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Officials in Louisiana are still assessing the damage done by Hurricane Ida, but two things are already clear: While widespread flooding took place across the state, systems built to defend New Orleans have mostly stalled. And there was no electricity grid.
The $14.5 billion flood protection system around the city has almost 200 miles of barriers and the flood water did not overflow anywhere. Neither of these barriers was affected by structural failure either.
But all eight transmission lines that brought electricity to New Orleans failed in the hours after Ida’s impact. And such my colleague Ivan Penn reported, a natural gas power plant built to supply the city with electricity in an emergency did not come to the rescue. Some Louisians can go without power for weeks.
Daniel Kaniewski, who until last year was responsible for resilience at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the stark contrast illustrates a fundamental challenge of adapting to climate change: containing all threats.
After the catastrophic flooding with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, planners focused less mainly on water hazards and other types of infrastructure, such as the power grid.
quotation: “If we are only preparing for the last disaster, we will never be ready for the next one,” Kaniewski said.
War and global warming collide in Afghanistan
As the United States ends its long war in Afghanistan this week, it’s worth remembering that the combination of conflict and global warming has increased insecurity for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
Parts of Afghanistan have warmed twice the global average, and the country is starting to materialize, according to analysts. a new type of international crisisWhere the dangers of war collide with the dangers of climate change create an agonizing feedback loop that punishes some of the world’s most vulnerable people and destroys their country’s ability to cope.
quotation: “The war has exacerbated the effects of climate change. Over 50 percent of the national budget for 10 years goes to war,” said Noor Ahmad Ahundzadah, a professor at Kabul University. “There is no government anymore and the future is uncertain. Our situation today is completely hopeless.”
Caldor fire raging near Lake Tahoe
Despite the efforts of thousands of firefighters with 25 helicopters and hundreds of fire trucks, Caldor fire is advancing fast Heading towards South Lake Tahoe, California.
Follow the main wildfires
To discover wildfires, air quality and smoke forecast maps in California, Oregon, Washington and surrounding states.
Smoke linked to preterm births
A study done in California found that: about 4 percent of preterm births was associated with exposure to wildfire smoke.
Trump-era pollution rule drops in court
This week, a federal judge rescinded a Trump-era environmental rule that largely limited federal restrictions on pollution in millions of streams, wetlands, and swamps across the country.
The Biden administration has already embarked on a long process of repealing and replacing the policy that President Donald J. Trump established in 2020 after farmers, property developers and fossil fuel producers complained that Obama-era water rules placed heavy regulatory burdens on them.
Trump’s policy has allowed pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and industrial chemicals to be discharged into smaller streams and wetlands.
Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan
Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the turmoil that ensued after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments such as flogging, amputations, and mass executions to enforce their rules. here’s more origin stories and their track record as rulers.
But on Monday, United States District Court Judge Rosemary Márquez found “fundamental, significant flaws” in the Trump water rule. You can do read full article here.
What’s next: The decision, which agriculture and construction groups are expected to appeal, does not automatically restore water protections under Obama. Rather, it means that the federal government will temporarily revert to the 1986 arrangement. The Biden administration is expected to implement a new set of stricter water pollution rules by next year.
The deadly flood in Tennessee last month came with shocking speed and violence – apparently a case study of the challenges of protecting people from explosive rainstorms. climate change it’s getting worse.
But a closer look at what happened days, years, and even decades before the storm reveals that a series of government decisions have flooded residents more than they should have.
For example, some counties had refused to participate in the federal flood insurance program or had no residential building codes at all. And in many parts of the state, flood maps produced by the federal government to inform decisions about where and how to build were long out of date.
It’s impossible to say whether a single change will save lives, especially given the brutality of the flood. But interviews with climate and disaster experts and a review of state and federal data show how governments at all levels have been slow to adapt to growing threats and fail to take action together that can reduce harm. You can do read full article here.
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