Dangers & Disasters

Introduction

There are many things that pose dangers to individuals, communities, or even entire species. Some of these dangers can combine to create even more dangerous and dire situations. 

This page introduces some of the dangers we face on this planet, either as part of Earth's natural cycles (such as floods and wild fires) or due to human activities (such as antibiotic resistance, global warming, and PFAS).

Currently this page lists dangers and disasters alphabetically, since we haven't yet compared or quantified them yet. Depending on your geographical region, some dangers or disasters may make a more frequent impact, while others may not occur at all (for example hurricanes, tornadoes, land slides and earthquakes).

Types of Dangers & Disasters

Antibiotic & Drug Resistance

Currently the majority of antibiotics are being used by the livestock industry, not to prevent illness, but to artificially grow animals faster than their bodies can handle. This is causing numerous problems for the animals, but antibiotic resistance specifically means that life-saving drugs will not be able to do their job when people need surgeries or catch dangerous infections. 

Some solutions can include the following:

Earthquakes

Plastic Bottle Buildings

Rebuild it Better: Construction From Recycled Plastic Bottles Proven to Withstand 9.8 Earthquake

8:17 minute video. "The film explores the method of ecological construction and examines how nylon-6 fishnet is used to replace steel within the structural slab and recycled plastic PET Bottles packed with earth are used to replace conventional baked bricks. Capable of withstanding up to 9.8 on the Richter scale the seismic testing of the method of construction is also examined."

Extinction

Global Warming / Climate Change


"Overall, Earth was about 2.45 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.36 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than in the late 19th-century (1850-1900) preindustrial average. The 10 most recent years are the warmest on record." - NASA


This might not sound like a lot, but organisms have evolved to live within specific temperature ranges, and ranges outside of these norms can actually cause cells to stop functioning correctly. In the case of humans, we suffer from heat stroke, and phytoplankton (which form the base of ocean food webs while producing around 70% of Earth's oxygen) are sensitive to fairly subtle temperature changes.


Heat Island Effect

This phenomenon is caused when artificial substances such as metals and concrete which are commonly used to build communities absorb excess solar energy. During the day this means more heat is absorbed, creating dangerously high temperatures in cities and similar space, then slowly release that heat at night when the area should be much cooler. Cities tend to be several degrees hotter than surrounding farms or wild spaces. During heat waves, the heat island effect can made communities much more dangerous, especially for people who don't have or can't afford cooling systems.

Heat Waves

These are generally caused by prolonged time periods without any cooling rain. They are becoming more frequent, more extreme, and longer lasting thanks to climate change, thanks to increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Increased Fire Risk

Higher temperatures and drier conditions make fires and wild fires much more common. In Australia, higher ground temperatures in livestock pastures created previously-unseen conditions that melted a farmer's thermometer.

Wet Bulb Effect

This refers to the dangerous combination of high temperatures (which can cause heat stroke) plus high humidity which reduces or eliminates the human body's ability to use sweet to cool off. This phenomenon is already claiming lives in traditionally humid regions, but as climate change progresses, this will affect more communities. 

Though heat waves are generally most dangerous for the very young and very old, the wet bulb effect can also kill perfectly healthy people of any age.

Light Pollution

Light pollution is a community-wide problem, where neighbors and businesses can cause pollution for one another at the small scale, but communities can pollute the sky for other communities. When this gets out of control, light pollution grows to the point that communities through an entire island or country may lose the ability to see the night sky and connect with their heritages.

Light pollution is often overlooked as a source of energy waste, but when lights are kept on all night (while potential users are all asleep), or turned upward where they become blinding glare to drivers or cast off into space where they block out the stars, about 35% of outdoor lighting is estimated to be wasted by poor orientation.

One of the biggest contributors to light pollution is the inappropriate design and direction of public streetlights, but the guide to the right (or above if you are on a phone), explains how these problems can be fixed or avoided. The article also presents a range of existing street and park light designs that not only elegant, but also help reduce light pollution in their communities.

For more information about light pollution and eco-friendly lighting solutions, please click the buttons below.

Fire & Wildfires

Small fires can quickly turn into massive fires that impact entire communities and/or habitats.

Climate Change & More Fires

As climate change heats up we've been seeing more fires, and these are often more extreme, especially when coupled with drought conditions. 

Droughts & Fires

Droughts can also make fires more difficult to tackle due to the drier materials in affected landscapes, and fires can add to drought stress including the massive use of precious water.

Deforestation & Wildfires

In some countries fires are intentionally used as a tool to quickly deforest large areas, to replace trees with with grazing land. In other countries fires tend to be accidental (such as those caused by cigarette waste, fireworks, and bonfires) but never the less contribute to habitat loss. Fires can also be started naturally by extremely hot weather or lightning strikes.

Fires & Energy Security

Fires and energy grids can impact one another. Downed power lines or exploding equipment can spark fires, but fires can also take down power grids. This is a major reason for rising energy costs in places like California, where increasingly frequent fires take down infrastructure, which must then be rebuilt and repaired. Solutions such as putting powerlines underground are more expensive than above-ground infrastructure, however this investment can help protect a community's energy infrastructure even during serious events.

Invasives & Wildfires

Invasive plants can burn more easily or even more intensely than native species. Forest that are historically fire-resistant can easily be burned when invasive vine species help understory flames climb up into the forest canopies.

Invasive animals also pose a fire risk. For example gypsy moths kill off trees, leaving them as dry kindling to create fires. Other species have impacted electric wires and boxes, causing serious fires.

Food Security

Food security is a growing concern world wide, especially for communities who see shortages due to poverty, severe weather and climate emergencies, water shortages, pandemic shut downs, or even violent conflicts.

"According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, some 828 million people, almost one in ten, are currently undernourished, regularly not getting enough food in order to lead an active and healthy life. At the same time, agriculture is producing more food than ever before, both in total numbers as well as on a per capita basis, despite the fact that the world population is growing. If the harvest was used entirely and as effectively as possible as food, it could already feed 12 to 14 billion people." - https://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/hunger-in-times-of-plenty.html 

Click the Food Security button to learn more about some of the major causes food shortages, and appropriate steps that can be taken to help end this problem.

Click the Food & Carbon button to learn more about which food choices produce the most emissions vs which ones help sequester the most. This can help ensure cleaner air for communities, boost nutrition, and help improve people's health, since many of the worst polluting food products are also some of the least efficient and least healthy.

Housing

Private Equity Causing Homelessness

This One Thing Is Making Your Life More Expensive 5:09 minute video which explains how the private equity boom is causing the current housing crisis, which in turn is putting more people on the streets. 

Fires & Floods Destroy Homes Until People Can't Afford to Rebuild or Move

Sea Level Rise & Housing

"Between 470 to 760 million people could lose their homes to rising sea levels if carbon emissions meet or exceed 4°C of warming — the direction in which business-as-usual is heading — with unstoppable rises to occur over centuries, according to a new report and searchable interactive maps published by Climate Central.

Aggressive carbon reductions resulting in 2°C warming could bring the number as low as 130 million people, the report shows. The analysis comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Paris next month for COP21, which many hope will result in the first international, legally-binding climate change treaty." - https://sustainablebrands.com/read/new-metrics/report-rising-sea-levels-could-make-half-a-billion-homeless 

Evidence- Based Solutions for Homelessness

Buyout Programs for Fire, Flood, & Seal Level Rise Victims

Click the Flooding & Sea Level Rise button to learn more about the dangers of flooding and sea level rise, about the benefits and problems of buyout programs, what can make buyout programs more fair and effective, as well as which places currently have buyout programs.

Eco-Friendly Building Solutions

Floating Homes

Mental Health, Conspiracies, & Misinformation

If we cannot be clear-minded, with a firm understanding of logic and reality, then we will struggle and fail to make effective strategies to protect ourselves, loved ones, communities, or our planet.

Misinformation and Conspiracies

These are weapons being used to slow down humanity's progress in tackling climate change, habitat loss, over-extraction, pollution, and human rights violations. Many eco-focused projects are hampered when misguided people believe conspiracies instead of science, slowing or even killing projects like solar or wind farms before they are even built. One way to tackle this issue is through education at a young age, with a focus on STEM and logic skills so that people don't fall prey to sketchy science or bald-faced lies.

Mental Health

We're dealing with incredible stress globally from geopolitical and climate problems to conspiracy cults and corporate destruction, it honestly feels like we can't get a break any more. There are however things we can do to help protect ourselves from stressors, reduce our stress responses and take care of ourselves. 

Our Mental Health page is the first page we have on this topic, with various resources, but this will probably expand over time.

Green prescriptions are an emerging tool for human wellness, and greenbelts or greenways are an excellent solution to many environmental problems, but can also double as a perfect setting for green prescriptions or other wellness activities.

Narcissism

Narcissism is estimated to be present in 1 out of ever 6 people, and has negative impacts not only for the narcissist but the people and environment around the narcissist. Narcissistic abuse can cause severe mental health and even physical repercussions for people who have to live with or frequently interact with them. Even years or decades after escaping from one, you may suffer from decreased feelings of self-worth or confidence, which can reduce our belief that we can have a positive impact on big issues like climate change or local laws

They also have a dangerous tendency towards adopting conspiracy beliefs and trying to spread them, making them more likely to get sucked into climate change denial, anti-vax conspiracies, and political cults that pose a danger to people as well as our planet.

Tools for Communities

Resources

North America

USA


Organizations

North America

USA

The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.

Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.

We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.

To learn about our policies, read our A 10-Point Platform on Climate Change."

New York

Maps

International

Grants & Funding

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