Chicago Tribune (September 7)
“Homeowners located in areas that are expected to flood every 100 years are required to buy flood insurance…. But they pay rates far lower than the risks warrant. That gap deprives builders of incentives to stay out of low-lying areas that are vulnerable to flooding — or to elevate structures to keep them dry when the waters rise. It also promotes the destruction of wetlands that could reduce flooding. Oh, and it helps to tilt migration toward vulnerable coastal regions like those of Texas and Florida.”
Tags: Builders, Coastal regions, Destruction, Flood, Florida, Homeowners, Insurance, Rates, Texas, Vulnerable, Wetlands
USA Today (August 30)
“Climate change didn’t cause Harvey, but it almost surely made the storm worse.” And extreme weather “isn’t just happening in North America. Even as Harvey riveted the nation’s attention this week, the death toll topped 1,000 from unusually severe monsoonal rains half a world away in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.” With such destruction creating “a torrent of human misery, the question isn’t whether the nation can afford to get serious about global warming. We can’t afford not to.”
Tags: Bangladesh, Climate change, Death toll, Destruction, Extreme weather, Global warming, Harvey, India, Misery, Monsoons, Nepal, Rain, U.S.
Japan Times (April 17)
“The indiscriminate nature of the destruction saw some houses reduced to piles of rubble and smashed roof tiles while neighboring homes were left standing.” Amid the ruins in Kumamoto, the search for survivors races on, hampered by the destruction of multiple quakes and inclement weather.
Tags: Destruction, Indiscriminate, Kumamoto, Quakes, Rubble, Ruins, Search, Survivors, Weather
New York Times (October 9)
“The International Criminal Court will examine the destruction of religious sites as a war crime” for the very first time. The particular case involves the destruction of religious sites in Timbuktu, but will carry greater implications. “The case against Mr. Mahdi in the International Criminal Court strengthens hope that members of the Islamic State will, one day, also face justice for their cultural and religious crimes.”
Tags: Cultural crimes, Destruction, ICC, International Criminal Court, Islamic State, Mahdi, Religious sites, Timbuktu, War Crime
