One of NOAA’s most innovative and intriguing programs? RISA. The acronym stands for Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments. Imagine a handful of these efforts, distributed across the country, working with folks in climate-sensitive economic sectors. These latter might range from … Continue reading →

“We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the Weather Service.” President Barack … Continue reading →

Cyberthreats? They’re an undercurrent throughout the newspapers and other print media, broadcast news, and the internet itself. The most ominous part of the discussions we find there? The subtext…an almost universal sense that even experts don’t know where things are … Continue reading →

Cyber-threats? Nasty. Different. And a focus at this year’s World Conference on Disaster Management. Let’s start with some background  – a little more than usual. Struggling to cope with volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, drought, and storms? Looking for advice? Wondering … Continue reading →

“The big one.” Perhaps you’ve heard that term used to refer to some possible future catastrophe.  All too easy to use “the” too cheaply. Somehow that implies a catastrophe that cannot be exceeded. Better to call it “a” big one. … Continue reading →

The real world we live on does much if not most of its business through extreme events. In fact, it might be argued that extremes are a feature of many large systems. “A tempest in a teapot” is an oxymoron. … Continue reading →

The Keynote Speaker for this year’s World Conference on Disaster Management was Lester Brown, and his talk alone was worth the price of admission. He basically walked us all through the material in his latest book, World on the Edge: … Continue reading →

…but it isn’t. Today’s post comes from Toronto at the start of the 21st World Conference on Disaster Management. The Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness puts on this annual meeting, this year assembling 1500 attendees from 40 countries. Participants variously … Continue reading →

The AMS Summer Policy Colloquium in a nutshell? A ten-day discussion on the challenges of Living on the Real World – the world that is at one and the same time, globally and locally, a resource we can’t do without, … Continue reading →

This topic preoccupies people these days – especially knowledge workers, and leaders of knowledge workers. Job demands are escalating. The pressure to do more with less? Incessant. Even as technology connects us socially, work seizes the opportunity to invade every … Continue reading →