How to Rebound After a Disaster: Move, Don’t Rebuild, Research Suggests

What should communities do as climate change escalates threats like sea-level rise? Until now, much of the focus has been on disaster response, with very little discussion of orderly, strategic retreat from areas at risk. After Hurricane Sandy 2012, for example, the New York State governor’s office ran a public service announcement that made clear the focus would be on rebuilding…

The under-reported story of disasters (that most people have missed)

When environmental disasters occur, the majority of news coverage teeters on the edge of “disaster porn” at best; focusing on the sheer mass of destruction and disruption to the affected regions while celebrating a few token “heroes.” At its worst, the media often perpetuates harmful stereotypes, depicting people trying to meet their basic needs for survival as “looters” and justifying the extrajudicial killings of people of color by the police and mostly white vigilantes, like what occurred during Hurricane Katrina.

But in both scenarios, reporting routinely underplays how local communities come together to respond to the hardships they face while supporting each other during times of disruption. It’s a good thing that people gravitate together during a crisis rather than pushing each other away because all signs point towards an increase in climate change-fueled disasters in the coming years and decades….