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Displaying 30 of about 285 resultsBy Joel Achenbach and Mark Berman
There are more people and property vulnerable to natural forces. And climate change doesn’t help. Scientists know that global warming does not create a specific hurricane or a wildfire, but climate change, which has been driven significantly by the burning of fossil fuels, primes the pump for extreme weather.
A warmer…
By Susmita Dasgupta
Massive flooding from storm surges is a major threat to lives and property in low-lying coastal areas during cyclones. Recent examples of devastating cyclone-induced storm surges include Haiyan 2013 (5.2m or 17 feet), Aila 2009 (4m/13ft), Ike 2008 (4.5m-6m/15-20 feet), Nargis 2008 (more than 3m/10ft), Sidr 2007 (4m /13ft), Katrina 2…
By Jennifer Chu
As the city of Houston continues to recover and rebuild following the historic flooding unleashed by Hurricane Harvey, the region will also have to prepare for a future in which storms of Harvey’s magnitude are more likely to occur.
A new MIT study, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scie…
By Barbara Ryan
With cyclone season approaching in the southern hemisphere, emergency managers will be thinking about a big one that might lead to evacuations. And it appears that local information is the key to informed evacuation decisions.
What makes people evacuate or not? And who leaves and who stays?
Newly published research from Texas A…
Improvements in forecasting tropical cyclones and reducing associated hazards to life and property are being discussed at the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)/World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Typhoon Committee.
The Typhoon Committee session in Yokohama, Japan, will examin…
Proposals to reduce the effects of global warming by imitating volcanic eruptions could have a devastating effect on global regions prone to either tumultuous storms or prolonged drought, new research has shown.
Geoengineering - the intentional manipulation of the climate to counter the effect of global warming by injecting aerosols artificially into t…
"I know for sure I don't have much to worry about, because I know my business will no longer suffer," says St. Lucia beekeeper.
By Laurie Goering
BONN, Germany - When torrential rains drench his small farm in St. Lucia, Walter Edwin's bees die.
That's happening more often as a result of climate change – and in a bad year the Caribbean beekeeper…
By Julianne Liebenguth
The frontlines of climate change are the world’s shorelines. “It goes without saying that people living in coastal communities are already observing impacts,” said Erin Derrington, a coastal resources specialist working in the Northern Mariana Islands, at a recent Wilson Center event, the third in a series on coastal resilience…
Ha Noi – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is supporting the assessment and coordination of the current emergency flood and typhoon response, and early recovery efforts in Viet Nam, which amount to USD 78,000. The organization is now actively reaching out to partners to look at how best to support the affected populations to effective…
By Emily Wilkinson
Climate change is increasing the intensity of tropical storms in the Atlantic and globally we are likely to see more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes in the future. Rather than dipping into the aid budget after these events, the risks should be acknowledged and action taken to reduce them before disaster strikes. There is a critical oppo…
Presenting a disaster as an ‘opportunity’ is clearly a sensitive and emotive issue. When the most basic needs of affected communities are not being met, often months after an event, talk of renewable energy systems and long-term resilience may seem academic and impractical. Yet it is reasonable to consider the counter-argument; when an energy infrastruc…
WMO report highlights impacts on human safety, well-being and environment
6 November 2017 (WMO) - It is very likely that 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact events including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heatwaves and drought. Long-term indicators of climate change such as increasing carbon di…
By Craig Trumbo
Emergency managers and academic researchers focused on disasters have a common interest in understanding the factors that influence evacuation decisions made by the public. While emergency evacuations can occur in a variety of circumstances, one of the most common—and in many ways, the most complicated—involves evacuation from land fall…
By Amina J. Mohammed
UNITED NATIONS - This year in the Caribbean and on the American mainland, hurricanes have left millions of people in need of assistance.
The Secretary General recently travelled to Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica to show solidarity and see for himself the damage. In Puerto Rico, 3.4 million people have been scrambling for b…
By Hemanta Pradhan
BHUBANESWAR: The state government will complete the process of commissioning alert siren systems at 122 locations under the Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) project by November 15.
"The towers have been installed to give prior warning to people before any cyclone or tsunami," said P K Mohapatra, managing director of Odisha…