Record number of billion-dollar disasters shows the limits of America’s defenses

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🗞️ Driving the news: The United States has recorded 23 billion-dollar disasters in 2023, a historic high for this point in the year, underscoring the country's mounting climate challenges
• Noteworthy events encompass the devastating Maui fire, Hurricane Idalia's assault on Florida, and a Minnesota storm that produced unnaturally large hail

🔭 The context: Amplified by fossil fuel consumption, climate change boosts air and water temperatures, strengthening hurricanes, increasing rainfall, and accelerating wildfires
• Despite vast investments in resilience since 2012's Hurricane Sandy, the mounting scale of disasters highlights the limits of these efforts

🌎 Why does it matter for the planet: The consistent escalation in disasters is more than just a signal of global warming: it's a testament to the far-reaching consequences of our actions on the planet

⏭️ What's next: The Biden administration is bolstering resilience spending, urging stricter building codes, and even designating almost 500 communities as “disaster resilience zones"

💬 One quote: "Maybe we can’t live everywhere that we’re living." (Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design)

📈 One stat: From just three billion-dollar disasters in 1980, the US saw a surge to 22 such events in 2020, and 2023 has already surpassed that record

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