Disaster Preparedness in Urban Immigrant Communities
This report, subtitled Lessons Learned from Recent Catastrophic Events and Their Relevance to Latino and Asian Communities in Southern California, found language barriers hinder emergency and disaster response, education, awareness and training efforts and not enough is being done to translate to what the authors have termed “Limited English Proficient” immigrants. The report, published by The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, used qualitative research conducted in areas with large immigrant Latino, Chinese, and Vietnamese populations, a literature review, and case studies to formulate recommendations.
Climate Resilient Cities
This World Bank website is one-stop shopping for anyone on the city level interested in planning for and mitigating the effects of climate change. Targeted toward East Asian cities, the site has tools, resources, and reports applicable to all cities. Among its offerings are an assessment tool to help determine vulnerability and impact potential; resilience profiles of cities ranging from Albuquerque to London to Rome; a climate-proofing blog; and the full text of Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Climate Change Impacts and Strengthening Disaster Risk Management in East Asian Cities.
Association of American Geographers EDGE
This site was created as part of a nearly $1 million effort to give geography students and faculty and EDGE—Enhancing Departments in Graduate Education in Geography. The National Science Foundation-backed project charges the Association of American Geographers with studying graduate geographers’ professional development. The site has material for both professors teaching college course and students, including books, trainings and links to resources.
Green Groove: A Phased Withdrawal on Catastrophic Climate Change
Climate resilient cities are all fine and good but change begins at home – this nifty website will help individuals and families get their green groove on. Just sign in, choose a timeframe and pick a level of commitment from Easy Does It to Green Machine. Green Groove will create a custom plan to reduce your impact on the climate one week at a time and even throw in a widget to track your progress.
HOWCALM
Faith-based communities and those interested in how faith-based organizations operate in times of crisis will be interested in a burgeoning project by New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS). HOWCALM—it stands for House of Worship Communitywide Asset and Logistics Management—is a free website that allows the faith community to track assets in a disaster, provides a means of communicating during emergencies, and lists local disaster training opportunities. Now available in New York City, NYDIS plans to take the tool outside the city in the future, according to its website.
A Framework for Improving Cross-Sector Coordination for Emergency Preparedness and Response
While the need for coordination between public health and law enforcement officials during an emergency might be a given, this report goes a bit further by adding judicial and corrections officials to the mix and providing suggestions for how the four groups might whip up coordination in times of trouble. Aimed at local, state, and tribal governments, A Framework for Improving Cross-Sector Coordination for Emergency Preparedness and Response: Action Steps for Public Health, Law Enforcement, the Judiciary, and Corrections, this framework is meant to do more to increase response to all-hazards public health emergencies according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which partnered with the Department of Justice to create the guide.
Cool Climate Jobs
Job seekers can be cool and try to keep the rest of the world that way, too with this online database of jobs in renewable energy, climate change science and other green industries. Job listings are searchable by category or organization and available by RSS feed.