The frequency of days with “nuisance flooding,” or flooding that causes road closures, overwhelmed storm drains and other public inconveniences, has increased dramatically in many U.S. coastal cities since the mid-1960s—and the threats are worsening.
Blog Posts: extreme weather
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by and - As countries spend more on adapting to a changing climate, a key question remains: Are these funds really reaching the most vulnerable?
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by and - Boston received 98 inches of snow this season, California faces an epic drought and the American West experienced warmer-than-average temperatures.
What’s going on with this extreme weather, and what does it have to do with global climate change?
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by - Setting an aspirational adaptation goal—and ratcheting efforts up over time to reach it—can catalyze the wide range of actions necessary for all communities, especially the poorest, to have the means to be more resilient.
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by and - Recent research from the New Climate Economy Report reveals that climate action can bring economic benefits.
By urging governments and other stakeholders to enact responsible policies on climate, multi-national corporations can help shift public perception away from the false dichotomy of “environment vs. economy” and create the political conditions for progress.
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by and - The White House recently unveiled a new Climate Data Initiative. The initiative creates an online hub of government data on climate impacts, providing a detailed look at how a warmer world may impact critical infrastructure like bridges, roads, and canals. The platform provides a key tool for helping those at the frontlines of climate change—local communities.
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by and - As we recap in our extreme weather timeline below, this year saw a range of catastrophic events—from Typhoon Haiyan causing more than 6,000 deaths in the Philippines, to severe drought in California, to raging wildfires in Prescott, Arizona. A new report shows that 2013 ranks as the fourth-warmest year on record (tied with 2003). And this December marks the 346th consecutive month with global average temperatures above the 20th-century average.
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by and - While leaders in Washington, D.C. grapple with a potential national economic crisis, in Florida, mayors and citizens are taking action—on climate change and sea-level rise, that is. Florida Atlantic University (FAU) will host its second annual Sea Level Rise Summit this week, bringing together national and international experts to discuss the impacts of sea-level rise and storm surge on local and national economies.
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by and - Communities across the world continue to experience weather-induced food shortages due to drought, floods, devastating wildfires, and other climate change impacts. This week, the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF)is meeting to discuss how the GCF will receive and disburse money through various financial inputs and instruments.
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by - “The time to act is now… We cannot afford to do nothing.”
This was the message of Mayor Will Sessoms from Virginia Beach, VA, delivered last Friday at a conference on "Adaptive Planning for Flooding and Coastal Change." Like so many cities along the Atlantic coast, Virginia Beach is at the frontlines of climate change, experiencing impacts like sea-level rise and recurrent coastal flooding. But as we learned at the event, the city and its surrounding communities are emerging as leaders in engaging in initiatives to address these issues.
“We are not as well prepared as we need to be to address the full scope of projected realities in the year 2100” Mayor Sessoms stated, “and we can, and must, make continued improvements.” His message was echoed by a group of bipartisan mayors and state delegates, city planners, legal experts, and university scientists. They stressed that while state and federal governments often struggle to move beyond the political debate of whether manmade climate change is happening, residents of the Tidewater area of Virginia are focused on developing a robust response to rising seas and recurrent coastal flooding.
Mayor Sessoms’ sentiments paralleled the earlier statements of Democratic Mayor Paul Fraim from Norfolk, VA that "[t]his is one of the greatest threats of our lifetime,” and “a threat that we can no longer afford to ignore."
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