Climate change is a game changer and our disaster response is no longer sufficient. We must begin to address the underlying causes that make some communities more vulnerable than others.
Catchments are full. Dams are at capacity, soils are saturated and rivers are high. In some cases, there’s nowhere for the rains to go except over land.
Southsea Common in Portsmouth, UK, parched after summer heat.
Dave Colman/Shutterstock
It’s not just mosquitos. Flooding, extreme heat and other climate-related hazards are bringing people into contact with pathogens more often, and affecting people’s ability to fight off disease.
Pickup trucks creep through flood waters in Richland, Miss., following a morning of torrential rains in August 2022.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Flash flooding can happen in both urban and rural areas, with deadly results in either setting.
Maywood Riverfront Park was built on the site of eight former industrial properties in Los Angeles County.
Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Climate change is colliding with old factory sites where soil or water contamination still exist, and the most vulnerable populations are particularly at risk.
At least 9 inches of rain across eastern Kentucky became floodwater that swept through neighborhoods in July 2022.
Leandro Lozada/AFP via Getty Images
Telling people they have a flood risk rating of 10 is less powerful than explaining how much they’re likely to pay to deal with flooding over the next five years.
Riverbanks are reinforced to reduce flood risks, but these techniques reduce biodiversity and limit public accessibility.
(Shutterstock)
The sustainable and inclusive development of the St. Lawrence River is essential. A prolonged laissez-faire attitude will have harmful consequences on people and the environment.
Exceptional high tides hit eastern Québec in 2010 and 2016.
(Groupe Facebook Grandes Marées 2010)
Cédric Chavanne, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR); Daniel Bourgault, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) et Dany Dumont, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
Popular belief suggests the highest tides in the St. Lawrence River are reached around the equinoxes. In truth, they arrive close to the solstices.
Fast-moving floodwater obliterated sections of major roads through Yellowstone National Park in 2022.
Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service
Again, thousands of residents in Western Sydney face a life-threatening flood disaster. Obviously, nature is a major culprit – but other drivers are also at play.
The collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation would profoundly alter the anatomy of the world’s oceans and climate. New research explores the consequences.
Satellite image of the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar, a major rice growing area.
European Space Agency
Vamsi Ganti, University of California, Santa Barbara
Millions of people around the world live on river deltas and are vulnerable when those rivers shift direction. A new study shows why and where these events, called avulsions, happen.
Meteorologist Todd Dankers monitors weather patterns in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2018.
Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Some Niger Delta residents are less concerned about oil-induced hazards and risks, or floods and erosion. They are more worried about a lack of sanitation amenities.