Understanding the Challenges Faced by Homeless Service Organizations in Disaster Planning and Response

On the days of September 11 through September 15, 2013, multiple counties along the Colorado Front Range experienced unprecedented rainfall that resulted in substantial flooding and pockets of devastation outside of designated flood plain zones.

As you are reading this, more than 500,000 Americans are homeless. Many will sleep in homeless shelters; others will sleep in tents or other makeshift accommodations. The latter are exposed to a range of weather-related hazards. They represent some of the most vulnerable people in society and must be incorporated into emergency plans. Paradoxically though, homeless individuals can also be assets to their communities during disasters.

The UN Addresses a Dearth of Earthquake Technology

While early warning systems for earthquakes have been advancing at varying paces around the globe, a new effort by the United Nations hopes to improve their progress and make them more available to developing countries.

Leaders Must Now Put Action Behind the COP21's Diplomatic Advances

As the 2015 UN Climate Summit in Paris (COP21) drew to a close on December 12, delegates from 44 low-lying coastal and island countries began to sing Bob Marley’s famous refrain “Everything’s gonna be alright.” That might seem quite optimistic considering that the COP21 agreement has been widely criticized as inadequate and scientists have warned that the pact won’t avoid dangerous climate change. Still, for participating countries—especially those most at risk from climate change—the agreement marks a diplomatic victory if not a scientific one.

The opposing views stem from expectations nations had going into the conference, wrote ethics professor Clive Hamilton in The Conversation. The COP21 agreement might not be as effective or binding as some might like, but the pact between the 195 countries is likely the best that could have been hoped for, Hamilton argued.