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Malgosia Madajewicz Studies How Communities Make Decisions in the Face of Rising Seas
The development economist thinks that understanding the factors that influence climate adaptation decisions will be key to building a more resilient future.
What was behind perhaps the worst natural disaster to hit the Northeast seaboard in recent history? How likely is it that we’ll see more superstorms in the future? How could we have been better prepared? The science and the lessons of Hurricane Sandy, through the eyes of researchers at the Earth Institute.
The development economist thinks that understanding the factors that influence climate adaptation decisions will be key to building a more resilient future.
A study finds evidence for land speculation in Coney Island and the Rockaways, in some of the neighborhoods hardest-hit by the storm.
How the Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribe in Long Island, NY, transformed a desolate and barren stretch of shoreline to protect their land from erosion and sea-level rise
Scientists at Columbia’s Earth Institute are using simulations to test how well different methods protect coastal areas from hurricanes and sea level rise.
People in Long Beach have experienced the impact of climate change and are doing what they can to prepare for future floods. Sandy changed local attitudes toward measures designed to build climate resilience.
A student shares her first-hand experience of the devastating storm, and discusses how New York City is building resilience—and how it could do better.
In October 2012, Sandy devastated large swaths of the city with floods and fire. How well have we recovered? And will we be ready for the next big storm?
“A lot of the challenge is understanding what we as a species should do, because the disasters are getting more prevalent. In the last hundred years, both in human and financial costs, damages are skyrocketing. Most of that is just more people living in dangerous places, but climate change will be more of a factor as time goes on.”
The disaster in New Orleans was almost uniquely awful in modern American history. But even if Katrina isn’t likely to happen everywhere, something can happen almost anywhere—including, we now know, New York. And further to the north and east.
In his new book “The Disaster Profiteers,” Earth Institute professor John Mutter argues that natural disasters are bad for the poor–and can be great for the rich, who often seize resources meant for recovery, when no one is looking.