You are here

Problem

2016: A Historic Year for Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters in U.S.

           

CLICK HERE - NCDC - NOAA - Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview

climate.gov - by Adam B. Smith - January 9, 2017

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) tracks U.S. weather and climate events that have great economic and societal impacts (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions). Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 203 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, as of January 2017). The cumulative costs for these 203 events exceed $1.1 trillion.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Atlantic City and Miami Beach: two takes on tackling the rising waters

Note: Average seasonal cycle removed from monthly mean sea level Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Graphic: Jan Diehm/The Guardian

IMAGE: Note: Average seasonal cycle removed from monthly mean sea level Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Graphic: Jan Diehm/The Guardian

theguardian.com - March 20th 2017 - Oliver Milman

The Irish Pub near Atlantic City’s famed boardwalk doesn’t have any locks on the doors as it is open 24 hours a day. So when Hurricane Sandy crunched into what was once known as the Las Vegas of the east coast in 2012, some improvisation was needed.

Regular drinkers helped slot a cork board through the frame of the door, wedging it shut and keeping out the surging seawater.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

What Happens If a Nuclear Bomb Goes Off in Manhattan?

Manhatten skyline. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Image: Manhatten skyline. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

theatlantic.com - March 15th 2017 - Kaveh Waddell

On a quiet afternoon, two medium-sized nuclear blasts level portions of Manhattan.

If this were a movie, hordes of panicked New Yorkers would pour out into the streets, running around and calling out for their loved ones. But reality doesn’t usually line up with Hollywood’s vision of a disaster scene, says William Kennedy, a professor in the Center for Social Complexity at George Mason University. 

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Forbidding Forecast For Lyme Disease In The Northeast

White-footed mice are efficient transmitters of Lyme disease in the Northeast. They infect up to 95 percent of the ticks that feed on them. But it's people who create the conditions for Lyme outbreaks by building homes in the animals' habitat. Stephen Reiss/for NPR

Image: White-footed mice are efficient transmitters of Lyme disease in the Northeast. They infect up to 95 percent of the ticks that feed on them. But it's people who create the conditions for Lyme outbreaks by building homes in the animals' habitat. Stephen Reiss/for NPR

npr.org - March 6th 2017 - Michaeleen Doucleff, Jane Greenhalgh

Last summer Felicia Keesing returned from a long trip and found that her home in upstate New York had been subjected to an invasion.

"There was evidence of mice everywhere. They had completely taken over," says Keesing, an ecologist at Bard College.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 
Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

The Murky Future of Nuclear Power in the United States

A view into Unit 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle generating station in Georgia. The complex plans to use AP1000 reactors from Westinghouse. Credit via Georgia Power

Image: A view into Unit 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle generating station in Georgia. The complex plans to use AP1000 reactors from Westinghouse. Credit via Georgia Power

nytimes.com - February 18th 2017 - Diane Cardwell

This was supposed to be America’s nuclear century.

The Three Mile Island meltdown was two generations ago. Since then, engineers had developed innovative designs to avoid the kinds of failures that devastated Fukushima in Japan. 

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Rare Rat-Related Disease Kills a Bronx Victim, the City Says

Three cases of a rare disease trasmitted through rat urine have been reported in the Bronx, officials said. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Image: Three cases of a rare disease trasmitted through rat urine have been reported in the Bronx, officials said. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times

nytimes.com - February 14th 2017 - Christopher Mele

New York City is investigating three recent cases — one of them fatal — of a rare disease transmitted through rat urine that have occurred in the Grand Concourse neighborhood of the Bronx, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

This is the first time a cluster of the cases of the disease, leptospirosis, has been identified, according to an alert issued by the department on Tuesday. From 2006 to 2016, 26 cases were reported in the city; the Bronx had the highest number, eight.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Scientists Glimpse New York’s Perilous Path in an Ancient Patch of Marsh

In Pelham Bay in the Bronx, an ancient salt marsh has provided a unique laboratory to study historic sea levels and perhaps see what lies ahead. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Image: In Pelham Bay in the Bronx, an ancient salt marsh has provided a unique laboratory to study historic sea levels and perhaps see what lies ahead. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times

nytimes.com - January 19th 2017 - Marc Santora

Surrounded by landmarks of modernity like Co-op City in the Bronx, a sliver of New York’s ancient past remains relatively untouched.

It is one of the city’s last salt marshes, a coastal ecosystem dominated by dense and sturdy stands of plants and grasses that has been trapping and binding sediments from the flow of the tides for thousands of years.

The sediment there tells a story of the past and, according to a new study, offers a dire warning about the future that corresponds with similar research conducted around the world.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

New York City Has 5 Babies Born With Zika-Related Brain Issue

           

Dr. Mary T. Bassett, center, the New York City health commissioner, at a July news conference about Zika with Dr. Jay K. Varma, deputy commissioner commissioner for disease control, and Dr. Herminia Palacio, deputy mayor for health and human services.  Credit Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times

CLICK HERE - NYC - PRESS RELEASE - Health Department Reports Four More Babies Born With Congenital Zika Virus Syndrome in NYC

nytimes.com - by Marc Santora - December 7, 2016

At least four babies have been born in New York City with Zika-related brain developmental symptoms since July, the city’s health department said on Wednesday, bringing the total number of such births to five.

The numbers were announced in an alert the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sent to doctors, urging them to remain vigilant and to continue to warn pregnant women and sexually active women of reproductive age not using a reliable form of birth control against traveling to places where the virus is spreading.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

NY1 Online: City Health Commissioner, Professor Talk Concerns About Zika Virus, Both at Rio Olympics and in US

           

CLICK HERE - VIDEO - NY1 Online: City Health Commissioner, Professor Talk Concerns About Zika Virus, Both at Rio Olympics and in US

ny1.com - by Inside City Hall - August 3, 2016

Errol Louis discussed concerns about the Zika virus, both at the Rio Olympics and here in the United States, with City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett and Columbia University Professor Stephen Morse.

 

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Playing Catch-Up With Zika

With the growing Zika outbreak in Florida, it's a dangerous mistake to continue underestimating the virus. 

             

Complacency is the enemy.  (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

usnews.com - by Stephen S. Morse - August 1, 2016

We've seen it coming for months. Zika has been moving with hurricane intensity throughout South America and the Caribbean, appearing for the first time in 42 countries in the Western Hemisphere in less than two years. . . .

. . . We cannot afford to keep trying to catch-up every time another infection appears. . . .

. . . Zika is the infectious disease crisis now, but in our increasingly globalized and urban world, we can expect many more to come.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

 

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Pages

Subscribe to Problem
howdy folks
Page loaded in 0.715 seconds.