Energy & Environment

When the Water Rises: Indonesia’s Floods Show the Power of Community Resilience

May 21, 2026

Growing up in Indonesia, flooding was a familiar, almost rhythmic, part of the rainy season. I vividly remember my family evacuating during a severe flood when I was in elementary school, wading through murky, waist-high water to reach higher ground. Even as a child, I understood something simple yet profound: floods do not discriminate. When the water rises, everyone is equally vulnerable, and survival depends on one another.

This memory returned with sharp clarity recently, as Indonesia faced another severe flooding crisis across several...

Atmospheric River Data: Key to Saving California’s Agricultural Sector

December 1, 2022

California’s agricultural sector is reliant on the increasingly unpredictable mega-storms, called atmospheric rivers, that can dump as much water as twenty Mississippi rivers. Climate change has created unprecedented extremes: in some years there may only be one atmospheric river, while in others California can be inundated by twenty. As a result, farmers may face one year of extreme drought and be forced to fallow their land, and in others their fields may be unprepared for a deluge of water. In order for players in the nation’s largest agricultural sector to prepare for the increasingly...