I’ve just returned from sandbagging near the swollen River Parrett at Langport, a town next to the flooded Somerset Levels. There, local people are using new media to take action in the midst of a disaster…
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Articles on Natural disasters
Displaying 521 - 540 of 553 articles
When it comes to thinking about disease, rats are usually thought of as vermin that carry plague and pestilence. But what about rats being used to sniff out diseases such as tuberculosis in people’s saliva…
Devastating supervolcanoes can erupt simply due to changes that happen in their giant magma chambers as they slowly cool, according to a new study. This finding marks the first time researchers have been…
The Philippines. Pakistan. New Orleans. Sri Lanka. All have suffered catastrophic disasters in recent times. And the emergence of “climate refugees” – populations displaced by extreme weather events…
The rain is ricocheting off the roads here in Manila. Early on Friday, our car’s tyres dragged in the deep puddles. Basketball courts - remnants of bygone American rule, and a staple of every district…
You do not find many climate change sceptics on the end of [fire] hoses anymore… They are dealing with increasing numbers of fires, increasing rainfall events, increasing storm events. – A senior Victorian…
When disaster strikes, search and rescue robots could save lives by finding and retrieving people buried under rubble. But designing robots that can descend rapidly through unstable and uneven rubble has…
No lights, no power, no internet - and no easy solutions. Fumbling around in a middle of a blackout, hoping to find a torch or some spare batteries, I was struck by just how utterly dependent most of us…
This summer another bout of floods, fires, and cyclones has struck, culminating most recently in out-of-control fires across Victoria in which at least one home was lost. When we see the loss of property…
Younger children become more selfish than older children following a natural disaster. American and Canadian researchers…
The floods in Queensland and Northern New South Wales and the extensive January bushfires which caused destruction across Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales confirm that we need to rethink how we plan…
Radical circumstances (bushfires and natural disasters) flush out the mental illness in society. Whenever there’s a disaster, there’s a rush on hospital admissions for psychiatric problems. But on the…
The areas most likely to have a serious earthquake have been located with greater accuracy than ever before. Researchers…
A study from Stanford University suggests that “perfect storm” disasters can be anticipated using an engineering risk analysis…
The profound impact caused by the storm that began as Hurricane Sandy has turned the spotlight on many issues, including forecasts. In short: how well was Sandy forecast, and where do our forecasts need…
Last week the global landscape of mitigating and managing disasters changed forever. We heard the news of six Italian scientists charged for manslaughter and jailed for six years each for failing to predict…
The decision of an Italian Court to convict six scientists and one government official of manslaughter for the failure to predict the magnitude of a devastating earthquake in L’Aquila in central Italy…
Who comes to the rescue when there is a disaster? Who pays the bills? It is well accepted doctrine that in Australia the primary responsibility for protecting life and property lies with the states and…
On 28 March the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its full report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). The IPCC’s essential…
Disasters and extreme weather events often affect populated areas and yet few people consider that they’d be required to act as a “first responder” in their community before, during or after such events…
Top contributors
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Honorary Professor of Hazards and Disaster Risk Sciences, University of Sydney
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Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton
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Professor of Climate Science, UMass Lowell
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Professor of Disasters and Health, UCL
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Professor Emeritus of Geography, Louisiana State University
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Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director, Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern University
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Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University
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Associate Professor of Earthquake Science, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York
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Sr. Associate Vice President for Research and Research Professor, University of Oregon
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Senior Researcher, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
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Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Wollongong
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Associate Professor of Human Geography, University of Tasmania
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Scientia Professor and Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney
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Associate Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee
