Natural disasters

As Tornado Alley Shifts East, Bracing for Impact in Unexpected Places
Experts say the causes are still unclear, but the change is consistent with a warming world. The effects on the ground could be devastating.
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AI Technology and Self-Coordinating Drones to Detect and Investigate Wildfires
Engineers have developed a swarm of self-coordinating drones for firefighting, as part of an effort to develop cost-effective early mitigation strategies for wildfires.
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To Get Off Fossil fuels, America Is Going to Need a Lot More Electricians
To cut greenhouse gas emissions on pace with the best available science, the United States must prepare for a monumental increase in electricity use. Burning fossil fuels to heat homes and get around isn’t compatible with keeping the planet at a livable temperature. Appliances that can be powered by clean electricity already exist to meet all of these needs. The problem is, most houses aren’t wired to handle the load from electric heating, cooking, and clothes dryers, along with solar panels and vehicle chargers. And a shortage of skilled labor could derail efforts to “electrify everything.”
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Revising the Cost of Climate Change
Climate scientists have warned of calamitous consequences if global temperatures continue their rise. But macroeconomists have largely told a less alarming story, predicting modest reductions in productivity and spending as the world warms. Until now. New study of economic toll yields projections ‘six times larger than previous estimates’.
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Tracking Down the Asteroid That Sealed the Fate of the Dinosaurs
Geoscientists have led an international study to determine the origin of the huge piece of rock that hit the Earth around 66 million years ago and permanently changed the climate. The asteroid probably came from the outer solar system.
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Urban Street Networks and Building Density Shape Severity of Floods
Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. Researchers’ new analytical model can assess neighborhood-level hazards globally.
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Dark Rituals: Understanding Society's Fascination with Death and Disaster
Understanding why the popularity of organized events steeped in themes of death, disaster and suffering could be key to a deeper understanding of society.
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How the Marshall Fire Sparked a Political Transformation in Colorado
After the fire destroyed his town in 2021, a state rep took on insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and landlords — and beat them all.
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Meet the Company Using AI to Detect Earthquakes Faster
With earthquakes recently in California and Russia, and a megaquake alert for Japan, SeismicAI’s platform can shave vital seconds off the time it takes to send alerts out.
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How Back-to-Back Hurricanes Set Off a Year of Compounding Disasters for One City − and Alarm Bells About Risks in a Warming World
Climate change will bring new weather patterns that are beyond emergency managers’ current playbooks, which are filled with protocols honed by past experience. The capacity to adapt will be essential when those playbooks can’t handle compounding disasters that few had imagined.
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Postfire Debris Flows May Become Predictable, Thanks to a New Study
Scientists at Los Alamos have developed a model framework to better predict events such as landslides. The framework is making simulations faster and more accurate, which in turn will improve safety for communities that are at risk of their infrastructure being washed away.
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Can Florida’s Orange Growers Survive Another Hurricane Season?
Oranges are synonymous with Florida, but a perfect storm of hurricanes, diseases, and water scarcity threatens to wipe out the state’s famed citrus industry.
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The Case for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure
Climate change is making weather harder to predict, and creating new risks in places that never faced them before. And as hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and wildfires intensify, most infrastructure will need to be retrofitted or designed and built anew for future climate resilience.
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Nationwide Flood Models Poorly Reflect Risks to Households and Properties, Study Finds
Government agencies, insurance companies and disaster planners rely on national flood risk models from the private sector that aren’t reliable at smaller levels such as neighborhoods and individual properties.
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Quantifying Global Earthquake Risk to Mineral Supplies
Earthquakes could impact the supplies of mineral commodities like copper and rhenium around the world. A new scientific mechanism for assessing the potential risk to worldwide mineral commodity supplies from seismic activity has been developed by USGS scientists.
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