Natural disasters could cost 20 percent more by 2040 due to climate change

Climate change could add more than 20 percent, or $100 billion annually, to the cost of extreme weather events around the world by 2040, according to a new analysis by researchers at Cambridge University.
Mangrove forests provide cause for conservation optimism, for now

More than a decade ago, academics warned that mangrove forests were being lost faster than almost any other ecosystem, including coral reefs and tropical rainforests. But things are looking better.
Study examines coastal erosion, drawbacks of standard setback requirements

Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care Excerpts; Research on the Big Island’s coastal erosion, led by a University of Hawaii at Hilo graduate student, is being used to shape county planning policies. Hawaii County is the only county in the state that hasn’t done research to understand the island’s shoreline changes. Despite the island’s differing […]
Series of coastal engineering projects underway amid race to save Waikiki Beach

A $700,000 — 95-foot-long sand bag groin made of 83, 10,000-pound bags of sand — installed in November to restore the coastline and slow erosion at Kuhio Beach, is to be followed by another more expensive project.
Can these giant dams keep Europe from drowning?

A plan for a giant a 400-mile enclosure, The Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED), would cut off the North and Baltic Seas from the Atlantic Ocean to protect 15 European countries from those rising seas. The project’s scale is unprecedented. Its cost phenomenal. But it’s still cheaper than all the alternatives—including doing nothing.
On rising Great Lakes, backyards are disappearing overnight

Document and near-record water ranges in all 5 Nice Lakes are inflicting tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in injury from Minnesota to New York as eroding shorelines and monster waves trigger properties to plummet into the water.
Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar

Some beaches supply their own sunshine regardless of what’s in the sky above. Nungwi, on Zanzibar’s northernmost tip, has the kind of white coral sand that seems to glow, even after nightfall.
Climate change could kill all of Earth’s coral reefs by 2100, scientists warn

Climate change could destroy almost all of Earth’s coral reef habitats by 2100, according to new research.
20,000 deaths since 1999: New report reveals deadly impact of extreme weather in France

France is one of the most exposed countries in the world to the risks of extreme weather, a new report has found, with nearly 20,000 deaths linked to heatwaves, floods and storms in the last 20 years.