Climate change is ramping up its destructive power. Worldwide, climate-related disaster losses were up 83% in the 20 years ended 2019, compared to the 20 years ended 1999, according to a United Nations report.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee of experts to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) establish a research agenda to address disasters caused by ordinary natural hazards, as well as by extreme weather events that are amplified in frequency and intensity by climate change. The first of two reports by the Committee on Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Applied Research Topics, titled Equitable and Resilient Infrastructure Investments, was released last week.
Adam Rose, a senior research fellow at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies, a joint USC Price School and Viterbi School of Engineering research unit, was a member of the committee. We caught up with him with a few questions about the project.