Climate hazard

Life with dust: its impacts and how to catch it

Gabriele Amato April 4, 2022

18 April 1935: Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. Dust Bowl surveying in Texas. Credit NOAA George E. Marsh Album, theb1365, Historic C&GS Collection. http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/theb1365.html

In today’s interview, we have the pleasure to meet Dr Slobodan Nickovic, who won the prestigious 2022 Plinius Medal. Slobodan is a research consultant at the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia, and at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, Serbia. Throughout his career, he worked for national and international educational, scientific, and operational institutions including the Uni ...[Read More]

Putting some pieces of the climate puzzle together, a chat with Jakob Zscheischler

Vale Cigala February 20, 2022

“Support” is an art installation by artist Lorenzo Quinn located in Venice, Italy. Two giant hands emerge from the world-famous Grand Canal to protect and support the historical building of the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel. With this sculpture, Quinn wants to raise people's awareness about climate change and its effects in one of the cities most at risk. Credit: Hung Vuong Pham (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The climate on our home planet is changing, and the effects of this change affect all of us at different levels starting from an enhancement of extreme weather events, a severe natural hazard. Climate change has several drivers, which in turn have complex interactions. Thus, it should not surprise us if climate science is a complex and interdisciplinary discipline with numerous players and great p ...[Read More]

Paving the way for climate resilience: what can we learn from the coronavirus pandemic?

Asimina Voskaki July 12, 2021

Photo credit: adapted from the original found in Pixabay (Pixabay License)

Even though significant epidemics and pandemics have been recorded many times throughout human history, the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how vulnerable our societies still are. While the consequences of the pandemic are still ongoing, the global response so far can potentially offer some insights to support climate change response. Undoubtedly, the world is already experiencing a wide range of c ...[Read More]

Forests in danger: not only fires!

Jonathan Rizzi September 28, 2020

A group of Norway spruce trees that died during this summer 2020. The trees were growing on a particularly drought-sensitive soil composed by volcanic, coarse gravel that is well-drained. The trees have been severely stressed during the 2018 drought and heavily attacked by the spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) this summer. June 2020 was very warm and this made many beetles fly synchronized during a short period, making the attack severe for the trees. Place: Kjose, Larvik, Norway (Photo credit: Svein Solberg).

We often talk about forests for their importance in climate as a carbon sink and oxygen source. For their great role in the preservation of biodiversity, both for vegetation and as habitat for many animal species, for their potential in recreational activities. However, we do not talk a lot about forests in relation to natural hazards. Indeed, forests can be severely affected by natural hazards. T ...[Read More]