The recent heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest would not have been possible without the influence of climate change, according to a new study reported on by Scientific American.
An article in the New York Times highlights the experience of homeowners in Houston's poorest neighborhoods as they struggle to bounce back from climate-related natural disasters. As frequent flooding, and most recently last month's winter storm, have continued to hit communities, low-income communities are the slowest to bounce back, if they do at all.
A recent New York Times article highlights the massive storms that have converged over Australia in recent days, dumping three feet of rain in five days and forcing nearly 20,000 people to evacuate-- only a year after the country experienced its largest wildfires in recorded history.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency aims to free up as much as $10 billion to build climate resiliency through existing grant programs through a budgeting maneuver which would count federal COVID spending towards a formula that allocates money towards climate programs, according to an article in the New York Times.
An article in the New York Times today highlights the building industry's efforts to influence building codes, which are typically adopted by states and local governments every three years, often relying on influential models set by the International Code Council. These building codes protect homeowners from sustaining damage in extreme weather events, and reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
A recent article in the New York Times reported that disaster costs from hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters in the U.S. were $95 billion in 2020, more than double the previous year's costs. These disasters, which reflect the growing impacts of climate change, include California's largest-ever wildfires and a record number of Atlantic storms, including Hurricane Laura.
An article in Bloomberg CityLab highlights how real estate investors and developers are increasingly taking into consideration climate risk factors in deciding whether to purchase land, including looking at what local governments have done to prepare for climate change. The article underscores the fact that the real estate industry is increasingly recognizing that the long-term viability of investments will be dependent on factors such as climate predictions, critical infrastructure investments, and fiscal policy constraints.
Following the lead of several other Bay Area cities, Oakland and San Jose this week adopted bans on natural gas in the construction of most new buildings. Last July, Berkeley became the first city in the nation to ban natural gas. Other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and Richmond, followed suit in subsequent months.
An article in Streetsblog today highlights the results of a study done by the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis, examining the air pollution and congestion impacts of rush delivery services, such as same-day and 1-hour shipping, provided by online retailers.