• Improving Canada’s Resilience to Flooding

    Climate change is having a direct impact on natural disasters, including flooding, increasing the scale, frequency, and unpredictability of these events. The government of Canada said that is why it is making investments to strengthen Canada’s resilience to climate change and reduce the impact of flooding on our communities.

  • Low-Cost Sensor Records the Level of Rivers

    Researchers have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock. The cost-effective sensor is for instance suitable for area-wide flood warning systems.

  • Simple Hardware to Defend Against Microgrid Attacks

    An inexpensive piece of hardware integrated with solar panel controllers can protect isolated power networks from cyberattacks.

  • With Climate Impacts Growing, Insurance Companies Face Big Challenges

    By Renee Cho

    The impacts of climate change are all around us: sea level rise, severe heat waves, drought, extreme rainfall, more powerful storms. These impacts are making natural disasters more intense and more frequent. Losses from each disaster—drought and wildfires in the southwest, severe storms in the Midwest, flooding in Kentucky and Missouri, and hurricanes in the southeast—have exceeded $1 billion, with the cumulative cost of disasters over the last five years reaching $788.4 billion.

  • Examining Vulnerabilities of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

    With electric vehicles becoming more common, the risks and hazards of a cyberattack on electric vehicle charging equipment and systems also increases. Reviewing the vulnerabilities of EV charging infrastructure would help prioritize grid protections and informs policy makers.

  • Maintaining Mountain Snowpacks Essential for Preserving Valuable Freshwater Resource

    Snowcapped mountains generate mountain water runoff and snowmelt, which flow down to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Around a quarter of the world depends on these natural “water towers” to replenish downstream reservoirs and groundwater aquifers for urban water supplies, agricultural irrigation, and ecosystem support. Carbon mitigation strategies are needed to maintain snowpack throughout the Americas. 

  • Zaporizhzhia: What Would Be the Consequences of an Accident?

    By Clare Roth

    Although it’s impossible to say for sure what consequences an accident at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant might have on human health in the environment nearby, experts can make some predictions.

  • The Benefits of Integrating Electric Vehicles into Electricity Distribution Systems

    By Nadia Panossian

    As the cost of EVs continues to decrease, the industry matures, incentives grow, and charging infrastructure improves, EVs could make up the vast majority of vehicles on the road in 2050. Many studies have looked at how increased electricity demand will affect the bulk power system in the United States, but public analysis of the impacts on the distribution system has been less prevalent.

  • Fukushima Fears Notwithstanding, Japan Still Depends on Nuclear Power

    By Nik Martin

    The 2011 Fukushima disaster helped seal the fate of nuclear power in Japan, or so it seemed. Tokyo now plans to extend the life of its nuclear plants and is considering new smaller, safer reactors.

  • Fossil Fuel Past, Green Future: Abandoned Wells May Offer Geothermal Power

    Tapping into abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, products of the state’s long history of energy extraction — could provide a future source of affordable geothermal energy. Regulators estimate hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells have been drilled in the state, many before modern regulations, and lost over time in fields, forests and neighborhoods.

  • More Heat, Humidity as a Result of Climate Change Challenge Power Grid

    Increasing heat and humidity, and the intensification of more-frequent extreme weather events, are a few of the challenges climate change poses for the nation’s power grid. A new study recommends adaptations to protect grid reliability, resiliency.

  • Sea-Level Rise “May Cross Two Meters by 2100”

    By Gilbert Felongco

    Land subsidence could worsen sea-level rise effects in the Asia Pacific region. Most islands in the Pacific are subsiding, presenting a challenge to infrastructure. Pacific Island Countries have low adaptative capacity to climate change.

  • A Decade After Sandy, Manhattan’s Flood Barrier Is Finally in Sight — Sort of

    By Jake Bittle

    In the wake of the October 2012 Superstorm Sandy, an ambitious project, called the “Big U,” was launched, aiming to wrap the island of Manhattan in miles of berms and artificial shorelines, creating a huge grassy shield that would both increase urban green space and defend the city from storm surge. The “Big U” shows how climate adaptation can succeed. It also shows how hard it is.

  • No Evidence of Any Voting Machine Compromised: CISA

    “We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country”: CISA

  • Searching for Critical Minerals at the Colorado-Wyoming Border

    The U.S. Geological Survey announced that, with substantial funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, it will invest about $2.8 million to collect a large swath of geophysical data focusing on critical-mineral resources along the Colorado-Wyoming border.