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Displaying 105 of about 329 results{...]Scientists say the main driving factor for such a devastating event is simple: hotter temperatures.Part of the reason the wildfires spread so far and so quickly was high winds. Raul Cordero, a climatologist at the University of Santiago, says strong summer winds are common in central Chile since air coming down from the Andes mountain range and oth…
AboutIn this course, you will learn about the challenges that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean face in the context of natural disasters and climate change, and their consequent impacts on infrastructure projects and socio-economic development.The course was designed with the aim of enhancing the project teams' capacity to proactively manage…
Scientists from Fairfield University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego investigated projected precipitation trends over Northern Mexico and found that the frequency of extreme precipitation events is expected to double throughout the region, exacerbating the flood risk for vulnerable communities there.Collectively, the recent…
Chile has experienced one of the worst fire-related disasters in its history. A series of huge forest fires burned from February 1 to 5, leaving at least 131 people dead – and this number will probably increase as charred bodies are collected and severely injured people die.But even this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are people with burns,…
Last year's snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a two decade long megadrought, was essentially a once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found.[...]The study authors coined the term "snow deluge" for one-in-20-year heavy snowfalls, when it's cold and wet enough to maintain a deep snowpack through April 1. But even among these rare…
Tulare, California once sat next to the largest lake west of the Mississippi River. During the late 19th century, diversions for municipal and agricultural water use drained the lake dry, and much of the one-time lake bed was repurposed for agriculture. In the century since the lake dried up, it has refilled a handful of times with disastrous resul…
Building from the first report, the 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown Latin America, presents 34 indicators that track the relationship between health and climate change up to 2022, aiming at providing evidence to public decisionmaking with the purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of Latin American populations and reducing social inequities t…
Researchers in North Carolina have created a simulation model to analyze how coastal management activities meant to protect barrier islands from sea-level rise can disrupt natural processes that are keeping barrier islands above water.“Coastal management strategies intended to protect people, property and infrastructure from storm impacts can, over deca…
Earthquakes, volcanic activity, and sediment flux can trigger underwater landslides known as submarine slides, which can translate to tsunamis on the surface. Megaslides are extreme versions of these underwater events. The sixth-largest recorded megaslide occurred in the Surveyor Fan in the Gulf of Alaska around 1.2 million years ago. It was at lea…
Key conceptsClimate Central examined historical trends in fire weather — a combination of high heat, low humidity, and strong winds — across the U.S.This analysis uses data from 476 weather stations to assess trends in 245 climate divisions spanning all 48 contiguous U.S. states over a 51-year period (1973-2023).Wildfire seasons are lengthening and inte…
Apply hereOrg. Setting and ReportingCreated in December 1999, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) is the designated focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of efforts to reduce disasters and to ensure synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the United Nations and regional organizations and act…
Register for the Americas webinarRegister for the Europe and Africa webinarAboutThe Secretariat of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) and the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are co-organizing three online conversations on planned relocation in the context of the adverse effects of climate ch…
Flood risk maps are an essential public good. Indeed, many countries like the United Kingdom already offer flood risk mapping.Canada committed to a public flood risk mapping portal in the 2023 budget. However, despite the increasing frequency and impact of large, catastrophic floods, we still have a sparse patchwork of flood risk maps at municipal and p…
One in 50 people living in two dozen coastal cities in the United States could experience significant flooding by 2050, according to Virginia Tech-led research.Published in Nature, the study combines satellite-obtained measurements of sinking land, also known as subsidence, with sea-level rise projections and tide charts to provide a new comprehensive l…
[...]For the cattlemen, though, it’s the livestock and the landscapes they are reared on that may prove the biggest loss. “We don’t have grass. We don’t have water,” Joiner said, listing the resources required to maintain the animals that are still alive. Many of them aren’t doing well, he added, detailing the respiratory issues caused by smoke inhalati…