There were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria around the globe last year, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, significantly more than before the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase of five million over 2021. Malaria remains a top killer of children. Those new cases were concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, […]
Read More There were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria around the globe last year, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, significantly more than before the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase of five million over 2021. Malaria remains a top killer of children. Those new cases were concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, […]
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He has taken dozens of trips abroad boosting his credentials on climate change, while raising taxes at home. He pledged to send his country’s police to quash gang violence in Haiti, though they stand accused of brutality at home. And he recently hosted an eight-course state dinner for King Charles III, amid skyrocketing food and […]
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The food we eat and the roads we drive on. Our health and safety. Our cultural heritage, natural environments and economic flourishing. Nearly every cherished aspect of American life is under growing threat from climate change and it is effectively too late to prevent many of the harms from worsening over the next decade, a […]
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On a cloudless morning two years ago, shortly after Danielle Smith moved into a new apartment in Far Rockaway, Queens, she looked out of her window and saw a swan gliding by. Overnight, the street in front of her home had become a creek. That morning, Ms. Smith, a 36-year-old mother of five, learned that […]
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This story is from Headway, an initiative from The New York Times exploring the world’s challenges through the lens of progress. Headway looks for promising solutions, notable experiments and lessons from what’s been tried. The city of Hoboken, N.J., once a marshy outcropping that the Lenape inhabited only seasonally, hugs the Hudson River. Three-quarters of […]
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Hurricane Otis exploded onto the southwest coast of Mexico early Wednesday, shocking forecasters as it emerged as one of the more powerful Category 5 storms to batter the region and create what one expert called a “nightmare scenario” for a popular tourist coastline. Few meteorologists initially thought the tropical storm would make landfall as a […]
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On a recent afternoon Susan Allen gazed at a sun-soaked hillside cloaked in a rich autumn palette of red, gold, purple and green. The retiree from Lebanon, Ky., sat licking her lips after savoring a syrup-dipped pickle at the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier, Vt., a popular stop on central Vermont’s leaf-peeping circuit. “I […]
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Suleiman Chubado is not entirely clear what caused the price of fertilizer to more than double over the past year, but he is bitterly aware of the consequences. At his farm in northeastern Nigeria, he can no longer afford enough fertilizer, so his corn is stunted and pale, the scraggly plants bending toward the powdery […]
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Hurricane Lidia moved inland on the west coast of Mexico on Tuesday evening as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, killing one person and spreading life-threatening winds and heavy rains that could trigger flooding and mudslides in some areas, forecasters said. The storm made landfall some 40 miles southwest of the resort town of Puerto […]
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Many electric utilities are putting up lots of new power lines as they rely more on renewable energy and try to make grids more resilient in bad weather. But a Vermont utility is proposing a very different approach: It wants to install batteries at most homes to make sure its customers never go without electricity. […]
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When Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018, Calhoun County schools were ravaged. Winds of 160 miles per hour destroyed an elementary school and ripped high-school bleachers from the ground. “It was complete devastation,” said Darryl Taylor Jr., superintendent of the district. “It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off.” The Calhoun schools […]
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With cows grazing in a vast meadow surrounded by wire fencing, and with farmers checking to see how their livestock were faring under a scorching sun, it looked like a classic pastoral scene set on what was surely land dedicated to agriculture. But the cows and the farmers were actually guests in a nature preserve, […]
Read MoreShortly after midnight on Tuesday, 17,000 feet up in the Himalayas just south of India’s border with China, some slight shift started an avalanche. Snow, ice and boulders slid into a giant glacial lake a mile below, causing it to burst its banks. From there, catastrophes multiplied as the water cascaded down mountain valleys below. […]
Read MoreSix days after the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia paralyzed New York City, trapping children in flooded schools and halting swaths of subway and railroad service, the city’s preparation for the storm and its response are facing scrutiny. The city comptroller, Brad Lander, told Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday that he was launching an investigation […]
Read MoreWhy It Matters: On a warmer planet, rainstorms are stronger. Human-driven climate change is amplifying flood threats globally. Rising sea levels are leading to more destructive coastal storm surges. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which means storms are primed to deliver more rain. But in many countries, the more significant driver of flood […]
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On Friday, a flash flood washed over New York City, grinding the nation’s largest city to a halt and catching millions of people unaware. Including, apparently, Eric Adams, the city’s mayor. As the storm approached last week, Mr. Adams failed to adequately warn the public. Worse, the mayor seems to have suggested in the hours […]
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After record-breaking rains swamped the subway, grounded flights and flooded streets in New York City and the surrounding region on Friday, New Yorkers resumed their routines the next morning. Rain showers continued on Saturday, putting some areas at risk of further flooding, but they were expected to taper off by the evening. On Saturday morning, […]
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“You can have a rainy day where you get less than a tenth of an inch per hour, but today’s rainfall was more than 10 times that amount,” he said. And in a paved-over city with absorption problems, that makes all the difference. Fall in the Northeast, when hurricane remnants and nor’easters increasingly come through, […]
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Pouring rain hit New York City and the surrounding region on Friday, causing flash floods and crippling the city’s vast subway system. Water rushed over major roadways, completely submerging cars in some areas. In schools, children were rushed to upper floors. At the city’s major airports, many flights were delayed and canceled. Gov. Kathy Hochul […]
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New York’s governor and Democratic supermajority can’t seem to agree on taxing the rich a little bit more to help deal with climate change. In 2021, when Hurricane Ida hit the city and the streets flooded like they did on Friday, 16 people, inordinately low-income and immigrant New Yorkers, died from drowning in their basement […]
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All drainage systems have their limitations and New York City’s is 1.75 inches of rainfall per hour. Unfortunately for many New Yorkers, the storm that deluged the region on Friday dropped more than two inches between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. — and then kept on coming. The limit on the capacity of the city’s […]
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Less than four months ago, Mayor Eric Adams was widely criticized for not giving New Yorkers adequate warning when the city’s air quality worsened rapidly. He shook off the critics, insisting that his administration could not have been expected to do more. On Thursday, as it became clear that a major storm was about to […]
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Many principals across New York City rushed students to upper floors at their schools, as classrooms, gyms, kitchens and common areas on lower levels flooded. As heavy rain and dangerous flooding pummeled the region on Friday, hundreds of thousands of students in the city’s school system, the nation’s largest, found their days drastically disrupted by […]
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Heavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region Friday morning, bringing flash floods. Subway lines came to a halt, major roadways turned into lakes and children were ushered to the upper floors of flooding schoolhouses. The National Weather Service issued a “considerable” flash-flood warning for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens — a level of […]
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As a heavy downpour pounded the New York Metro Area on Friday morning, forecasters warned that areas prone to flash flooding were likely to see flooding. Rain is expected for much of the day. On Friday morning, the National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning that included all of Staten Island, Elizabeth and Jersey City, […]
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A new entry may soon join hurricanes and atmospheric rivers on the list of large-scale problems roiling the housing and insurance industries in the United States: congressional gridlock. A government shutdown, which could happen as soon as Sunday, could prevent some would-be home buyers from getting mortgages for properties in flood-prone areas, the National Association […]
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Kia Karjalainen and her sister were vacationing in Greece when things took an unexpected turn. “We were in our hotel room, and I suddenly said to my sister, ‘It really, really smells of smoke. Is something burning?’” It was mid-July on the island of Rhodes, and wildfire smoke was heading in their direction. Planes flew […]
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Before the storm hit, Fort Myers Beach was a colorful, pleasantly ramshackle town along a fairly perfect seven-mile stretch of sand. Its single-story bungalow homes and condo buildings gave middle-class sun seekers entree into beachside living. Its low-slung motels welcomed travelers from both the Midwest and within Florida. Many returned year after year. A few […]
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In the days after much of the coastal city of Derna, Libya, was washed away by devastating floods, Mahbuba Khalifa wrote a poem to honor her hometown, known by Libyans as the “city of poets.” I used to carry your great legacy in my conscience and on my shoulders, and I walked with arrogant pride […]
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Authorities in flood-devastated eastern Libya appeared to be moving to muzzle dissent over the past week, arresting protesters and activists who have demanded accountability for what they say was a botched official response to the catastrophe. Torrential rains that burst two dams unleashed a flood on Sept. 11 that swept much of the coastal city […]
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