It’s now eight months since a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan, badly damaging the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. That accident eventually resulted in a meltdown, and the accident as a whole was rated a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale’s 1 to 7 rating. Explosions in the plant threw large amounts of …
Disasters
Climate Change Caused Crises Half A Millennium Ago, Too
Al Gore’s televised, 24-hour PowerPoint extravaganza last month predictably sparked some hot debate – much of it not about the science itself, but about Gore as its mouthpiece (common themes: he’s a hero, he’s become irrelevant, he’s a hypocritical capitalist). But a key message within Gore’s Climate Reality Project was …
Texas Burns as the Rest of the Country Drowns
First Texas was parched—now it’s burning. Still in the grips of its worst drought since the 1950s, Texas is grappling with violent wildfires that have already destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed two people. While more than 3.6 million acres of Texas have been scorched since the drought tightened last November, over the …
Welcome to the Era of the Everyday Billion-Dollar Disaster
2010 was a pretty serious year for Atlantic hurricanes. The season tied with 1995 and 1887 for the third largest number of named storm, with 19, and tied with 1969 for the second largest number of hurricanes, with 12. One of those hurricanes—Earl—reached Category 4 status, with winds hitting a maximum of 145 mph, stronger than …
So You’re About to Get Hit By a Hurricane…
Hurricane Irene’s cone of uncertainty is getting downright scary. The Category 3 hurricane has already slammed the Bahamas, and the latest forecasts have the storm missing Florida but running into the North Carolina coast on …
Does El Nino—and Climate Change—Really Cause Civil Wars?
For several years now, a few academics have been fighting a civil war over the possible effects of climate and global warming on, well, civil war. In 2009 Marshall Burke, an economist at the University of California-Berkeley, co-authored a paper arguing that higher temperatures increased the risk of civil conflict—and that the warming …
Hurricane Irene Bears Down on the U.S., Likely Adding to a Brutal Disaster Toll
Come on, Irene — it’s hurricane season. Hurricane Irene, which slashed across Puerto Rico earlier this week and just missed the Dominican Republic, is headed for the southeastern U.S. Irene is expected to strengthen to Category 3 and could become a Category 4 storm, with at least 131-m.p.h. winds as it approaches the southeastern …
A 5.8 Earthquake Jolts the East Coast—and Reminds Us That Tremors Are More Common Than We Think
Personally, I was in the bathroom in TIME’s midtown Manhattan office building, and I didn’t feel a thing—until I got on Twitter. The news moved faster digitally than it did geologically: southwestern Virginia had suffered a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, one apparently strong enough to be felt from Georgia up to Ontario. [Update: USGS …
Nuclear Exclusion Zones Arise Around Fukushima
The news has been relatively good recently out of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, last week reported success in sharply reducing radiation levels within the plant, and in stabilizing temperatures in the pools of water need to store used nuclear fuel rods. While …
Needless Disease and Death in Somalia
As I’ve written before, the devastating famine in Somalia—which has killed tens of thousands in the Horn of Africa—may have been triggered by the worst drought in the region in 60 years, but it’s ultimately a manmade disaster. The ongoing insurgency in Somalia prevented food aid from reaching those in desperate need, and now the …