News and announcements

NASA is preparing to send unmanned scientific aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean to study tropical cyclones and the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensification. Reporters are invited to view NASA's Global Hawks and tour the mission control center at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility...

'This drought is an eye-opener, or at least should be taken as one,' W L Sumathipala, the former head of the Climate Change Unit of the Ministry of Environment warned. 'If we don’t change the way we treat our water resources, the next time a dry spell comes, the effects will double or triple what we are seeing now'...

The Greek government's Seismic Risk Assessment Program for public buildings has not prompted regional authorities to step up building inspections, reports the International Herald Tribune. In 11 years only 15 per cent of the hospitals, schools, power plants and other public facilities have been checked, as the seismic risk assessments are not mandatory...

'The sonar tests will help paint a detailed three-dimensional picture of the seismic fault lines in the area. But they are controversial because the piercing, around-the-clock underwater sounds could harm animals in protected wildlife areas and limit commercial fishing,' reports Reuters...

The Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, Sir John Beddington, recently spoke to UNISDR about how migration triggered by natural hazards is actually taking people into areas of increasing vulnerability.

Assembly areas at schools located by the coast, ill-conceived protection walls, inadequate evacuation plans leaving out the ageing population, and a feeling of over-confidence in the engineered structures to protect coastal cities, were some of the reasons for 20,000 people perishing in last year’s Japanese tsunami...

'Vulnerability can be reduced by investing in infrastructure improvement, careful urban planning and zoning, improving disaster warning and response systems and expanding insurance and other forms of disaster risk financing. And cities that choose to mitigate risks will reap significant economic and social benefits,' writes Joanna Masic, urban development specialist...

Man-made climate change is likely responsible for the rise in several types of extreme weather events. Limiting climate change and its resulting extreme events will require new policies as well as the continued and expanded use of existing authorities (like the U.S. Clean Air Act and state actions) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effective way...