Author: Reporter

Months after a catastrophic fire burned more than 2,200 homes in Hawaii, some property owners are getting more bad news that their property insurance will not be renewed because their insurance company has deemed the risk too high. It is a problem that has played out in states across the U.S. as climate change and increasing development has raised the risks of wildfires and other natural disasters damaging communities. Insurance providers, state regulators, and researchers are grappling with how to keep the insurance companies in business while keeping residents and their properties insured and protected. “I think most of...

The melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating. The snow covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s, according to a new study. Researchers meticulously tracked snow levels in the nearly 1,500-square mile icy expanse going back to 1948 with added data back to the 18th century. It slowly shriveled from its peak size at the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, but then that melt rate sped up about 10 years ago, according to a study in July 2 Nature Communications. “What’s happening is...

A Russian propaganda campaign backed by the Kremlin that spread online disinformation in the United States and was boosted by artificial intelligence has been disrupted, the Justice Department said on July 9. The internet operation as part of an ongoing effort to sow discord across America through the creation of fictitious social media profiles that purport to belong to authentic Americans but are actually designed to advance the aims of the Russian government, including by spreading disinformation about its war with Ukraine. U.S. officials said the scheme was organized in 2022 after a senior editor at RT, a Russian-state-funded...