flooding

How to Protect Your Home From Flood Damage

How to Protect Your Home From Flood Damage

Flooding is the most common and most expensive natural disaster in the U.S., according to FEMA. And the risk of catastrophic floods in the U.S. is only rising as climate change intensifies downpours in areas like the Northeast and Midwest. In the West, flooding risks rise following major wildfires that denude hills of trees and […]

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    Court Requires EPA to Protect Communities Against Worst-Case Chemical Spills

    Court Requires EPA to Protect Communities Against Worst-Case Chemical Spills

    On Thursday, a federal district court required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue long-overdue protections against worst-case scenario spills of hazardous materials, like in the case of extreme storms, fires, or flooding. The decision approved a negotiated consent decree between the EPA and a coalition of community and environmental organizations, including NRDC, the Environmental […]

    Protecting Wetlands Yields Staggering Economic Benefit, Study Finds

    Protecting Wetlands Yields Staggering Economic Benefit, Study Finds

    By Kimberly M.S. Cartier Mangrove forests, marshes and seagrass beds protect inland areas from storm surges and strong winds. Over long periods, coastal wetlands like these build up sediment that mitigates sea level rise and local land subsidence. A new analysis of property damage from Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal storms has shown that […]

    Polar Ice Caps Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s

    Polar Ice Caps Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s

    The polar ice caps are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s, the most comprehensive look at the data to date has found. That data, compiled and analyzed by the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE), puts the melting of Greenland and Antarctica‘s ice sheets on track with the worst-case-scenario prediction […]

    Half of the World’s Beaches Could Disappear by 2100, Study Finds

    Half of the World’s Beaches Could Disappear by 2100, Study Finds

    If nothing is done to lower greenhouse gas emissions, sea level rise could swallow nearly half of the world’s sandy beaches by 2100. That’s the conclusion of a study published by the European Union’s Joint Research Center in Nature Climate Change Monday, which marks the first worldwide assessment of the future of sandy shorelines, EU […]

    NYC Sea Wall Halted After Trump Says it’s ‘Costly, Foolish’

    NYC Sea Wall Halted After Trump Says it’s ‘Costly, Foolish’

    President Trump has long touted the efficacy of walls, funneling billions of Defense Department dollars to build a wall on the southern border. However, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a study that included plans for a sea wall to protect New Yorkers from sea-level rise and catastrophic storms like Hurricane Sandy, […]

    Climate Crisis Is Coming for the Tidal Basin in DC

    Climate Crisis Is Coming for the Tidal Basin in DC

    By Sarah Kennedy The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC overlooks the Tidal Basin, a man-made body of water surrounded by cherry trees. Visitors can stroll along the water’s edge, gazing up at the stately monument. But at high tide, people are forced off parts of the path. Twice a day, the Tidal Basin floods and […]