September 2017

During late August, Hurricane Harvey's devastation brought attention to the role of global climate change in the intensity of the most severe storms, and Hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Katia – all active as this newsletter went to print – added multiple exclamation points to the discussion. Lamont scientists fielded many media questions and provided important scientific context to these and other extreme events. Lamont's Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate, launched in 2015, pulls together researchers from many disciplines across Columbia University and from institutions around the world to collaborate and expand upon the science to understand extreme weather events in the context of climate change.

Also in this month’s newsletter, learn how changing climate is promising to deliver a damaging insect to our forests, even as microscopic plastic beads threaten to poison and disrupt regional food webs in our waters. Read on for more stories about our most recent science and discoveries.

How will scientists find out whether climate change made Harvey worse?

It’s too soon to say there’s a connection, but searching for the fingerprints of climate change shouldn’t take too long.

How Did Hurricane Harvey Become So Powerful, So Quickly?

Over one and a half days, Hurricane Harvey’s winds quickened from about 35 to 109 miles per hour. What drove this massive power-up?

Climate May Drive Forest-Eating Beetles North, Says Study

Over the next few decades, global warming-related rises in winter temperatures could significantly extend the range of the southern pine beetle—one of the world’s most aggressive tree-killing insects—through much of the northern United States and southern Canada, says a new study.

Study Finds Most of East Antarctic Ice Sheet Should Remain Stable

A new study from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis validates that the central core of the East Antarctic ice sheet should remain stable even if the West Antarctic ice sheet melts.

New York’s Waterways Are Swimming in Plastic Microbeads

Plastic microbeads, common in soap, toothpaste and other consumer products, are flooding waters. A team from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is doing the first large-scale assessment of their impact on New York’s waterways.

Fighting Ivory Trafficking with Forensic Science

Just days before Central Park’s big Ivory Crush, a Lamont-Doherty geochemist and his colleague sawed off samples of the confiscated ivory for DNA testing and radiocarbon dating. Their results could determine where and when each elephant was killed—which could help catch the poachers responsible.