Categories
Crisis Public Health Research

1 in 6 Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk – do you know your risk to wildfire?

1 in 6 Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk – do you know your city’s risk for wildfire?

Latest modeling built by First Street Foundation shows estimates for America in 2052 along with developing a public estimation tool labeled Fire Factor. The First Street Foundation Wildfire Model incorporates information on fuels, wildfire weather, and ignition into a Fire Behavior Model, building upon and updating the 2016 U.S. Forest Service dataset. Last year, First Street Foundation reported about flood risk in the United States to grow exponentially in upcoming years due to climate change.

Did you know that supporting wildfire suppression at the local, state, and federal levels in the United States is among the most expensive wildfire protection efforts?

Currently, it is costing the US government about $2.0 billion annually. These costs are projected to increase, as recently modeling shows an increased risk to more areas, including areas where fire risks were not historically present but now are.

Categories
Crisis Global Health Research

What role does corruption play in worsening so-called ‘natural disasters’?

What role does corruption play in worsening so-called ‘natural disasters’? (Hint – there are no natural disasters!) With recent “bomb cyclone,” natural hazards could create disasters but in many cases, corruption in development and infrastructure exacerbate the situation with buildings and houses that collapse (which shouldn’t).

Colleagues and I from UNSW, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney, University of Sydney, Harvard Medical School, & SEEDS explored this question while systematically reviewing the academic literature concerning the degree to which corruption worsens naturally-triggered disasters in the built environment. The early view of our research is now published at Wiley ODI Disasters scientific journal (link).

Categories
Crisis Public Health Research

New Report on Flood Risk in US Infrastructure

How informed are you with your flood risk and the flood risk of your community’s essential infrastructure?

New report by First Street Foundation found flood risk in United States to grow exponentially in upcoming years due climate change.

Climate disasters have already caused at least 388 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage this year in the United States (The Wall Street Journal).

Categories
Crisis Public Health

Climate change and Hurricane Ida

The situation with Hurricane Ida is very concerning especially with ongoing power outages and extreme weather conditions. Though recently downgraded to tropical depression yesterday, climate change helped make Hurricane Ida one of Louisiana’s worst storm.