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Earth Sciences

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Essay
The Time to Prevent Shortfalls in Critical Materials Is Now
China's domination of the rare earth market is a matter of economic and national security concern. Existing plans to diversify the market and help the United States break its reliance on China likely don't go far enough or fast enough, and the clock is running.
Mar 20, 2023
Commentary
Why Not Space Mirrors?
Space mirrors can reflect solar radiation away from Earth, potentially helping to address the effects of climate change. But decisionmakers need more information about this technology to determine if it's a viable option.
Oct 19, 2022

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Tool
Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Fall 2020
This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about fall 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming winter season. A tool shows historic tropical cyclone tracks in the Mid-Atlantic from 1980 to 2020.
Dec 16, 2020
Journal Article
Health Effects of Heat Vulnerability in Rio De Janeiro: A Validation Model for Policy Applications
Here we investigate how to construct and validate a heat vulnerability index given uncertainty ranges in data for the city of Rio de Janeiro. We find that we can validate the heat vulnerability index against excess deaths during heat waves.
Nov 10, 2020
Tool
Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Summer 2020
This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about summer 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming fall season. A tool shows historic and projected changes in warm daily minimum temperatures.
Sep 17, 2020
Tool
Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Spring 2020
This climate summary aims to inform Mid-Atlantic policymakers and practitioners about spring 2020 weather, regional climate trends, and the upcoming summer season. A tool shows historic and projected changes in the timing of spring temperatures.
Jun 19, 2020
Commentary
What Can the Coronavirus Teach Us About Preparing for a Heat Wave?
The occurrence of a heat wave during the pandemic may be the clearest example of an overlapping disaster in the near term, but we'll likely see more and more overlapping disasters brought about by a changing climate.
Jun 8, 2020
Journal Article
The Social Structure of Climate Change Research and Practitioner Engagement: Evidence from California
This study thus examines the perspectives and experiences of researchers regarding practitioner engagement, drawing from an original survey of California's climate research community and supplemental interviews.
May 15, 2020
Journal Article
Economic Losses from Extreme Weather in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region: Spatially Differential Contributions of Climate Hazard and Socioeconomic Exposure and Vulnerability
A novel socio-climate hazard typology (SCT) was developed that integrates locally defined climate hazard and socioeconomic exposure and social vulnerability typologies. We regressed the SCT types and their constituent hazard and socioeconomic components against the cumulative economic loss from extreme weather events in order to attribute economic losses to different interactions among climate hazards, socioeconomic exposure, and vulnerability.
May 12, 2020
Report
Environment, Geography, and the Future of Warfare
Some of the most significant environmental and geographic trends that could affect U.S. national security and the future of warfare are rising global temperatures, the opening of the Arctic, sea level rise, extreme weather events, water scarcity, and increasing urbanization.
May 11, 2020
Journal Article
Association Between Long-term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Change in Quantitatively Assessed Emphysema and Lung Function
Long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants, especially O 3 , was significantly associated with increasing emphysema assessed quantitatively using CT imaging and with worsening lung function.
Apr 30, 2020
Journal Article
Vulnerability to the Cardiovascular Effects of Ambient Heat in Six U.S. Cities: Results from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
In a changing climate with extreme heat events, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which heat affects health and who is vulnerable. This knowledge will allow better targeting of assistance and interventions, which could help people adapt.
Apr 30, 2020
Tool
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Winter 2019-2020
This web-based tool aims to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders on Winter 2019-2020 climate, as well as projected future climate trends. An interactive tool shows percentage change in freeze-thaw days.
Mar 23, 2020
Journal Article
Quantifying the Relationship Between Streamflow and Climate Change in a Small Basin Under Future Scenarios
This study focuses on simulating change in streamflow within a small basin under future land use/cover change and climate scenarios by integrating logistic regression-CA-Markov model and the Soil Water Assessment Tool model.
Mar 6, 2020
Journal Article
Sustainable Development in International Markets: A Metrics-Based Case Study
This research-based case takes a sustainable development approach by exploring social, environmental, and economic characteristics of a top global economy and an emerging economy.
Jan 28, 2020
Dissertation
Indian Summer: Three Essays on Heatwave Vulnerability, Estimation and Adaptation
Explores how future heatwaves in India may vary over time and geography and estimate the impact they might have on mortality.
Dec 23, 2019
Tool
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Fall 2019
This climate summary informs Chesapeake Bay stakeholders on Fall 2019's climate and weather as well as projected climate trends. Hurricane damage in the Mid-Atlantic and changes in hurricane frequency and intensity are shown in interactive figures.
Dec 17, 2019
Q&A
The Science of Climate Policy: Q&A with Benjamin Preston
Benjamin Preston, a senior policy researcher and director of RAND's Community Health and Environmental Policy Program, specializes in climate risk and adaptation, disaster recovery, and resilience. In this Q&A, he discusses common misperceptions about climate change and how to decarbonize the U.S. economy.
Oct 22, 2019
Tool
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Summer 2019
This web-based tool aims to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders on Summer 2019 climate, as well as projected future climate trends. Analysis of extreme heat data are shown on interactive figures.
Sep 18, 2019
Essay
How Citizen Scientists Are Protecting Their Communities
After Superstorm Sandy, residents of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood cleaned up debris, pumped out basements, and teamed up with researchers to find out what was in the floodwater. They established safety protocols to help local businesses prevent their chemicals from escaping and wrote a guide to help other communities.
Aug 29, 2019
Periodical
RAND Review: September-October 2019
This issue spotlights a wargame designed for young women interested in national security; ethics in scientific research, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning; and community citizen science.
Aug 26, 2019
Journal Article
Climate Vulnerability Mapping: A Systematic Review and Future Prospects
This paper presents the results of a systematic review of 84 studies that map social vulnerability to climate impacts in order to identify common approaches to mapping, evaluate their strengths and limitations, and offer recommendations and future directions for the field.
Aug 6, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Earth Sciences

Topic Synonyms:
Geochemistry;
Geosciences

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Susan A. Resetar

Senior Operations Researcher

Susan Resetar (she/her) is a senior operations researcher with over 25 years of public policy research at the RAND Corporation, working in the areas of strategic planning, climate and environmental policy, disaster management and recovery, climate change risks to critical infrastructure and…
Joseph C. Chang

Senior Physical Scientist

Joseph Chang is a senior physical scientist at RAND. He has more than 30 years of experience in diverse technical areas, including border security, immigration, chemical security, transportation security, infrastructure protection, risk assessment, operational analysis, analysis of alternatives,…

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