From the WashPost: Already, 18 weather disasters costing at least $1 billion each have hit the U.S. this year. 2021 is on pace to be among the most active and costliest years for such disasters, which are becoming more frequent
From the WashPost: Already, 18 weather disasters costing at least $1 billion each have hit the U.S. this year. 2021 is on pace to be among the most active and costliest years for such disasters, which are becoming more frequent
More expensive – sort of. If you ignore inflation. Several recent papers have shown that the real costs of disasters (adjusted for inflation) – both in property loss and in lives lost – has decreased. Property losses are still too high, mainly because of our perverse practice of putting assets in harm’s way! More frequent – absolutely not. Work by Pielke and others has shown no significant change in either frequency or intensity of storms. Just as WaPo – and esp. the NYTimes – have admittedly given up on enforcing journalistic standards, I’ve given up on them as a reliable source of information.