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Climate Change Poses Serious National Security Threat
After years of debate, there is growing awareness within the Department of Defense and the U.S. government more broadly that climate change poses a serious national security threat. Some efforts to cope with this challenge are already underway.
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Hurricanes and Power Grids: Eliminating Large-Scale Outages with a New Approach
Large scale-power outages caused by tropical cyclones can be prevented almost entirely if a small but critical set of power lines is protected against storm damages.
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Israeli Tech to Help Modernize Pacific Northwest Power Grid
Exodigo gets federal funding to help Pacific Northwest National Laboratory transition to underground electric power lines.
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Disasters Expo USA: The Latest in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery
Disasters Expo USA will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center on 6-7 March 2024. Leading disaster mitigation experts will share with the thousands of participants the latest information and insights on the most innovative, cost-effective, and efficient solutions which aim to help communities prepare for, cope with, and recover from destructive and costly disasters.
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How Sponge Cities Work?
With concrete and asphalt covering areas once given over to grass and soil, the water from heavy rains has nowhere to go. Too often, that results in flooding, and cities around the world are now exploring ways to reverse this kind of urban development. And they are doing it by turning themselves into urban “sponges.” In other words, they are creating spaces and infrastructure to absorb, hold and release water in a way that allows it to flow back into the water cycle.
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Air Pollution Hides Increases in Rainfall
For much of the last century, the drying effect of aerosols has masked increases in rainfall from greenhouse gases – but as aerosol emissions diminish, average and extreme rains may ramp up.
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Raging Texas Wildfires Force U.S. Main Nuclear Weapon Facility to Evacuate, Temporarily Shut Down
Raging wildfires in the Texas panhandle have forced the evacuation and temporary closure of the Pantex plant, the U.S. premier nuclear weapons assembly facility. The Pantex plant said that “All weapons and special materials are safe and unaffected.”
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Earthquake Fatality Measure Offers New Way to Estimate Impact on Countries
A new measure that compares earthquake-related fatalities to a country’s population size concludes that Ecuador, Lebanon, Haiti, Turkmenistan, Iran and Portugal have experienced the greatest impact from fatalities in the past five centuries.
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New Detection Method Aims to Warn of Landslide Tsunamis
Researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami hazard.
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Can Astronomers Use Radar to Spot a Cataclysmic Asteroid?
How can humans protect the Earth from devastating asteroid and comet impacts? According to the National Academies, ground based astronomical radar systems will have a “unique role” to play in planetary defense.
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Report Details 2023 State Policy Trends in Disaster Resilience
As the world continues to grapple with the growing impacts of climate change, we will need to take clear steps to reduce the consequences of ongoing and forecasted catastrophes. It is important to understand what is happening at the state level and how climate adaptation and disaster resilience priorities are appearing in state laws that govern our approaches and underwrite our resilience efforts.
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CyberShake Study Uses Summit Supercomputer to Investigate Earthquake Hazards
Researchers are unraveling the mysteries of earthquakes by using physics-based computational models running on high-performance computing systems. The team’s findings will provide a better understanding of seismic hazards in the Golden State.
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Deficiencies in Building Structures, Construction Shortcuts Were the Main Cause of Casualties in Turkey-Syria Earthquakes
A new, independent field investigation into the aftermath of the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has found that a drive for profit has pushed all players within the construction industry to take shortcuts, with building stock primarily made of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures, being the main cause of the casualties.
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Category 6-level Hurricanes Are Already Here, a New Study Says
Some U.S. scientists are making the case that the current storm classification no longer captures the intensity of recent hurricanes. They argue for extending the current hurricane rating system, the Saffir-Simpson scale, with a new category for storms that have winds topping 192 miles per hour, saying that the world has already seen storms that would qualify as Category 6s. But what would change if we added a number to the hurricane scale?
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What Sets the Recent Japan Earthquake Apart from Others?
On Jan. 1, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the western side of Japan on the Noto Peninsula, killing over 200 people. Japan is prone to earthquakes, including a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2011 that triggered a tsunami and killed almost 20,000 people. Geophysicist William Frank discusses how a recent earthquake in Japan relates to an earthquake swarm in the region.
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The long view
Strengthening School Violence Prevention
Violence by K-12 students is disturbingly common. Ensuring that schools have effective ways to identify and prevent such incidents is becoming increasingly important. Expanding intervention options and supporting K-12 school efforts in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) would help.
Huge Areas May Face Possibly Fatal Heat Waves if Warming Continues
A new assessment warns that if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2 degrees C over the preindustrial average, widespread areas may become too hot during extreme heat events for many people to survive without artificial cooling.
Trump’s Cuts to Federal Wildfire Crews Could Have “Scary” Consequences
President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the federal workforce have gutted the ranks of wildland firefighters and support personnel, fire professionals warn, leaving communities to face deadly consequences when big blazes arrive this summer. States, tribes and fire chiefs are preparing for a fire season with minimal federal support.