Pollution from more frequent floods and wildfires – exacerbated by the warming climate – is threatening human health and poses particular risks to the brain.
The picture seems hopeless, but with mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies driven through COP26, southern Africa can reduce the impacts of climate change on local livelihoods.
Studies show climate change is raising the risk of cascading hazards that alone might not be extreme but add up to human disasters. Communities and government agencies aren’t prepared.
As climate change amplifies the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, evacuations are likely to become increasingly common and costly – in human and economic terms.
Peatlands play an outsized role in filtering water and mitigating floods, drought and wildfire — and they store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests.
There’s evidence that people who have been through multiple disasters experience poorer mental and physical health compared to people who have been exposed to a single disaster.
Images of water gushing into subway stations filled social media following heavy rain in New York City. Solutions are at hand – but it takes money and political will, an expert explains.
Sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the Category 4 storm Hurricane Ida reached Louisiana. Planning for future hurricanes must include the need to build resiliency to climate change.
New research also identified steps people wished they’d taken to prepare for disaster, such as protecting sentimental items, planning a meeting place and better managing stress.
Academic research can shed light on crucial questions about what life on Earth will be like under the most plausible emissions scenarios. And a warning: the answers are confronting.
James Renwick, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand’s climate has been changing in line with global trends over the last century, warming by 1.1°C. But unless we curb emissions fast, we can brace for more extreme downpours and droughts.
Australia may warm by 4°C or more this century, the IPCC has found. As these IPCC authors explain, there is no going back from some changes in the climate system.