Long description:

From contributors to The Conversation, a timely collection of essays on how extreme weather events will impact the environment?and our lives.

As extreme weather events grow in frequency and intensity, climate science has made significant strides in understanding their underlying causes. In The Conversation on Extreme Weather, editor Jennifer A. Horney collects essays from The Conversation by scholars and experts that explore how climate change contributes to record-breaking storms, heat waves, droughts, and floods.

These essays highlight the latest advances in attribution studies, which can now quantify the impact of human-caused climate change on individual weather events, such as Hurricane Helene's historic rainfall. Changing weather patterns interact in dangerous ways?droughts are followed by floods, cascading disasters like landslides are triggered by wildfires, and "weather whiplash" threatens crops and economies alike. As populations grow in vulnerable areas, the risks multiply, requiring collaboration among scientists, governments, and communities to effectively manage and mitigate these new realities. With this essential guide, readers will gain a deeper understanding of how extreme weather events are reshaping our world and learn what we can do to prepare for the future.

The Critical Conversations series collects essays from top scholars on timely topics, including water, biotechnology, gender diversity, gun culture, and more, originally published on the independent news site The Conversation.

Table of Contents:

Series Editor Foreword
Preface
Part I: The Science of Extreme Weather
1. Is Climate Change to Blame for Extreme Weather Events? Attribution Science Says Yes, for Some?Here's How It Works, by Xubin Zeng
2. What Is an Atmospheric River? With Flooding and Mudslides in California, a Hydrologist Explains the Good and Bad of these Storms and How They're Changing, by Qian Cao
3. Climate Change Is Intensifying the Water Cycle, Bringing More Powerful Storms and Flooding?Here's What the Science Shows, by Mathew Barlow
4. The Fastest Population Growth in the West's Wildland-Urban Interface Is in Areas Most Vulnerable to Wildfires, by Krishna Rao, Alexandra Konings, Marta Yebra, Noah Diffenbaugh, and Park Williams
5. The Risk of "Cascading" Natural Disasters Is on the Rise, by Farshid Vahedifard and Amir Aghakouchak
6. Why a Warming Climate Can Bring Bigger Snowstorms, by Michael A. Rawlin
7. Ice Storms, Downpours, Heavy Snow, No Snow: Diagnosing "Warming Winter Syndrome", by Richard B. (Ricky) Rood
8. Atmospheric Rivers Over California's Wildfire Burn Scars Raise Fears of Deadly Mudslides?This Is What Cascading Climate Disasters Look Like, by Amir Aghakouchak
Part II: Economy and Infrastructure
9. After a Record 22 'Billion Dollar Disasters' in 2020, It's Time to Overhaul US Disaster Policy?Here's How, by A. R. Siders, Allison Reilly, and Deb Niemeier
10. Intense Heat and Flooding Are Wreaking Havoc on Power and Water Systems as Climate Change Batters America's Aging Infrastructure, by Paul Chinowsky
11. 4 Ways Extreme Heat Hurts the Economy, by Derek Lemoine
12. Why Insurance Companies Are Pulling Out of California and Florida, and How to Fix Some of the Underlying Problems, by Melanie Gall
13. Climate Change Is a Fiscal Disaster for Local Governments Our Study Shows How It's Testing Communities in Florida, by Linda Shi, Tisha Joseph Holmes, and William Butler
14. Heat Waves Hit the Poor Hardest?Calculating the Rising Impact on Those Least Able to Adapt to the Warming Climate, by Mojtaba Sadegh, John Abatzoglou, and Mohammad Reza Alizadeh
15. Climate Change Hits Indebted Businesses Hardest, New Research Suggests, by Huan Kuang and Ying (Cathy) Zheng
Part III: Health and Environment
16. 8 Billion People: Four Ways Climate Change and Population Growth Combine to Threaten Public Health, with Global Consequences, by Maureen Lichtveld
17. North America's Summer of Wildfire Smoke: 2023 Was Only the Beginning, by Charles O. Stanier, Gregory Carmichael, and Peter S. Thorne
18. Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Can Be Deadly, with the Health Risk Together Worse Than Either Alone, by Erika Garcia, Mostafijur Rahman, and Rob Scot Mcconnell
19. Extreme Heat Is Particularly Hard on Older Adults?An Aging Population and Climate Change Put Ever More People at Risk, by Deborah Carr, Giacomo Falchetta, and Ian Sue Wing
20. Neurotoxins in the Environment Are Damaging Human Brain Health?And More Frequent Fires and Floods May Make the Problem Worse, by Arnold R. Eiser
21. Extreme Weather May Help Invasive Species Outcompete Native Animals?New Study, by Harry Shepherd
22. The Chickadee in the Snowbank: A "Canary in the Coal Mine" for Climate Change in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, by Benjamin Sonnenberg
23. Climate Change Is Already Forcing Lizards, Insects, and Other Species to Evolve?And Most Can't Keep Up, by Michael P. Moore and James T. Stroud
24. How a Thumb-Sized Climate Migrant with a Giant Crab Claw Is Disrupting the Northeast's Great Marsh Ecosystem, by David Samuel Johnson
25. The Heroic Effort to Save Florida's Coral Reef from Extreme Ocean Heat as Corals Bleach Across the Caribbean, by Michael Childress
Part IV: Housing and Education
26. 4 Reasons Affordable Housing Is Slow to Recover After Disasters Like Hurricanes, and What Communities Can Do About It, by Shannon Van Zandt
27. Human Exposure to Wildfires Has More Than Doubled in Two Decades?Who Is at Risk Might Surprise You, by Mojtaba Sadegh
28. When Homes Flood, Who Gets FEMA Buyouts and Where Do They Go? We Mapped Thousands of Moves and Found Distance and Race Both Play a Role, by James R. Elliott and Zheye (Jay) Wang
29. As Heat Waves Intensify, Tens of Thousands of US Classrooms Will Be Too Hot for Students to Learn In, by Paul Chinowsky
30. Coastal Home Buyers Are Ignoring Rising Flood Risks, Despite Clear Warnings and Rising Insurance Premiums, by Risa Palm and Toby W. Bolsen
31. Historic Flooding in Fort Lauderdale Was a Sign of Things to Come?A Look at Who Is Most at Risk and How to Prepare, by Smitha Rao
Part V: Solutions and Civic Response
32. Tornadoes, Wildfires, and Other Disasters Tell a Story of Vulnerability and Recovery in America, by Tricia Wachtendorf
33. Hurricanes, Wildfires, Tornadoes, Floods?Whatever Your Local Risk, Here's How to Be More Weather-Ready, by Erik Salna
34. Saving Lives from Extreme Heat: Lessons from the Deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Wave, by Jason Vogel and Brian G. Henning
35. How Ghost Streams and Redlining's Legacy Lead to Unfairness in Flood Risk, in Detroit and Elsewhere, by Jacob Napieralski
36. Wildfire Smoke Leaves Harmful Gases in Floors and Walls Air Purifiers Aren't Enough, New Study Shows, but You Can Clean It Up, by Delphine Farmer
37. Looking for a US 'Climate Haven' Away from Disaster Risks? Good Luck Finding One, by Julie Arbit, Brad Bottoms, and Earl Lewis
38. What Western States Can Learn from Native American Wildfire Management Strategies, by Kari Marie Norgaard and Sara Worl
39. Louisiana's Coastal Cultures Are Threatened by the Very Plans Meant to Save Their Wetlands and Barrier Islands, by Craig E. Colten
40. Keeping Your Cool in a Warming World: 8 Steps to Help Manage Eco-Anxiety, by Karen Magruder