In The News

GlobalVoices: Puerto Rico, Trapped Between Colonialism and Hurricanes

Ana Portnoy September 26, 2017
Two hurricanes struck Puerto Rico and the island confronts a humanitarian crisis with flooding, ruined infrastructure, limited food and water supplies. The US president issued a disaster declarations and also pointed to the island’s debt woes. Challenges for Puerto Rico from hurricane damage, high levels of debt or unfunded pensions are compounded by colonialism, explains Ana Portney, writing for...

The Economist: Another Earthquake Strikes Mexico

September 25, 2017
Mexico is reeling from the onslaught of at least two earthquakes and aftershocks with the span of a few weeks. More than 270 people are dead and numerous buildings in Mexico City are destroyed. Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, and the area around the city accounts for nearly 25 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Although...

The New York Times: “It’s a Slow Death”: The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis

Shuaib Almosawa, Ben Hubbard and Troy Griggs September 20, 2017
Directors of UNICEF, WFP, and WHO visited Yemen in July and described the “world’s worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.” Since the start of the conflict when the Houthis overthrew the government and gained control of Sana’a in 2014, Yemen has slowly collapsed. Frequent bombings have contributed to the deaths of more than 10,000 civilians and crippled the...

Harvard Business Review: Prepare for Climate Change

Matthew E. Kahn, Brian Casey and Nolan Jones September 7, 2017
Flooding, wildfires and other risks associated with climate change are on the rise, and “and yet behavioral economics research argues that we are collectively underinvesting in protecting ourselves,” write Matthew E. Kahn, Brian Casey and Nolan Jones for Harvard Business Review. Reasons include a tendency to focus on short time frames, optimism on risk exposure and lack of preparation. The...

The Economist: Weather-Related Disasters Are Increasing

September 5, 2017
Texas, India and Niger confront record flooding, and in Houston, the fourth largest US city, nearly 50 inches of rain fell after Hurricane Harvey landed. According to the United Nations’s disaster-monitoring system, the United States “sits alongside China and India in suffering the greatest number of natural disasters globally between 1995 and 2015. These include earthquakes, storms, floods and...

The New York Times: Hurricane Harvey Was No Surprise

Noah S. Diffenbaugh August 29, 2017
The slow-moving disaster of Hurricane Harvey for the Houston area shouldn’t have surprised anyone. The US National Weather Service was accurate in forecasting the slow-moving storm with heavy rain, and researchers around the globe have long warned about the risks of climate change, including increased precipitation. But many in the United States, especially those living in fossil-fuel production...

Deutsche Welle: Climate Change Sets the World on Fire

Ruby Russell August 21, 2017
Fierce wildfires rage throughout the Americas and Europe, even Greenland. The fires move swiftly and disrupt congested areas, with 64 people caught by surprise and killed in Portugal. Researchers connect the growing threat to rising temperatures of climate change and dried plant life. “With global temperatures rising, scientists say wildfires are likely to become increasingly frequent and...