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New Government Report Warns of Cascading System Failures Caused By Climate Change

         

submitted by Margery Schab

(PLEASE SEE LINKS TO REPORTS WITHIN THIS POST)

huffingtonpost.com - by Kate Sheppard - March 6, 2014

WASHINGTON -- From roads and bridges to power plants and gas pipelines, American infrastructure is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to a pair of government reports released Thursday.

The reports are technical documents supporting the National Climate Assessment, a major review compiled by 13 government agencies that the U.S. Global Change Research Program is expected to release in April. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory put together the reports, which warn that climate-fueled storms, flooding and droughts could cause "cascading system failures" unless there are changes made to minimize those effects.

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The Infrastructure Security Partnership

tisp.org

In a rapid response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, federal and state agencies, corporations and professional societies met to discuss how they could collaborate and coordinate to improve the security of the built environment of the United States.

In a unanimous conclusion to their meeting, The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) was established as a non-profit partnership to facilitate a forum for advancing practice and policy for the protection of our nation’s critical infrastructure.

On Nov. 20, 2001, Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, Commanding General and Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, signed the Organizational Charter drafted by the partnership’s steering committee consisting of representatives from the American Institute of Architects, the Society of American Military Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the Associated General Contractors of America, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Facilities Council, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

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E. Coli, Oil Spills and Airlifts: Fallout from Colorado Flooding Continues

cnn.com - by Greg Botelho and Elwyn Lopez - September 20, 2013

(CNN) -- Efforts continued Friday to cope with fallout from flooding that''s rocked the Rocky Mountain state -- including more airlifts of stranded residents, discoveries of oil spills and a plea to one town's residents to stay away until E. coli is cleared from their tap water.

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Environmental Reporting Guidelines: Including Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Guidance

submitted by Albert Gomez

gov.uk - June 12, 2013

This document is designed to help companies in complying with the greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting regulation, a requirement from the Climate Change Act 2008; and all organisations with voluntary reporting on a range of environmental matters, including voluntary GHG reporting and through the use of key performance indicators (KPIs).

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Resilience Alliance

There are many definitions of resilience from simple deterministic views of resilience anchored in Newtonian mechanics to far more dynamic views of resilience from a systems perspective, including insights from quantum mechanics and the sciences of complexity.  One baseline perspective of resilience sees it in terms of the viability of socio-ecological systems as the foundation for sustainability.  For those that are ready to look beyond resilience as the ability to return to the "normal state" before a disaster, take a look at:

http://www.resalliance.org/

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Mesh Cities

 

What does it take to become a smart city?  Why are mesh cities important to sustainability?

 

For more information:

<http://www.meshcities.com/>

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Social Media in Emergency Response: Transforming the Response Enterprise

 

2011 Social Media in Emergency Management Camp
By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media have the power to revolutionize emergency management. Yet, many challenges
including guidelines for use by response agencies, demonstration of value, and characterization of reliability
must be addressed if the potential of social media is to be fully realized in emergency response and relief efforts in the United States. Please join us for this presentation and panel discussion, which will be chaired by Dr. Clarence Wardell of CNA and will feature findings from the report, 2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise.

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Guardian: Maps and Lists of Occupy Everywhere Sites

 

The below Guardian article provides a map and lists of where Occupy Everywhere protests are emerging.  They are primarily, but not exclusively in the U.S. and Europe, in countries where the economy is in significant decline and inequities are significant.  In most of these places, the youth fear that their future will be worse than their parents, due to the greed of a global elite insensitive to the destruction they have caused economically and environmentally.

 

The list includes 951 cities in 82 countries.

 

To see the story and full list, go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map

 

 

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IT and Information Sharing Environments for Community Health Resilience

Information Technology (IT) and Information Sharing Environments (ISEs) are crucial to the evolution of community health resilience.  Most people working to improve community health resilience do not understand the nuances of Information Sharing Environments, and how the rapid shifts in IT, mobile devices, social media, cloud computing, peer to peer parallel processing, smart grids, and the linking of millions of people, mobile devices, computers, and sensors are creating a societal mind, which is transforming community health resilience and the health and human security of Americans.

If you have thoughts on these topics, please comment within this collaboratory thread.

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