Disasters

"Last summer was the hottest ever recorded in the United States, and heat-related health emergencies also reached record-high levels in some parts of the country."

"An estimated 20 million people in southern Africa are facing what the United Nations calls “acute hunger” as one of the worst droughts in more than four decades shrivels crops, decimates livestock and, after years of rising food prices brought on by pandemic and war, spikes the price of corn, the region’s staple crop."

"Brimming with wildlife and offering panoramic views of San Francisco Bay, César Chávez Park welcomes visitors who might never suspect this stretch of shoreline was built atop a municipal landfill. But beneath the sprawling grasslands and charming hiking trails, decomposing waste continues to generate methane gas."

"Damage to farming, infrastructure, productivity, and health from climate change will cost an estimated $38 trillion per year by 2050, German government-backed research finds, a figure almost certain to rise as human activity emits more greenhouse gases."

"At nine years old, Carter Vigh loved soccer, his friends, and dancing to music. ... Carter also had asthma. The hot temperatures and dense wildfire smoke that enveloped the Vighs’ British Columbia home, 100 Mile House, in the summer of 2023 exacerbated his asthma and killed him."

"In January, an alert citizen in Muleshoe, Tex., was driving by a park and noticed that a water tower was overflowing. Authorities soon determined the system that controlled the city’s water supply had been hacked. In two hours, tens of thousands of gallons of water had flowed into the street and drain pipes."

"Becky Genia has spent most of her 67 years on the Shinnecock Reservation, 800 acres on the far eastern side of Long Island’s Shinnecock Bay. Sandwiched between multimillion-dollar mansions and yacht clubs that serve as a playground for uber-rich New Yorkers, it may be hard to imagine a bigger threat to the tiny spit of land than encroaching development. But climate change looms even larger."

"The Guna people of Panama's sinking Gardi Sugdub island are planning to move to the mainland to escape rising sea levels".

"In a small Texas city, officials say land previously treated with a prescribed burn stopped the Windy Deuce Fire from entering neighborhoods. But the practice of intentionally burning excess vegetation has faced opposition from some private landowners."