May 24, 2013

What happened this week?

Oklahoma tornado's strength upgraded to rare EF5
Scientists concluded the storm was a rare and extraordinarily powerful type of twister known as an EF5, ranking it at the top of the scale used to measure tornado strength... Read more


The Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction: linking discussions on post-2015 HFA to enable sustainable development through reduced disaster loss
The Global Platform is highly important for the international community to agree a strong successor framework that builds on the achievements of the Hyogo Framework for Action, and to ensure clear links between discussions on post-2015 frameworks to enable sustainable development through reduced disaster loss... Read more


Interesting Facts

Oklahoma Tornado's Climate Change Connection Is 'A Damn Difficult Thing To Predict'
Climate change chatter ran rampant after an unusually violent string of twisters in 2011, including a Joplin, Mo., storm that killed 158 people. After tornadoes took at least 24 lives in Moore, Okla., on Monday, headlines -- like this one -- are once again raising the question: Will a warming world fuel more tornado strikes? "It's a damn difficult thing to predict," said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate change expert at Princeton University... Read more

As Jet Stream Moved North, Moist Air Barreled Into Plains With Deadly Results
It is not possible to draw a connection between climate change and the frequency or intensity of tornadoes, experts said — the year-to-year variability is too great to draw any useful conclusions... Read more

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Overheated rhetoric on climate change doesn’t make for good policies
Climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed thoughtfully and objectively. Unfortunately, claims that distort the facts hinder the legitimate evaluation of policy options... Read more


Climate change: Environmentalists question whether Gov. Jerry Brown's actions match his rhetoric
The world is fast approaching a tipping point after which the damage caused by climate change can't be undone, Gov. Jerry Brown told a technology summit Thursday. "Five years from now, it's over," unless we change our ways sooner, he said. But some environmentalists say Brown's actions don't match his rhetoric -- particularly his recent decision to divert $500 million in cap-and-trade fee revenues away from clean-energy and pollution-abatement projects to help California balance its books... Read more