There is plenty the military could do to help protect public health, such as by helping with supply logistics and providing workers to do important tasks – including health care professionals.
Meet the unsung aid workers who put their lives on the line during war and natural disaster to make sure the dead are treated with respect – and that their grieving families get closure.
Half the deaths from Atlantic hurricanes are down to storm surge. People in vulnerable regions need to be aware of what it is and how it threatens their safety.
Moaning about weather forecasts is almost an Australian national pastime. But weather predictions have improved a lot, and with a new satellite and supercomputer, they are about to get even more reliable.
On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. This earthquake triggered the most destructive series of tsunamis ever recorded. The tsunamis lashed out across the…
On November 8 2013, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. One of the largest tropical storms ever to make landfall, it killed more than 10,000 people and left millions homeless. The vast recovery effort…
Climate projections suggest that, thanks to human activity, we will likely see an increase in extreme weather events, disruptions to agriculture, loss of livelihoods and displacement of people. While everyone…
Following typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines’ Department for Environment and Natural Resources has earmarked around US$8m to fund efforts to replant much of the affected coastal zone with mangrove forests…
In the developed world where many people happily post their current locations on Facebook and can look up the exact locations of buildings online, it is often overlooked how poor locational information…
Typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda as it’s known in the Philippines, completely devastated parts of eastern Visayas in the central Philippines in a matter of hours. More than 4.2 million people have been affected…
The images emerging from cyclone-devastated Tacloban City bring back horrible memories of what I witnessed in tsunami-devastated areas of southern Sri Lanka. As with the post-tsunami relief, the Philippines…
Joel Lisonbee, Australian Bureau of Meteorology et Todd Smith, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Even before Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines with such devastating force, weather watchers around the world had been tracking this year’s typhoon season with intense interest. Typhoon Haiyan has been…
Now that Typhoon Haiyan has passed through the Philippines we can turn to the question of why the storm wreaked such havoc. In a country that sees 20 tropical storms every year, it would be natural to…
Filipinos are no strangers to big storms. Their country sits next to the world’s most intense typhoon generator, a huge expanse of deep, warm ocean in the North West Pacific. More than 20 tropical storms…
Once again, a cataclysmic disaster has hit an Asian nation. But a well co-ordinated aid response mindful of lessons from other disasters could mean a faster recovery. Last Friday, Typhoon Haiyan (known…
Adam Kucharski, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The rain is ricocheting off the roads here in Manila. Early on Friday, our car’s tyres dragged in the deep puddles. Basketball courts - remnants of bygone American rule, and a staple of every district…
With sustained winds of more than 310 km/h, or 195 mph, as it approached the Philippines, Super Typhoon Haiyan has hit land in the past few hours with terrifying force. This makes it the strongest tropical…