• TRUTH DECAYIn Times of Crisis, States Have Few Tools to Fight Misinformation

    By Matt Vasilogambros

    While officials in Southern California fought fire and falsehoods, Meta —the parent company of Facebook and Instagram —announced it would eliminate its fact-checking program in the name of free expression. As social media companies are pushing back against efforts to crack down on falsehoods, questions are asked about what, if anything, state governments can do to stop the spread of harmful lies and rumors that proliferate on social media.

  • WILDFIRESThe L.A. Fires Show a Need to Rethink Our Wildland Firefighting Systems

    By Jay Balagna

    As bad as the fires in the Los Angeles area have been—more than 12,000 structures burned, about 180,000 people evacuated, more than 35,000 acres scorched, and at least 25 deaths—they could have been even worse, but in some ways Angelenos got lucky. Asystem built on luck, however, is not a durable system. It is already strained, and it risks breaking down in a world of greater and more frequent wildfires.

  • TRUTH DECAYClimate Misinformation Is Rife on Social Media – and Poised to Get Worse

    By Jill Hopke

    The decision by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to end its fact-checking program and otherwise reduce content moderation would open the floodgates to more climate misinformation on Meta’s apps, including misleading or out-of-context claims during disasters. Crowd-sourced debunking is no match for organized disinformation campaigns in the midst of information vacuums during a crisis. The conditions for the rapid and unchecked spread of misleading, and outright false, content could get worse with Meta’s content moderation policy and algorithmic changes.

  • WILDFIRESHow America Courted Increasingly Destructive Wildfires − and What That Means for Protecting Homes Today

    By Justin Angle

    Over a century of fire suppression efforts have conditioned Americans to expect wildland firefighters to snuff out fires quickly, even as people build homes deeper into landscapes that regularly burn. Over time, extensive fire suppression, home construction in high fire-risk areas and climate change have set the stage for the increasingly destructive wildfires we see today.

  • WILDFIRESWhat Mercenaries Can Teach Us About Climate-Fueled Disaster Responses

    By Isabelle Bond

    The devastating fires in Southern California, many of which are still burning out of control, have exposed a controversial and increasingly attractive disaster response alternative that engages the private sector.

  • RESILIENCEHow Hard Is It to Prevent Recurring Blackouts in Puerto Rico?

    Using the island as a model, researchers demonstrate the “DyMonDS” framework can improve resiliency to extreme weather and ease the integration of new resources.

  • WILDFIRESWhat Made the Los Angeles Wildfires So Monstrous

    By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey and Matt Simon

    Powerful winds and extra-dry vegetation have fueled what may become the costliest wildfires on record. The longer-term challenge is better adapting Los Angeles, and the rest of California, to a future of ever-worsening droughts and wildfires. “People talk about adapting to the climate,” sys one expert. “We haven’t adapted to the climate we have, let alone the climate that’s coming.”

  • WILDEFIRESHow Santa Ana Winds Fueled the Deadly Fires in Southern California

    By Jon Keeley

    California is seeing more destructive fires than we saw in the past. That’s driven not just by changes in the climate and the winds, but also by population growth.

  • WILDFIRES Wildfires as a Tool for Terrorism: Implications for Homeland Security

    In recent years, wildfires have become an increasingly significant concern due to their devastating impacts on communities, economies, and ecosystems. Beyond their natural occurrence, wildfires are also gaining attention as a potential tool for malicious actors, including foreign and domestic terrorists.

  • WILDEFIRESA Disaster Expert Explains Why the L.A. Fires Have Been So Catastrophic

    By Renée Cho

    As we’re seeing more and more disaster events, it raises questions about risk and whether insurers are going to keep insuring homes in the long run. Increasingly, it seems the answer is no.

  • DISASTER INSURANCEMississippi River Towns Pilot New Insurance Model to Help with Disaster Response

    By Delaney Dryfoos and Eric Schmid

    The pilot will test parametric insurance, which pays out quickly after agreed-upon “triggers”–such as wind speeds or river heights –reach a certain level.

  • CLIMATE CHALLENGESFive Climate Realism Insights on California’s Wildfires

    By Varun Sivaram

    The wildfires scorching the region around Los Angeles are likely to be the most expensive in history. But, future climate change-related disasters will certainly top them in cost. Here are some steps to limit the damage.

  • RESILIENCEAmidst Compounding Disasters, Resilient Housing Can Anchor Communities

    By Benjamin Ulrich

    Back-to-back hurricanes wreaking havoc across huge swaths of the Southeast were yet another sign of the intensifying impacts of climate change. The nationwide shortage of reliable, affordable housing and the increasing tempo of extreme weather events are separate crises that overlap and magnify each other’s impacts. 

  • SUPPLY-CHAIN SECURITYThe Great Ripple - How a Tsunami Can Disrupt Global Trade

    Shipping facilitates more than 80% of global trade, meaning disruptions to the global port network can have severe consequences for global commerce. Port disruptions are thus costly, very costly.

  • TSUNAMI PREPARATIONSBoxing Day Tsunami: Here’s What We Have Learned in the 20 Years Since the Deadliest Natural Disaster in Modern History

    By Ravindra Jayaratne and Tomoya Shibayama

    On Boxing Day 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia set off a tsunami which killed almost 250,000 people. It was the deadliest natural disaster this century, and was probably the deadliest tsunami in human history. It has reshaped our global disaster management systems, highlighting the importance of early warning systems, local preparations, and coastal defenses.