When major storms hit Houston last spring and summer, losing power was a nightmare for residents, but for many, the financial fallout was just as devastating. A new report from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research finds that more than half of Houston-area workers lost income due to these storms, either because they couldn’t get to work or their jobs were forced to close. 

Climate change may lead to more precipitation and more intense floods. A new study shows that to understand the details of this relationship, it is important to distinguish between different types of rainfall and flood events - namely, between short-term events that occur on a time scale of hours, and longer-term events that last several days. In each case, climate change has a different impact.

Researchers at the University of Kansas led a study in which they gathered emissions data from hundreds of US cities that either conducted a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, or reported they employed sustainability staff. The cities that conducted an inventory showed a statistically significant reduction in emissions between 2010 and 2015, while those with sustainability staff did not. Little research had previously been done to gauge effects of such measures and show that addressing emissions is meaningful, researchers argue.