The News and blogs weekly newsletter introduces the latest news and blogs published by PreventionWeb on disaster risk reduction.
In the 08/23/2022 edition:
Prefeitura,
Nações Unidas e ICLEI assinam carta de intenção para avançar na
construção de resiliência climática e prevenção de desastres no Recife
By Diario de Pernambuco on Aug 22, 2022 04:44 pm
A Prefeitura do Recife, o Escritório das Nações Unidas para a
Redução de Riscos de Desastres (UNDRR) e o ICLEI América do Sul
assinaram carta de intenção de compromisso, no âmbito da iniciativa
Making Cities Resilient (MCR2030).
Fair winds for climate forecasts in Mozambique
By Anticipation Hub on Aug 22, 2022 04:01 pm
Mozambique has faced various climate shocks in recent years.
It was hit by Cyclone Dineo in 2017, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019,
Cyclone Eloise in 2021 and, most recently, Tropical Storm Ana, Tropical
Depression Dumako and Cyclone Gombe in 2022.
A year after the earthquake in Haiti, local communities are building resilience
By United Nations Development Programme – Headquarters on Aug 22, 2022 04:00 pm
On Saturday, 14 August 2021, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake
struck the southern peninsula of Haiti at approximately 8:30 a.m. local
time, resulting in over 2,000 deaths, thousands of injuries and
significant damage from collapsed buildings and blocked roads.
What the World Can Learn from Fiji’s National Climate Finance Strategy
By World Resources Institute on Aug 22, 2022 03:56 pm
As part of the partnership with the Fijian Climate Change
and International Cooperation Division (CCICD), WRI’s Finance Center
helped develop a National Climate Finance Strategy for Fiji.
Advanced real-time prediction of storms with 30-second refresh
By Eos – AGU on Aug 22, 2022 03:52 pm
A new-generation weather radar and a massive supercomputing
system enables forecasts of storms refreshed every 30 seconds, a
significant development in severe weather prediction.
Climate change likely to raise wheat prices in food-insecure regions and exacerbate economic inequality
By Chinese Academy of Sciences on Aug 22, 2022 03:27 pm
Researchers predict that wheat yield is likely to increase
at high latitudes and decrease in low latitudes, meaning that prices for
the grain are likely to change unevenly and increase in much of the
Global South, enhancing existing inequalities.
A warming planet could mess with our sleep – and make us more vulnerable to infectious disease
By University of California, Los Angeles on Aug 22, 2022 03:13 pm
Research suggests rising temperatures could disrupt sleep and blunt immune response, UCLA Health researcher finds.
Migrants share lessons with U.S. to improve climate resilience
By Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org on Aug 22, 2022 01:17 pm
People from nations vulnerable to climate change – like the
Marshall Islands and Honduras – are helping the United States to better
prepare for its impacts.
‘Tinnie army’ leads to NSW flood inquiry call to train community members as first responders. How will that work?
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 22, 2022 01:06 pm
When floods swept the Northern Rivers region of New South
Wales earlier this year, scores of people ignored official advice
and rescued neighbours and friends from floodwaters using their boats,
kayaks and jet skis, while risking their own lives.
Pilot project to support Tribal climate resilience in Alaska
By National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Aug 22, 2022 12:25 pm
The project, “Expanding and Connecting Tribal-Led Climate
Change Capacity to Serve Indigenous Community Needs in Alaska,” will
establish a director of Tribal climate change initiatives position at
ANTHC to leverage statewide relationships with Tribes.
Natural hazards: Are international tourists prepared?
By Resilience to Nature’s Challenges on Aug 22, 2022 12:21 pm
How effective is current natural hazard communication? Do
tourists understand it and are they prepared for natural hazards before
travelling to a destination? The answer is complicated and depends on
who you ask.
Rise in heart disease may be explained by extreme weather conditions: Study
By ABC News on Aug 22, 2022 12:19 pm
It’s not clear why temperature shifts correlated with more heart attacks.
Billions in CBA mortgages exposed to extreme weather risks, climate analysis finds
By Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Digital Network on Aug 22, 2022 11:45 am
More than $31 billion of Commonwealth Bank home loans are in
areas exposed to increasing extreme weather events and another $14
billion in mortgages are in communities economically reliant on demand
for coal, climate analysis has found.
Canada is witnessing more thunderstorms than ever before
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 22, 2022 10:13 am
Residents in eastern Ontario are still recovering after a
tornado-producing thunderstorm left a path of destruction over 55
kilometres long and up to 1,400 metres wide in July. Such thunderstorms,
and the damage they leave behind, are only increasing.
Wave created by Tonga volcano eruption reached 90 metres – nine times taller than 2011 Japan tsunami
By University of Bath on Aug 22, 2022 09:49 am
New research reveals more about the magnitude of January eruption, as researchers call for better preparedness
Five action points for a resilient future
By United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on Aug 22, 2022 09:24 am
The APMCDRR is taking place at the time when the compounding
consequences of natural hazards and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to
disrupt people and the economies. We must take note of four interrelated
trends.
After FEMA overhaul, hundreds of thousands of Americans are forgoing federal flood insurance
By Grist Magazine on Aug 19, 2022 04:26 pm
The total number of National Flood Insurance Program policies has decreased nearly 9 percent since last fall.
Chinese city dims lights in heatwave power crunch
By Agence France Presse on Aug 19, 2022 03:43 pm
A provincial capital in southwest China has dimmed outdoor
advertisements, subway lighting and building signs to save energy,
official announcements said, as the area battles a power crunch
triggered by record-high temperatures.
22-year drought, overuse of river drive water restrictions in Arizona, Nevada, Mexico
By The Energy Mix on Aug 19, 2022 01:47 pm
For the second year in a row, Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico
will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado
River as the Western United States endures an extreme drought, U.S.
government officials announced Tuesday.
In MSU’s Subzero Lab, simulated winter drives progress in predicting water runoff and avalanche risk
By Montana State University on Aug 19, 2022 01:46 pm
The ceiling of a cold chamber in MSU’s Subzero Research
Laboratory was chilled to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit, simulating a
clear night so frigid it sucks warmth and water vapor from snow to form
the feathery, glittering ice crystals known as surface hoar
Pets are unrecognized victims of climate-related disasters
By Earth.com on Aug 19, 2022 01:43 pm
One Health disaster response that addresses human and animal
needs is essential for the continued welfare of companion animals and
their owners.
The City of Sendai and the Sendai Gender Equal Opportunity Foundation makes great strides to promote women’s leadership in DRR
By Sendai City on Aug 19, 2022 01:26 pm
The City of Sendai and the Sendai Gender Equal Opportunity
Foundation makes great strides to promote women’s leadership in DRR.
Conditions in prisons during heat waves pose deadly threats to incarcerated people and prison staff
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 19, 2022 12:28 pm
Extreme heat is taking an increasing toll across the U.S. in
summertime. People who are incarcerated are among society’s most
vulnerable groups and have been especially affected.
With a surge of disasters in Timor-Leste, women’s leadership helps save lives
By CARE Australia on Aug 19, 2022 10:47 am
In patriarchal societies, deep-rooted gender norms can
create major barriers to women’s leadership and participation in
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and emergency preparedness activities.
Climate threat to food supply chains creates ‘domino effect’
By University of Sydney on Aug 19, 2022 09:55 am
New modelling by a multidisciplinary team of researchers
shows the impact climate change and extreme weather events could have on
food supply chains, with adverse effects on income, food and nutrient
availability.
New tool provides wave flooding predictions for West Maui
By University of Hawaii Press on Aug 19, 2022 09:41 am
A new interactive mapping tool provides predictions of
coastal flooding in West Maui under various scenarios of sea-level rise
and a range of wave events for community members, property owners,
businesses, as well as state and county officials.
Heat waves aren’t going away. Here’s how we can prepare
By University of California, Los Angeles on Aug 19, 2022 09:24 am
Across the country, thermostats are rising into previously
unimagined realms. It’s been a summer of record-setting heat across
Europe and the United States, including California. Climatologists don’t
expect them to be record highs for long.
A streamlined NGO approach to drought-induced food insecurity in Zimbabwe: voices from EAP custodians and stakeholders
By Anticipation Hub on Aug 18, 2022 03:43 pm
In 2020, Welthungerhilfe began to roll out a forecast-based
action (FbA) mechanism to tackle drought-induced food insecurity in
Zimbabwe, under a multi-country programme to establish a participatory,
localized anticipatory action approach for this hazard.
Hybrid solutions for China’s natural catastrophes
By Asia Insurance Review, Ins Communications Pte Ltd on Aug 18, 2022 03:21 pm
Parametric catastrophe bonds are a hybrid insurance and
capital market instrument that are being used by sovereign nations and
risk pools to speed up the claims payment process and increase the
transparency of risk transfer.
New data confirms: forest fires are getting worse
By World Resources Institute on Aug 18, 2022 02:05 pm
New data on forest fires confirms what we’ve long feared:
Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much
tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.
Meet 5 inspiring humanitarians working to reduce disaster risk
By Anonymous on Aug 18, 2022 01:09 pm
This World Humanitarian Day UNDRR is celebrating women
leaders in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian action, who are
working to build resilience in their communities.
The complex relationship between hurricanes, air pollution, and climate
By Eos – AGU on Aug 18, 2022 12:44 pm
A new study focuses on the frequency and distribution of tropical cyclones over the past 40 years.
The
impacts of human-induced climate change are exacerbating social and
economic inequalities of indigenous peoples – A case study from
Bangladesh
By International Centre for Climate Change and Development on Aug 18, 2022 12:22 pm
To tackle climate challenges, Bangladesh has adopted a
number of policies and action plans since 2005. However, most of these
policies fail to promote the rights and adaptation practices of the most
vulnerable communities, such as the indigenous peoples.
How countries can tackle devastating peatland wildfires
By United Nations Environment Programme on Aug 18, 2022 11:56 am
While Europe and North America are suffering major
wildfires, earlier this year, large parts of Chile and Argentina were
engulfed in flames. That includes vast tracts of peatlands, key stores
of carbon which, when released, feed planetary warming.
As Europe’s forests burn, why are wildfires getting worse?
By Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org on Aug 18, 2022 11:44 am
Accelerating climate change and extreme weather events such
as drought and heatwaves are fuelling forest fires around the world.
Yemen remains on high alert on desert locust
By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Headquarters on Aug 18, 2022 09:30 am
To avert agricultural losses due to the voracious desert
locust, FAO recently delivered various equipment and machinery to
Yemen’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Fisheries (MAIF) in
Aden.
Risk of volcano catastrophe ‘a roll of the dice’, say experts
By University of Cambridge on Aug 18, 2022 09:00 am
While funding is pumped into preventing low-probability
scenarios such as asteroid collision, the far more likely threat of a
large volcanic eruption is close to ignored – despite much that could be
done to reduce the risks, say researchers.
In Afghanistan, a wrenching choice between drought and migration
By Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org on Aug 17, 2022 03:05 pm
Conflict, water shortages, and economic crisis have wiped
out jobs, ruined crops and left millions of Afghans in humanitarian
need.
Call
for applications: Advisory support on gender-smart monitoring &
evaluation of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI)
Programmes
By InsuResilience Global Partnership on Aug 17, 2022 12:13 pm
The InsuResilience Centre of Excellence is establishing a
Technical Advisory Facility with the goal to support and scale up the
practical application of knowledge resource on gender-smart CDRFI
solutions.
China’s Yangtze river shrinks as heatwave, drought threaten crops
By Thomson Reuters on Aug 17, 2022 11:52 am
Regions that rely on the Yangtze, China’s longest river, are
having to deploy pumps and cloud-seeding rockets as a long drought
depletes water levels and threatens crops, and a heatwave is set to last
another two weeks.
Desert regions may predict climate change in wetter areas
By The Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Aug 17, 2022 11:31 am
New research by an international team of scientists suggests
that climate change is causing dryland mechanisms to increasingly
affect Earth’s wetter areas.
As wildfires get more extreme, observatories are at greater risk
By Wired, Condé Nast Digital on Aug 17, 2022 10:51 am
Climate change is making fire season worse. Now astronomers are feeling the heat.
Drought: five ways to stop heavy rains washing away parched soil
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 17, 2022 10:07 am
When William Blake described England’s “green and pleasant
land” in his poem Jerusalem, he was actually writing during a prolonged
drought. Two centuries later, much of Europe is withering under
successive heatwaves amid one of the most extreme droughts.
Tapping into digital for more effective disaster risk management in Malawi
By United Nations Development Programme – Headquarters on Aug 17, 2022 09:00 am
In many countries, critical data that is needed to inform
strategies and policies around disaster risk management tends to be
scattered across various stakeholders — and sometimes much of it exists
on paper that is not readily accessible.
Civil society participation at 2022 APMCDRR: guidance video and feedback
By Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network on Aug 16, 2022 03:35 pm
ADRRN is collaborating with key partners, including GNDR,
ICVA, ACFID, and others, to strengthen the participation of civil
society colleagues at APMCDRR in order to maximise the impact of the
messages from the communities we serve.
Factors in the severity of heat stroke in China
By Eos – AGU on Aug 16, 2022 03:02 pm
When temperatures exceed 36°C and relative humidity passes 58%, citizens in China may experience heat stroke.
Climate risks dwarf Europe’s energy crisis, space chief warns
By Thomson Reuters Foundation, trust.org on Aug 16, 2022 02:59 pm
Following successive heatwaves and wildfires across Europe,
the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) has warned economic damage
from extreme weather could dwarf Europe’s energy crisis.
Irreversible declines in freshwater storage projected in parts of Asia by 2060
By University of Pennsylvania on Aug 16, 2022 02:58 pm
Most comprehensive study to date on water storage in Tibetan
Plateau projects dramatic losses of freshwater storage in parts of Asia
by mid-century under modest climate policy scenario.
Cities are often 10-15 °C hotter than their rural surroundings
By European Commission Joint Research Centre on Aug 16, 2022 12:11 pm
A recent global study conducted by the Joint Research Centre
looks at the difference between surface temperatures of urban areas and
their neighbouring rural areas in summer.
Today’s heat waves feel a lot hotter than heat index implies
By University of California, Berkeley on Aug 16, 2022 11:50 am
An analysis finds that the apparent temperature, or heat
index, calculated to indicate how hot it feels—taking into account the
humidity—underestimates the perceived temperature for the most
sweltering days, sometimes by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
New research shows communities around small reservoirs more vulnerable to climate extremes
By Deltares on Aug 16, 2022 11:49 am
The water volume in small reservoirs is significantly more
susceptible to seasonal and climate variability than larger reservoirs,
leaving communities that rely on them more vulnerable to water scarcity
and food insecurity, according to new research.
How we measured U.S. Forest Service wildfire prevention work
By NPR on Aug 16, 2022 11:38 am
The Forest Service primarily tracks work that counts toward
wildfire mitigation projects in two different datasets within its Forest
Service Activity Tracking System (FACTS) database.
As rising seas swamp South Carolina’s shores, some coastal communities are left unprotected
By Grist Magazine on Aug 16, 2022 11:22 am
A proposed $1.1 billion seawall bypasses marginalized
Charleston neighborhoods and relies on outdated grey infrastructure. But
there is an alternative: green, nature-based solutions can protect
at-risk coastal communities.
Highlights from “Hazardous Heat”
By First Street Foundation on Aug 16, 2022 10:52 am
New research from First Street Foundation finds that about 8
million people in the United States this year will be under “Extreme
Heat”, and grows to impact about 107 million people in 2053.
Sensor research helps fight wildfires
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Aug 16, 2022 10:44 am
As climate change leads to larger and more frequent
wildfires, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory are using sensors, drones and machine learning to both
prevent fires and reduce their damage to the electric grid.
China rations electricity to factories as heatwave sees power demand surge
By Guardian, the (UK) on Aug 16, 2022 09:10 am
Move likely to hit output of lithium, used in electric car
batteries, from factories in Sichuan where temperatures sit above 40
degrees.
Did Sweden’s controversial COVID strategy pay off? In many ways it did – but it let the elderly down
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 16, 2022 08:42 am
As much of the world shut down early in the COVID
pandemic, Sweden remained open. Almost two-and-a-half years after the
pandemic began, what can we say today about the outcomes of this
“experiment”?
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