Are We Ready for the Next Superstorm?

Francesca Lyman asks "What does Hurricane Sandy tell us about coping with human health and consequences of climate change?"

Francesca Lyman asks "What does Hurricane Sandy tell us about coping with human health and consequences of climate change?"
"Cancer death rates among African American men declined faster than those of white men in the last decade, even though overall survival rates for black men and women remained the lowest of all racial groups for most types of cancer, according to a recent report."
"The Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended against a proposed land exchange that would allow a 20-mile road through the heart of Alaska's pristine Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, pleasing environmentalists who bitterly opposed it but angering state leaders who say the road is a public safety priority for nearby residents."
"Superstorm Sandy was a dramatic preview of what cities on the Eastern Seaboard might expect as climate change intensifies, but 12 small, indigenous communities on Alaska's coast provide the most extreme example of how global warming can wreak havoc."
"Appalachian coal producers worry about new environmental laws as poverty and pollution rise in some mining regions."
"We’ve come a long way since the days when kids played in clouds of DDT, gas stations sold leaded gasoline, and smoking near youngsters was commonplace."
Climate change is already creating refugees along the coastal lowlands of Bangladesh.
"In south Texas, where the Rio Grande divides the United States from Mexico, three of the last remaining sections of border fence -- approved more than five years ago -- remain unbuilt."
"No part of the U.S. will escape the harsh consequences of climate change, which has already begun to cause trouble from Alaska to Florida, and from Maine to Hawaii, and which will worsen as the century goes on. But according to a report released January 28, the nation’s coastlines -- Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific and Great Lakes -- are likely to get the worst of it."