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The U.S. National Adaptation and Resilience Planning Strategy provides a critical blueprint to help our nation adapt to and prepare for the immediate, medium-, and long-term consequences, impacts and risks of a changing climate. The plan offers a roadmap for our nation, states and local communities to save lives and livelihoods, protect business investments and our economy, safeguard national security, and help secure a resilient future for our nation from the wide-range of climate risks.
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"Some of the islands that we have visited before and saw nesting, now we see nothing." Florida biologists are closely monitoring how alligators in the Everglades are responding to rising global temperatures, and they're concerned about what they've found so far. What's happening? Scientists from the University of Florida "Croc Docs" team are studying threatened American alligators to help assess the impacts of rising global temperatures in the Everglades. The Miami Herald reported on the team, explaining that alligators are a good target species for this type of research because they are sensitive to environmental changes.
Read more in The Cool Down
By Katie Carpenter, Everwild Media
The new maps mean more Floridians will be required to buy flood insurance.
Florida is considered the most flood-prone state in the U.S., closely followed by Texas, Louisiana and New Jersey. After hurricanes Helene and Milton broke flooding records last year, more homeowners are starting to pay attention, but not all.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released its widely anticipated new flood risk maps on Dec. 20, and unsuspecting residents learned that they may now be required to buy flood insurance. In Palm Beach County alone, more than 16,000 properties have been impacted. Many have been told they have an increase in required base flood elevation of 1 foot or more.
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By Carrie Schuman, Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Hurricanes Debby, Irma, Ian, Helene and Milton are “five good reasons” the Conservancy of Southwest Florida hosted “Working with Nature: Nature-Based and Hybrid Solutions for Resilient Communities” last month, said Rob Moher, president and CEO of the Conservancy.
Nature-based solutions (such as mangrove forests, salt marshes and beach dunes) or hybrid solutions, which combine nature-based elements with engineered options (such as seawalls, levees and culverts) can address the challenges Moher outlined.
A new study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has found that ocean warming in 2024 has led to new record high temperatures. The ocean is the hottest it has ever been recorded by humans, not only at the surface temperature but also for the upper 2000 meters.
“The broken records in the ocean have become a broken record.” Said Prof. Lijing Cheng with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He led a team of 54 scientists from 7 countries and discussed how a hotter ocean affects our lives on land and what this means for our future.
The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.