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Q&A with the Experts: Puerto Rico
In 2018, as part of an effort to improve Puerto Rico’s resilience in the face of repeated, and devastating, natural disasters, RAND experts offered 270 specific courses of action needed across infrastructure, communities, and natural systems. Four years later, some of these experts reflect on the progress made – and not made – in shoring up the island’s resilience.
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Hurricane Ian Shows That Coastal Hospitals Aren’t Ready for Climate Change
As rapidly intensifying storms and rising sea levels threaten coastal cities from Texas to the tip of Maine, Hurricane Ian has just demonstrated what researchers have warned: Hundreds of hospitals in the U.S. are not ready for climate change.
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NASA Successfully Shifted an Asteroid’s Orbit – DART Spacecraft Crashed Into and Moved Dimorphos
NASA recently crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to push the rocky traveler off its trajectory. The test was a great proof-of-concept for many technologies that the U.S. government has invested in over the years. And importantly, it proves that it is possible to send a craft to intercept with a minuscule target millions of miles away from Earth and change its orbit.
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Greater Resilience Through Nature-Inspired Power Grids
Researchers are looking to nature to build better power grids that are more resistant to various potential disturbances like natural disasters or cyberattacks.
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“Shock-Darkened” Meteorites Offer Clues for Hazardous Asteroid Deflection
Planetary scientists identified a potential source of a special kind of meteorite. Its characteristics could explain certain discrepancies in how near-Earth asteroids are classified.
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The “Hurricane Tax”: Ian Is Pushing Florida’s Home Insurance Market Toward Collapse
Hurricane Ian has dissipated, but it will bring even more turmoil to the Sunshine State in the coming months. This damage will be financial rather than physical, as ratings agencies and real estate companies have estimated the storm’s damages at anywhere between $30 and $60 billion. The storm is poised to be one of the largest insured loss events in U.S. history.
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The U.S. Needs to Prepare for More Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters Like Hurricane Ian
Billion-dollar disasters such as Hurricane Ian are on the rise in the United States. Officials should take swift action to reduce the damage and protect Americans.
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The Cost of Rising Temperatures
From crop damage to cooling failures at cloud-based data centers, climate change affects a wide variety of economic sectors. The study found that economies are sensitive to persistent temperature shocks over at least a 10-year time frame.
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Puerto Rico: A U.S. Territory in Crisis
The Caribbean island, which shares a close yet fraught relationship with the rest of the United States, faces a multilayered economic and social crisis rooted in long-standing policy and compounded by natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, and government mismanagement.
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Barrier Islands Are Natural Coast Guards That Absorb Impacts from Hurricanes and Storms
When hurricanes and storms make landfall, barrier islands absorb much of their force, reducing wave energy and protecting inland areas. Islands that have been preserved in their natural state can move with storms, shifting their shapes over time. But many human activities, such as turning these islands into tourist attractions –for example, Florida’s Sanibel Island and South Carolina’s Pawleys Island — interfere with these natural movements, making the islands more vulnerable.
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A New Way to Predict Droughts
Scientists looking at the meteorological impacts of climate change have typically looked at increases in severe weather and hurricanes. Now, they are studying another consequence of global warming that will have significant economic ramifications: drought. And advanced computing gives new window into “flash droughts.”
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What Is Hurricane Storm Surge, and Why Can It Be So Catastrophic?
As a hurricane reaches the coast, it pushes a huge volume of ocean water ashore. This is what we call storm surge. Of all the hazards that hurricanes bring, storm surge is the greatest threat to life and property along the coast.
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Hundreds of Hospitals on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Flooding from Hurricanes
Researchers identified 682 acute care hospitals in 78 metropolitan statistical areas located within 10 miles of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, covering a population just under 85 million people, or about 1 in 4 Americans. They found that 25 of the 78 metro areas studied have half or more of their hospitals at risk of flooding from a Category 2 storm.
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Champlain Towers South Investigation Completes Site Testing
Members of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) completed testing at the former site of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, collecting data to help improve computer models that will be used to evaluate potential causes of the June 2021 collapse.
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3 Reasons Hurricane Ian Poses a Major Flooding Hazard for Florida
Hurricane Ian has now been upgraded to Category 4, with winds just under 155 mph. But the scale doesn’t take water risk into account, and flooding and storm surge are both major risks from Ian. Here are three reasons Florida is facing a high risk of water hazards this week.
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The long view
Trump Aims to Shut Down State Climate Policies
President Donald Trump has launched an all-out legal attack on states’ authority to set climate change policy. Climate-focused state leaders say his administration has no legal basis to unravel their efforts.