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Texas Farmers Are Worried One of the State’s Most Precious Water Resources Is Running Dry. You Should Be, Too.
The Ogallala Aquifer serves farming communities in multiple states. When it runs dry, the agriculture industry in Texas and the nation is in jeopardy.
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Why Insurance Companies Are Pulling Out of California and Florida, and How to Fix Some of the Underlying Problems
When the nation’s No. 1 and No. 4 property and casualty insurance companies – State Farm and Allstate – confirmed that they would stop issuing new home insurance policies in California, it may have been a shock but shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s a trend Florida and other hurricane- and flood-prone states know well. Insurers have been retreating from high-risk, high-loss markets for years after catastrophic events. As losses from natural hazards steadily increase, research shows it’s not a question of if insurance will become unavailable or unaffordable in high-risk areas – it’s a question of when.
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Human-Caused Climate Change at the Center of Recent California Wildfires
Summer wildfire seasons in California routinely break records. The average summer burn area in forests in northern and central portions of the state have increased fivefold between 1996 and 2021 compared to between 1971 and 1995. In a new study, scientist and collaborators shows that nearly all the recent increase in summer wildfire burned area is attributable to human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change.
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Adapt or Retreat? Conference Will Explore Questions of Habitability in a Changing World
As sea levels rise, fires rage, and temperatures continue to increase around the globe, it is understood that certain areas may no longer be habitable in the not-so-distant future, and that people now living in these area will have to retreat to more accommodating areas — in what is called “managed retreat.” But what does it mean to be habitable? And who gets to decide what happens to these areas under threat?
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For Beleaguered Homeowners and Their Insurers, the Fire Next Time Could Be a Flood
The data-driven insurance business is in trouble as climate-change-driven disasters arrive with greater fury and frequency. Catastrophic losses are something that insurance companies have long planned and budgeted for. But not this many.
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Cost of Climate Change-Driven Natural Disasters Includes Losses of Learning, Earnings
A new study finds that the human capital consequences of natural disasters, linked to climate change, are a significant factor contributing to economic inequality.
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Frustrated by Outdated Grids, Consumers Are Lobbying for Control of Their Electricity
Climate change is spurring interest in remaking local infrastructure to accommodate renewable energy, minimize power failures, and expand consumer choice.
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Tackling the World's Climate-Driven Water Crisis
A safe supply of clean water is necessary for human survival – yet 2.2 billion people around the world lack access to this basic human right. A global crisis is looming on water security, which has been escalated by climate change.
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Decrease in Rainfall in Central America Could Cut Off the Panama Canal
To see the economic consequences of global warming look no further than the Panama Canal. There, water levels are down because of less rain in Central America. Experts fear ordinary consumers may end up paying the price.
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Global Flash Droughts Expected to Increase in a Warming Climate
The rapid development of unexpected drought, called flash drought, can severely impact agricultural and ecological systems with ripple effects that extend even further. Researchers are assessing how our warming climate will affect the frequency of flash droughts and the risk to croplands globally.
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Modeling Catastrophic Impacts, Risk Assessment of Climate Change
The insurance and reinsurance sector are at the forefront of translating weather and climate information into financial and societal risks, but the industry’s focus has been on use of catastrophe models rather than incorporating climate change data and projections that can help characterize future conditions.
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In Years After El Niño, Global Economy Loses Trillions
In the years it strikes, the band of warm ocean water known as El Niño that spans from South America to Asia triggers far-reaching weather changes resulting in devastating floods, crop-killing droughts, plummeting fish populations, and an uptick in tropical diseases.
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Long-Term Coastal Cliff Loss Due to Climate Change
The dangers of coastal erosion are an all-too-familiar reality for the modern residents of California’s iconic mountainous coastal communities. New tool brings historical perspective to the topic of how to manage these disappearing coastlines.
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Possible Future Health Impacts Related to Climate Mitigation
Reduce fossil fuel use and air quality will improve, right? It might not be as straightforward as it appears, according to researchers. Some climate change mitigation measures may cause worsening of air quality.
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Global Temperatures set to Reach New Records in Next Five Years
Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fueled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Niño event. There is a 66% likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. There is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record.
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More headlines
The long view
How Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”