flooding

Assessing Social Equity in Disasters

Assessing Social Equity in Disasters

By Eric Tate and Christopher Emrich Disasters stemming from hazards like floods, wildfires, and disease often garner attention because of their extreme conditions and heavy societal impacts. Although the nature of the damage may vary, major disasters are alike in that socially vulnerable populations often experience the worst repercussions. For example, we saw this following […]

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    Melting Glacier Study Could Establish Legal Liability for Climate Polluters

    Melting Glacier Study Could Establish Legal Liability for Climate Polluters

    New research shows global warming caused by human activity is to blame for a shrinking Andean glacier that threatens to flood 120,000 people and could be used to establish legal liability for polluters. The study, published in Nature Geoscience on Thursday by scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Washington, found human […]

    Record Rainfall Linked to Surging Methane Emissions in East Africa

    Record Rainfall Linked to Surging Methane Emissions in East Africa

    Scientists have long warned the public about compound climate events when climate change drivers combine with climate disasters. One occurrence may already be happening in East Africa, a study published Wednesday found. In 2018 and 2019, East Africa experienced unusually wet seasons, provoked by warmer ocean temperatures in the western Indian Ocean and cooler temperatures […]

    Deadly Cyclone Ana Batters Fiji

    Deadly Cyclone Ana Batters Fiji

    A 49-year-old man drowned and five are missing after Cyclone Ana struck Fiji, the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said Monday. Authorities said more than 10,000 people were sheltering at 300 evacuation centers. The cyclone, a Category 2 storm, made landfall on the Pacific archipelago on Sunday with wind speeds of up to 140 kilometers […]

    ‘Atmospheric River’ Causes Disastrous Flooding, Mudslides in California

    ‘Atmospheric River’ Causes Disastrous Flooding, Mudslides in California

    Exceptionally heavy rain caused debris flows and flash flooding that damaged as many as two dozen homes and buildings in California’s Salinas Valley on Wednesday. In Paso Robles, unhoused people living in the Salinas Riverbed are especially in danger and local officials were working to alert them to the potential 20-25-foot rise in water levels. […]

    World’s Ice Is Melting 65 Percent Faster Than in 1990s

    World’s Ice Is Melting 65 Percent Faster Than in 1990s

    A first-of-its-kind study has examined the satellite record to see how the climate crisis is impacting all of the planet’s ice. The answer? Quite a lot. The rate of worldwide ice loss has increased by more than 60 percent in the past three decades, a study published in The Cryosphere on Monday found. “The ice […]

    Climate Change Is Harming Children’s Diets Globally, Scientists Warn

    Climate Change Is Harming Children’s Diets Globally, Scientists Warn

    In an alarming new study, scientists found that climate change is already harming children’s diets. It has long been understood that climate change will impact diet and food security globally. But up until now, little research proved how diet diversity is impacted by climate change outcomes, like warmer temperatures and increased precipitation, over a span […]

    Climate Change Is Threatening Aging U.S. Dams

    Climate Change Is Threatening Aging U.S. Dams

    There are more than 90,000 dams in the United States. Many of those dams are at risk of failure. “Most of them were built more than 50 years ago. Usually, the design life of a dam is between 50 and 60 years, so a lot of our dams are already past their design age,” says […]

    The Top 10 Extreme Weather and Climate Events of 2020

    The Top 10 Extreme Weather and Climate Events of 2020

    By Jeff Masters, PhD and Dana Nuccitelli Calendar year 2020 was an extreme and abnormal year, in so many ways. The global coronavirus pandemic altered people’s lives around the world, as did extreme weather and climate events. Let’s review the year’s top 10 such events. 1. Hottest Year on Record? The official rankings will not […]