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While climate scientists can’t say where or when the next big storm will hit, all the evidence suggests that global warming is bringing the planet into an era of wilder, more dangerous rains with ruinous consequences. Greenhouse gases have heated up the planet and now pack so much moisture into the air that they heighten the risk of more extreme precipitation.
A study by a Washington-based research organization argues that the federal government is exposed to earthquake risk and should take steps to protect itself and American taxpayers from the next big one. Non-Californians would even be impacted because the biggest mortgage finance institutions would most likely need a bailout of taxpayer money after a big earthquake.
Experts warn that the cone image used to represent hurricanes denotes where their centre is expected to track, not their width or impact range, as is commonly believed. Experts also warn that vicious storm surges are deadlier than winds but do not correlate with hurricane categories. Moreover, threats aren't limited to coasts.
Despite California's aggressive advertising campaign to promote earthquake insurance, only 13% of homeowners and fewer than one in 10 commercial buildings have it. With scientists predicting that a big earthquake is a certainty for the state, potential uncovered losses run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Though it is not possible to quantify to what degree, if any, climate change played a role in last week's tornadoes in New York and Massachusetts, researchers have some inkling into how climate change will affect tornadoes more broadly. The rising levels of greenhouse gases in the air add more energy to the climate system, which contributes to tornado formation.
Floodplain restoration is increasingly seen as a way of coping with climate change. The reclaimed lands will flood more readily, and restoration will help protect cities and towns from the more frequent and larger inundations that scientists say are likely as California continues to warm. California is currently working on upward of 20 restoration projects.
About 90% of total disaster losses across the U.S. have repeatedly occurred in ZIP codes that contain less than 20% of the population. But federally subsidized relief and recovery programmes have prompted critics to question the value of spending tens of billions of dollars in tax money, which encourages further development in these regions and endangers lives.
April 18 marks the 112th anniversary since the last devastating earthquake and subsequent inferno razed San Francisco. As the city is putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage, experts warn that the building code requirements are insufficient to protect the cities from earthquakes.
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