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Anthropogenic climate change is projected to drive increases in climate extremes and climate-sensitive ecosystem disturbances such as wildfire with enormous economic impacts. Understanding spatial and temporal patterns of risk to property values from climate-sensitive disturbances at national and regional scales and from multiple disturbances is urgently needed to inform risk management and policy efforts. Here, we combine models for three major climate-sensitive disturbances (i.e., wildfire, climate stress-driven tree mortality, and insect-driven tree mortality), future climate projections of these disturbances, and high-resolution property values data to quantify the spatiotemporal exposure of property values to disturbance across the contiguous United States (US). We find that property values exposed to these climate-sensitive disturbances increase sharply in future climate scenarios, particularly in existing high-risk regions of the western US, and that novel exposure risks emerge in some currently lower-risk regions such as the southeast and Great Lakes regions. Climate policy that drives emissions towards low-to-moderate climate futures avoids large increases in disturbance risk exposure compared to high emissions scenarios. Our results provide an important large-scale assessment of climate-sensitive disturbance risk to property values to help inform land management and climate adaptation efforts.

 

We assessed sociodemographic disparities in basic service disruptions caused by Winter Storm Uri in Texas. We collected data through a bilingual telephone survey conducted in July 2021 (n  = 753). Being Black, having children, and renting one’s residence were associated with longer power outage durations; being Black was also associated with longer water outages. Our findings highlight the need to plan for and ameliorate inequitable service outages and their attendant health risks in climate change–related extreme weather events such as Uri. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(1):30–34. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307110 ) 

Having a diverse workforce in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) fields is essential for the United States to remain competitive in the global economy and to create a more just society. Faculty‐mentored undergraduate research experiences have been identified as a high‐impact practice for encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to pursue STEMM education and careers. Despite extensive research examining factors influencing the effectiveness of mentor−mentee relationships, there is still limited understanding of how differences or similarities in the social identities of mentors and mentees, which we term mentor−mentee discordance, impact undergraduates’ research experiences and outcomes. In this perspective, we propose that mentor−mentee discordance should be conceptualized as a multidimensional, continuous construct and suggest a global index to measure varying degrees of discordance in mentoring relationships. We also offer a conceptual model that incorporates the Discordance Index to systematize the understanding of the effects of discordant mentoring relationships on student development across social contexts and over time. Finally, we provide recommendations for future researchers, STEMM educators, and program directors who are interested in using the Discordance Index.