The unusually powerful tornado that killed more than 30 people in Oklahoma naturally raises worries that climate change could …
Disasters
From Texas to China: When Man-Made Problems Make Natural Disasters Worse
The massive fertilizer explosion in Texas and the 6.6-magnitude earthquake in China were both accidents. But smarter preparation and policy may have been able to reduce the death toll
Mega-Eruption: Scientists Connect a Mass Extinction to a Major Lava Flow
Scientists have wondered why there was a major extinction wave some 200 million years ago. Now they suspect that a major explosion of lava that occurred around the same time may be the cause.
Watch the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4.5 Minutes
This year’s storms in video format
After Sandy: An Environmentalist Goes Home
Sierra Club President Michael Brune grew up in the Jersey shore town of Chadwick Beach—which took a direct hit from Superstorm Sandy. This is what he saw when he came home.
After Sandy: Why We Can’t Keep Rebuilding on the Water’s Edge
It’s so obvious we forget it: an extreme-weather event becomes a disaster only if it hits where people and their possessions are. Of the 19 tropical storms that were tracked during this summer’s Atlantic hurricane season, 10 …
Sandy: What a Coastal U.S. Can Learn from Other Threatened Cities
It was called the Watersnoodramp, which in Dutch means “flood disaster”—and it certainly was. The North Sea flood of 1953 was the result of a high spring tide that met a strong storm, resulting in a storm surge that inundated …
Climate Change and Sandy: Why We Need to Prepare for a Warmer World
Climate change didn’t cause Hurricane Sandy on its own, but that doesn’t mean that global warming doesn’t have an impact on extreme weather. Why we need to climate -proof our cities
Hurricane Sandy Will Put a Rickety Power Grid to the Test
The U.S. power grid is a 20th century technology powering a 21st century country. Why Hurricane Sandy will stress it to the limit
Landfall: Why New York City Could Get the Worst of Sandy’s Wrath
As the hurricane approaches landfall, scientists say that the areas to the north and east of Sandy’s eye will get the worst of coastal flooding and storm surges. And that’s bad news for New York City
