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DROUGHTAs Drought Worsens, Western States Brace for Wildfires, Water Shortages
From the Rockies to the Cascades to the Sierra Nevada, mountainsides across the West are sparsely covered by the snow that usually blankets the high country well into the summer. That snowpack is like a savings account that the West draws on when the hot, dry months arrive, but this yearWestern states are heading into the summer with a desperately low balance — threatening wildfires, drinking water, crops, electricity and more.
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DAMSClose Calls at Michigan’s Dams Are a Climate Warning to America
Record flooding pushed Michigan’s dams to the brink of disaster. The near miss reflects the national problem of infrastructure that is not suited to the challenges of a warming world.
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WILDFIRESTrump’s New Conditions on DEI, Immigration Could Cut Off States’ Wildfire Funding
A new effort to force states to affirm the Trump administration’s views on DEI, transgender athletes and immigration when signing contracts with the U.S. Forest Service is threatening millions of dollars in wildfire grant funding and fire reduction projects on federal lands. Liberal states may be barred from Forest Service grants and projects if they don’t sign the new terms.
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CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTUREHow Will Tropical Cyclones Impact Coastal Critical Infrastructure — Including Nuclear Reactors — in the Future?
As populations grow and more infrastructure is built in coastal areas, understanding these risks is essential. The Bay of Bengal’s low-lying coastal area and dense population make the region in Southeast Asia highly vulnerable to flooding.
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CLIMATE CHALLENGESHow the Trump administration’s climate math doesn’t add up
There’s an old argument that protecting the environment hurts the economy. It’s wrong for a lot of reasons.
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DOOMSDAYWhat to Expect When You’re Expecting the End of the World
Jem Bendell predicted that society would collapse because of climate change. Then he tried to get on with his life.
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INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTIONHelping MTA in Combating Climate Threats
NYU Tandon School research team developed computer model that quickly tests hundreds of resilience strategies to determine the best ways to defend subways against coastal storm surge flooding.
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GEOENGINEERINGThe U.S. Barely Bothers to Track Geoengineering. What Could Go Wrong?
Whether it’s cloud seeding or covering the Arctic in tiny glass beads, there’s little standing in the way of weather modification.
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DISASTER RESPONSEKristi Noem All but Killed FEMA. Will Her Departure Save It?
Before she was fired by President Trump, Noem raised eyebrows for an unprecedented degree of control over staffing and spending at FEMA. A growing number of critics and experts believe that Noem’s interference with FEMA may well have been illegal.
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CLIMATE-CHANGE CHALLENGESStudy Reveals Climatic Fingerprints of Wildfires and Volcanic Eruptions
In research that could help elucidate humans’ role in global warming, scientists showed how three major natural events impacted global atmospheric temperatures.
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DISASTERSWhy Do Disasters Still Happen, Despite Early Warnings? Because Systems Are Built to Wait for Certainty
Uncertainty cannot be eliminated. The challenge is to decide how much uncertainty is acceptable when lives and livelihoods are at stake. Systems designed to wait for certainty are more likely to deliver warnings that arrive too late to feel like warnings at all. If resilience to future climate risks is to be sustainable, warning systems must be designed to learn, adapt, and act earlier on credible risk.
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DISASTERSCEOs Who Have Lived Through Natural Disasters Tend to Prioritize Safer Workplaces, Study Finds
Leaders’ early life experiences may have a major impact on employee safety, says researcher Michel Magnan. New study found that CEOs who have lived through events like major earthquakes, floods or hurricanes early in life run firms that prioritize safer workplaces.
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DISASTER RECOVERYStates Reeling from Winter Storm Encounter a Smaller FEMA
The Trump administration was quick to mobilize initial aid, but it’s not clear how a shrunken agency will handle the long-term recovery costs.
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DHSTurmoil at FEMA Adds to the Revolt Against Kristi Noem
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s handling of the killing of Alex Pretti follows sustained criticism of her management of FEMA. Lawmakers, disaster response experts, and disaster survivors say her policies have all but halted the agency’s disaster spending, thus slowing emergency response and delaying recovery funding.
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GEOMAGNETIC STORMSWhat a Solar Superstorm Could Mean for the U.S.
If a geomagnetic storm as large as the famed “Carrington Event” of 1859 were to occur today, it could adversely affect telecommunications and electric power transmission systems across the U.S., especially in the Midwest and the East Coast.
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The long view
GEOENGINEERINGThe U.S. Barely Bothers to Track Geoengineering. What Could Go Wrong?
Whether it’s cloud seeding or covering the Arctic in tiny glass beads, there’s little standing in the way of weather modification.
CLIMATE-CHANGE CHALLENGESStudy Reveals Climatic Fingerprints of Wildfires and Volcanic Eruptions
In research that could help elucidate humans’ role in global warming, scientists showed how three major natural events impacted global atmospheric temperatures.