way the continent reacts to, and even contributes to, climate change.
- 2022 World Food Prize Awarded to Columbia Scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig – The award recognizes her pioneering work in modeling the impact of climate change on food production worldwide.
- Megadrought in Southwest Is Now the Worst in at Least 1,200 Years, Study Confirms – The continuation of dry conditions across a large region has broken records going back to the 12 months 800. Researchers imagine climate change is essentially guilty.
Video highlights
This event marking the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy explored the effectiveness of recovery efforts, and what we will learn from Sandy to enhance climate justice and resilience in the longer term.
Columbia Climate School co-hosted this discussion about how climate change and a history of environmental injustice is impacting communities like Harlem, and what might be done about it.
On this talk, researcher Mike Kaplan explains what the Little Ice Age was, and why we must always care about it.
Pondering of enrolling in a climate- or sustainability-focused educational program, but you’re undecided which one? This presentation provides an summary of Columbia’s graduate-level programs — including Climate and Society, Sustainability Management, Sustainability Science, and Environmental Science and Policy — and the way each is exclusive.
Don’t miss these other essential stories
GlacierHub, a blog managed by Columbia Climate School anthropologist Ben Orlove, published quite a lot of fascinating stories climate change impacts through the lens of glaciers and the people and ecosystems who depend on them. Don’t miss this one, which incorporates a harrowing video of a collapsing glacier.
Our student contributors shared fun and meaningful anecdotes in personal essays, and wrote some pretty convincing opinion pieces. Listed here are just a number of of our favorites:
