2017 brought wild, wacky and even deadly weather. Australia was hit by heatwaves and torrential rains, plus some surprisingly cool spells. Hurricanes hit America, and a killer monsoon lashed Asia.
Pakistani commuters travel on a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Karachi, Aug. 31, 2017.
AP Photo/Shakil Adil
By 2050, climate change impacts such as storms and drought could displace up to 300 million people worldwide. Nations should recognize ‘climate migrants’ and make plans for aiding and resettling them.
Hurricane Maria, September 2017.
lavizzara/shutterstock.com
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Five years after Superstorm Sandy, we see how disadvantaged social groups suffered more from the storm before and after – much as we’re seeing in Hurricanes Harvey and Maria.
The intensity of heavy downpours in Houston has increased dramatically since the 1950s, leading some people to argue the city’s disaster planning and infrastructure are not up-to-date.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
It’s not just about rebuilding infrastructure after storms: Cities need to systematically rethink their knowledge systems which are at the heart of urban resilience.
A fireman tackles one of the wildfires that swept through parts of California in October.
Jim Urquhart/Reuters
This year is poised to go down as the hottest non-El Niño year ever recorded, with record low polar ice and extreme weather that left many regions battling bushfires and hurricanes.
Soldiers deliver food and water following Hurricane Maria.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Extreme weather events are inevitably followed by disease outbreaks. So why not team health professionals with climate experts?
Hurricane Maria denuded forests in Puerto Rico, revealing once-hidden homes and communities. A graffiti-sprayed saying is now popping up across the island, noting that “Behind the trees live people.”
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
A Puerto Rican librarian with a personal relationship to hurricanes describes the brutal reality of life on this Caribbean island more than a month after Maria and Irma left their mark.
Plush toys, recovered from a flooded home, hang out to dry on a wrought iron gate in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Ramon Espinosa/AP
Very few Atlantic hurricanes travel northwards like this.
The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort traveled to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Ernest R. Scott/U.S. Air Force/Handout via Reuters
Natural disasters expose people to toxic gases, bacterial illness and other serious dangers. How can people maximize their safety as they return home?
Water from Addicks Reservoir flows into Houston neighborhoods following hurricane Harvey in August. Allstate expects US$593 million in insurance losses for August due to the hurricane.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Insurance-linked securities aim to shield insurers and governments from huge costs following disasters. But they bear eerie similarities to the securities that caused the 2008 financial meltdown.
A tornado in the town of Sonnac, France, in September, 2015.
Axel Guibourg/wikimedia
European tornadoes may not come along as often as their US counterparts but they are a real threat and need to be taken seriously.
Workers clear debris on Sept. 25, 2017 from the top of a building that collapsed in Mexico City after the Sept. 19 earthquake.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Natural disasters are not only bad in the short term. Many families will see their health, well-being and ability to escape poverty affected for decades, and some will be affected for life.
New research by scholars, conservationists and the insurance industry shows that coastal wetlands provide hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of protection from flooding, boosting the case for protecting them.