Category: Climate Change

Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change

Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change. Report of the Committee to Prevent Extreme Climate Change (2017) Climate change is becoming an existential threat with warming in excess of…

2017 – Draft of the US Climate Change Report

2017 – Draft of the US Climate Change Report A draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies, which has not yet been made public but was obtained by The New York Times, concludes that Americans are feeling the effects…

NRDC Report: How To Break The Cycle Of Repeated Flooding With Climate-Smart Flood Insurance Reforms

Seeking Higher Ground: How To Break The Cycle Of Repeated Flooding With Climate-Smart Flood Insurance Reforms (2017) The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was designed to help Americans recover from flood disasters, but it can also unintentionally trap homeowners who…

NEPA Lawsuit Argues that Immigrants to the US Increase Climate Change

This lawsuit by an anti-immigration group alleges that since Americans have among the highest carbon footprints, allowing immigrants into the US will increase GHG emissions and climate change. This means that immigration has environmental impacts and thus immigration policy changes…

Climate Change Communication and Denial

A primary issue in addressing climate change is that many people either deny its existence or deny or downplay man’s role in driving it. The usual answer is that we need more education about climate science. Cultural cognition research questions…

City of Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan

City of Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan The Del Mar Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Plan serves as the City of Del Mar’s long-range planning guide to address future sea-level rise and its effects on storm surge and coastal flooding and…

THE ROAD TO ACTION: Financial regulation addressing climate change

THE ROAD TO ACTION: Financial regulation addressing climate change (original link) Our report finds that investors, asset managers and banks urgently need a way to identify and measure how companies are responding to the risks of climate change. The cost of…

The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax

The Climate Leadership Council: The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends (2017) There are many traditional conservatives who understand and believe in climate change. Consistent with their small government beliefs, they see a carbon tax as the best approach to reducing…

Climate Change Litigation Databases

Climate Change Litigation Databases About: This website provides two databases of climate change litigation, one for U.S. climate change litigation and one for non-U.S. cases.

Index Insurance – Event Based, rather than Claims Based Climate and Disaster Insurance

One the major problems with disaster insurance is the disruption in infrastructure and government function makes it difficult to process specific claims information in a timely manner. As the delays in processing claims after the 2016 Baton Rouge flood illustrate,…

Sustainable Humanity Sustainable Nature our Responsibility

Joint Workshop of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 2-6 May 2014 – Are Humanity’s dealings with Nature sustainable? What is the status of the Human Person in a world where science predominates? How…

Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic Landscape of the Anthropocene

From the Introduction: “Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic Landscape of the Anthropocene” is a multi-author, edited volume exploring a range of “epicenters” of climate and security and how they shape the geostrategic map of the 21st century.…

Scott Pruitt – EPA Secretary – Is Climate Change Real?

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Hearing entitled, “Nomination of Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” January 18, 2017 16. Are you aware that each of the past three decades has been warmer…

GAO – FLOOD INSURANCE Comprehensive Reform Could Improve Solvency and Enhance Resilience 2017

GAO – FLOOD INSURANCE Comprehensive Reform Could Improve Solvency and Enhance Resilience 2017 What GAO Found Based on discussions with stakeholders and GAO’s past work, reducing federal exposure and improving resilience to flooding will require comprehensive reform of the National…

Insurgency, Terrorism and Organised Crime in a Warming Climate

Insurgency, Terrorism and Organised Crime in a Warming Climate Analysing the Links Between Climate Change and Non-State Armed Groups (2017) Over the past ten years, both our understanding and awareness of the links between climate change and security have increased…

Actuaries Evaluate the National Flood Insurance Program

THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS. American Academy of Actuaries Flood Insurance Work Group (2017) The NFIP affects many constituencies, including property owners, local governments, builders, realtors, mortgage lenders, insurers, and taxpayers. The program differs from traditional private insurance…

Flood Map Zones

Glossary of NFIP terms – flood zones are on D-11 ZONE A The flood insurance rate zone that corresponds to the 100-year floodplains that is determined in the Flood Insurance Study by approximate methods. Because detailed hydraulic analyses are not…

From Civil Defense to FEMA – A History of Emergency Response

Civil Defense and Homeland Security: A Short History of National Preparedness Efforts (2006) This report is the result of a requirement by the Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Task Force to examine the history of national…

The Origin Story for Horizontal Levees

A fundamental premise of the most Louisiana coastal restoration plans, including the Master Plan, is that coastal salt marsh acts as a horizontal levee, reducing hurricane surge for each mile of marsh. The primary source that is usually cited for…

Reflecting upon 10 Years of Geoengineering Research

http://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/issue/10.1002/(ISSN)2328-4277.GEOENGIN1/ Reflecting upon 10 Years of Geoengineering Research: Introduction to the Crutzen + 10 Special Issue “Ten years ago, Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen called for research into the possibility of reflecting sunlight away from Earth by injecting sulfur particles into the stratosphere.…

Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change

Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change (2016) Key Points Long-term changes in climate will produce more extreme weather events and put greater stress on critical Earth systems like oceans, freshwater, and biodiversity. These in turn will almost…

Science and the Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005

Original link  Circular 1306:  Science and the Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005 Preface This report is designed to give a view of the immediate response of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to four major hurricanes of 2005:…

Arctic Report Card: Update for 2016

J. Richter-Menge, J. E. Overland, and J. T. Mathis, Eds., 2016: Arctic Report Card 2016, http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card. Highlights The average surface air temperature for the year ending September 2016 is by far the highest since 1900, and new monthly record highs…