An initial rise in the social vulnerability index is followed by a decrease, but that decrease comes with a catch.
culture & policy
Posted inResearch & Developments
A Changing Climate Will Lead to More AC in Wealthier Countries, and More Deaths in Poor Ones, New Report Suggests
A new report finds that the regions most affected by extreme heat are also the regions least likely to have increased levels of electricity to power the air conditioning that might provide relief.
Posted inNews
One Billion Years Ago, Northern Minnesota Nearly Split Apart. Now, Two Companies Want to Mine the Aftermath.
A continental rift created valuable mineral deposits beneath a remote wilderness beloved by recreationists.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Trump’s Science Adviser Wants to Overhaul “Increasingly Calcified” U.S. Science Enterprise While Science Funding Lags
A report released this week directs the U.S. government to spark a “new golden age” of science by ushering funds toward artificial intelligence, fostering closer relationships with private industry, and dismantling and rebuilding the federal science funding process.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Redesigning Farmland Through Community Collaboration in California
A community-led project in California shows how collaboration can reshape farmland to improve water resources, restore native plants, and create recreational space.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Making Weather and Climate Information Reach the Communities that Need It
Many at-risk communities remain unreached by forecasts due to barriers in language, access, and trust in information systems. A new study looks at how to overcome these.
Posted inResearch & Developments
We’re Getting Better at Knowing When Climate Change Is to Blame, National Academies Report Says
Scientists have gotten much better at parsing how severe events are linked to climate change, a long-awaited report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has found.
The report was developed by 14 experts (including climatologists, meteorologists, and atmospheric scientists) and updates a 2016 report on the same subject. That report found that climate change was partly responsible for worsening heat waves, cold events, droughts, and heavy precipitation events, but that improvements to attribution science—a branch of climate science that aims to determine the extent to which individual extreme weather events are caused by climate change—were needed.
Posted inNews
Changes in Funding Could Tank Quality of Ocean Heat Content Data
An uncertain funding landscape threatens the longevity of an ocean observation system critical to projecting tropical storms, sea level rise, and more.
Posted inResearch & Developments
A Climate Skeptic Will Oversee the National Climate Assessment
Since 2000, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has been responsible for publishing the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on the United States released every four years. Now, the program—and the assessment—is headed by Matthew Wielicki, an outspoken climate change denier, self-described “Earth science professor-in-exile,” and former University of Alabama geochemist, according to POLITICO.
Posted inNews
Calculating the Costs of Wetland Loss
Wetlands protect communities and ecosystems from flooding. A new study quantifies their financial importance.