By Rebecca Leber 3 October 2017 (Mother Jones) – The former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief has some advice for the Trump administration after back-to-back hurricanes in the past month: You have to look at climate change science if you want smarter disaster relief.Drawing on eight years of experience leading FEMA under President Barack Obama, […]
7 October 2017 (United Nations) – Having seen first-hand the destruction wrought by the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday called for the full mobilization of the international community to support the people of the affected areas, while stressing the need to accelerate climate action.“I have just witnessed a […]
By Michael T. Klare 17 September 2017 (TomDispatch) – Deployed to the Houston area to assist in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, U.S. military forces hadn’t even completed their assignments when they were hurriedly dispatched to Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to face Irma, the fiercest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. […]
By Emily Atkin 14 September 2017 (New Republic) – In the days and hours before Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, its residents were treated to copious media speculation about nightmare scenarios. This monster storm, journalists said, could bring a 15-foot storm surge, blow roofs off of buildings, and cause tens of billions of dollars in […]
5 October 2017 (United Nations) – One year has passed since Hurricane Matthew made landfall in southwest Haiti – leaving terrible destruction in its wake – but children and adolescents on the island still remain highly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters and extreme weather events, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.“Hundreds […]
By Alister Doyle 27 September 2017 OSLO (Reuters) – Weather extremes and air pollution from burning fossil fuels cost the United States $240 billion a year in the past decade, according to a report [pdf] on Wednesday that urged President Donald Trump to do more to combat climate change. This year is likely to be […]
By Joshua Gillin 3 October 2017 (Politifact) – Conservative news outlets have been spreading a false story online that wrongly says aid to Hurricane Maria victims isn’t being distributed in Puerto Rico because union truck drivers have gone on strike.The headline on a 30 September 2017, post on The Gateway Pundit read, “San Juan Teamsters […]
By Rachel Roubein 4 October 2017 (The Hill) – Amid the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico, most people can’t drink the water. But even before a Category 4 hurricane slammed the U.S. territory, the island’s water supply was in serious trouble.Some 55 percent of Puerto Ricans still don’t have access to drinking water as of […]
By Avery Anapol 3 October 2017 (The Hill) – Oxfam America is stepping in to help Puerto Rico, saying the Trump administration’s response has been “inadequate.”The global nonprofit’s president, Abby Maxman, said in a statement Tuesday that the group is “outraged” at the U.S. government’s slow response in Puerto Rico, where more than half of […]
By Adam Voiland 28 September 2017 (NASA) – After Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico, it quickly became clear that the destruction would pose daunting challenges for first responders. Most of the electric power grid and telecommunications network was knocked offline. Flooding, downed trees, and toppled power lines made many roads impassable.In circumstances like this, […]
