• Dire Outlook on Global Warming: IPCC

    The IPCC warns that in twenty years, the world will likely reach — and even surpass — the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold that scientists have predicted will lead to irreversible changes such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and devastating floods and droughts around the world.

  • For Forest Towns, 3 Wildfire Lessons as Dixie Fire Destroys Historic Greenville, California

    How can people prepare for a future that’s unlike anything their communities have ever experienced? The emergence of extreme fires in recent years and the resulting devastation shows that communities need better means to anticipate mounting dangers, and underscores how settlement patterns, land management and lifestyles will have to change to prevent even larger catastrophes. Our research team of landscape architects, ecologists, social scientists and computer scientists has been exploring and testing strategies to help.

  • Four Explanations for Why Europe Is Burning

    Barely halfway through summer, the area burned by wildfires raging through the Balkans, Italy, and the southeastern Mediterranean has already eclipsed yearly averages.

  • National Security Agencies Must Include Climate Risks and Their Analyses

    The Pentagon and other federal agencies were given a July deadline to draw up plans for potential climate risks, under an executive order by President Biden. Antonio Busalacchi and Sherri Goodman write that such plans are an essential first step, but the greater challenge for national security agencies is to continue to redirect their focus to changing climate conditions that pose a complex, two-pronged threat: social and political instability overseas and damage to U.S. infrastructure.

  • Administration Commits $3.46 Billion to Reduce Effects of Climate Change

    Communities across the country have been impacted by the effects of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and other events. The increasing duration, intensity, and severity of such disasters—which are exacerbated by climate change as well as changes in population, land use, and weather patterns—are alarming and devastating. New funds made available by the government for hazard mitigation.

  • DHS S&T Selects Two Industry Partners for Second Phase Wildland Fire Sensor Research

    DHS S&T selected two industry partners for the second phase of research on wildland fire sensor. The first phase research was conducted in June 2021, and the next phase of the program will focus on hardening the sensors for longer-term field deployments.

  • How Years of Fighting Every Wildfire Helped Fuel the Western Megafires of Today

    Why are wildfires getting worse? Climate change is a big part of it. But, ironically, a chronic lack of fire in Western landscapes also contributes to increased fire severity and vulnerability to wildfires. It allows dry brush and live and dead trees to build up, and with more people living in wildland areas to spark blazes, pressure to fight every forest fire has increased the risk of extreme fire.

  • Fire Season Heats Up, and Burnout Looms

    To the dangerous conditions such as scorching temperatures, drought across 90 percent of the West, and intense wildfire, we must now add another: a looming crisis of burnout among wildland firefighters.

  • Compact Lifesaving Drone for Beach Rescue Teams

    A student designs compact lifesaving drone for beach rescue teams after witnessing teenage surfer battle dangerous waves. As part of his final year project, the student designed a small, compact drone that flies above hazardous waters to locate individuals in distress and deploys a buoyancy aid that automatically inflates when hitting the water, helping casualties stay afloat while they wait for a rescue team to reach them.

  • “Less Than 1% Probability” that Increase in Earth’s Energy Imbalance Occurred Naturally

    The fundamental energy balance sheet for our planet is straightforward: Sunlight in, reflected and emitted energy out. If the Earth’s oceans and land surfaces send as much energy back up to space as the sun shines down on us, then our planet maintains equilibrium. But for decades the system has been out of balance, resulting in the growing number, intensity, lethality, and damage of extreme weather events. The reason: The increasing emission of greenhouse gases.

  • How Summer 2021 Has Changed Our Understanding of Extreme Weather

    A series of record-breaking natural disasters have swept the globe in recent weeks. Many of these events have shocked climate scientists. Some scientists are beginning to worry they might have underestimated how quickly the climate will change. Or have we just misunderstood extreme weather events and how our warming climate will influence them?

  • Preventing Human-Induced Earthquakes

    When humans pump large volumes of fluid into the ground, they can set off potentially damaging earthquakes, depending on the underlying geology. This has been the case in certain oil- and gas-producing regions. have developed a method to manage such human-induced seismicity, and have demonstrated that the technique successfully reduced the number of earthquakes occurring in an active oil field.

  • Climate Tipping Points Are Now Imminent: Scientists

    Around 13,000 researchers have called for urgent action to slow down the climate emergency as extreme weather patterns shock the world. They listed three core measures.

  • A 20-Foot Sea Wall Won’t Save Miami – How Living Structures Can Help Protect the Coast and Keep the Paradise Vibe

    There’s no question that the city is at increasing risk of flooding as sea level rises and storms intensify with climate change. But the sea wall the Army Corps is proposing – protecting only 6 miles of downtown and the financial district from a storm surge – can’t save Miami and Dade County. There are more effective – and cheaper solutions.

  • Extreme Heat Waves in a Warming World Don’t Just Break Records – They Shatter Them

    Scientists have warned for over 50 years about increases in extreme events arising from subtle changes in average climate, but many people have been shocked by the ferocity of recent weather disasters. We need to understand two things about climate change’s role in extreme weather like this: First, humans have pumped so much carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that what’s “normal” has shifted. Second, not every extreme weather event is connected to global warming.