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Efforts to Build Wildfire Resilience Are Heating Up
Stanford’s campus has become a living lab for testing innovative fire management techniques, from AI-powered environmental sensors to a firebreak-creating “BurnBot.”
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Hurricane Helene Brought Devastation — and an Opportunity — to Appalachia’s Power Grids
As recovery efforts continue, utilities in the region need to rethink their approach to electricity in the face of climate change.
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Reducing Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in Virginia
As the climate changes and sea levels rise, there is concern that sinking coastlines could exacerbate risks to infrastructure, as well as human and environmental health in coastal communities. The Virginia Coastal Plain is one of the fastest-sinking regions on the East Coast.
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Why Fracking Matters in the 2024 U.S. Election
The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. With presidential candidates Harris and Trump clashing on climate and energy policy, the practice is once again in the spotlight.
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Is Tampa Prepared for the Devastating Impact of Hurricane Milton?
As Hurricane Milton barrels toward central Florida, disaster recovery experts say residents should expect extensive destruction from the storm and its surge — particularly if Tampa is hit directly.
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Subsea Communications Cables: Vital but Vulnerable
Ensuring the resilience of the submarine cable network against disruptions is crucial. Lying deep on the ocean floor, these fiber-optic cables can transmit massive amounts of data at high speeds with low latency, making them far more efficient than satellites, which handle only a fraction of global data transmission.
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Counties Call for Rural Groundwater Management Despite Some Voters Rejecting It
Four rural Arizona county supervisors are asking for more regulation when it comes to pumping rural groundwater, something that their constituents denied them in 2022.
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Deflecting Doom: How Sandia Research Could Save Earth from Asteroids
The most efficient way to prevent potentially dangerous asteroids from damaging or even obliterating Earth may involve a coordinated nuclear response to deflect the menacing asteroid. Free-floating experiments at Sandia provide deflection data.
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Where Flood Policy Helps Most — and Where It Could Do More
A U.S. program provides important flood insurance relief, but it’s used more in communities with greater means to protect themselves.
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In Storms Like Hurricane Helene, Flooded Industrial Sites and Toxic Chemical Releases Are a Silent and Growing Threat
Hundreds of industrial facilities with toxic pollutants were in Hurricane Helene’s path as the powerful storm flooded communities across the Southeast in late September 2024. In disasters like these, the industrial damage can unfold over days, and residents may not hear about releases of toxic chemicals into water or the air until days or weeks later, if they find out at all.
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Plan to Reopen Three Mile Island Plant Could e ‘Rebirth’ of Nuclear Energy: Experts
The 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant became a cautionary tale for a generation of Americans. But experts say a plan to reopen the plant shows opinions are changing regarding nuclear power and its role in a clean energy future.
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The U.S. Is Finally Curbing Floodplain Development, New Research Shows
Over the past century, the United States has built millions of homes along coastlines and rivers, developing on land that is all but destined to flood. At the same time that the warming of the planet has raised sea levels and increased rainfall, annual flood damages have surged in recent decades in large part because more homes are in flood-prone areas now than ever before.
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Planning for Impacts of Floods and Clouds on Power
On the heels of a Northeastern rainstorm that flooded towns on Long Island and claimed at least two lives in Connecticut, teams of scientists, engineers, and representatives of local power and transportation utilities met to discuss the increasing frequency of severe weather and its impacts on crucial infrastructure.
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Where Landslides Are Most Likely to Occur in the U.S.
Landslides are a common hazard in the US. In fact, nearly 44% of the country could experience one, potentially catastrophically. Our new national landslide susceptibility map shows where they’re most likely to happen.
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Planning the Future of America’s Vast Electric Grid
America’s electric grid is one of the largest and most complicated pieces of infrastructure ever built. It is intended to deliver electricity nearly 100% of the time in any situation. And it will soon be called upon to accommodate renewables and more electric demand.
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The long view
Underground Data Fortresses: The Nuclear Bunkers, Mines and Mountains Being Transformed to Protect Our “New Gold” from Attack
Bunker scholars have long noted that these buildings are as much about time as they are about space. Bunkers are designed to preserve and transport their contents through time, from an apocalyptic present into a safe future.
U.S. Energy Supply Chains Are Unlikely to Meet Anticipated Demand
The U.S. fast-growing energy demands for clean energy sources faces a problem: Under current supply chain conditions, the United States is on track to fall significantly short of surging demand for three clean energy sources: wind, solar, and battery. The shortage is due to the scarcity of critical raw materials such as nickel, aluminum, and silicon.
Millions of Buildings at Risk from Sea Level Rise
Sea level rise could put more than 100 million buildings if fossil fuel emissions are not curbed quickly. The analysis focused on Global South and considered multiple scenarios, underscoring urgent need for planning.