David Kipping leads the Cool Worlds Laboratory at Columbia University and recently published a study that identifies the odds of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe.

New Columbia-led research shows rising humidity and temperatures are colliding in places like the Gulf Coast, decades ahead of projections, and it's likely to cause deaths.

“We already have enough evidence before a study like this, clearly, of the systemic, existential risks in a world where we don’t reduce our carbon emissions,” Columbia climate scientist Radley Horton said. “This is another line of evidence.”

"Without human-caused climate change, we would still have a drought," said Columbia bioclimatologist Park Williams. "But it wouldn't be a serious as the one we've actually seen."

"Our goal is to be able to tell every coastal community what they can plan on [in] the coming decades," said Columbia's Robin Bell. "To be able to do that, we both need to measure how the ice is changing but also understand better why it's changing."

"The ability to respond will be severely hindered," said Jeff Schlegelmilch, deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

No other geoscience lab was as influential during the second half of the 20th century as Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. It is where the very phrase “global warming” was coined.