This winter devastating floods and mudslides in California killed at least 17 people, closed roads for days and caused thousands to be evacuated. Mud and water ripped through the hillside town of Montecito five years to the day after a 2018 slide there killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes. Between 1998 and 2017 landslides and mudslides affected nearly five million people worldwide and took the lives of more than 18,000, according to the World Health Organization. In contrast, wildfires and volcanic activity killed 2,400. In the U.S. alone, slides and other debris flows kill 25 to 50 people every year. Yet by and large we don't hear very much about hazardous slides. Tornadoes, volcanoes, wildfires and hurricanes get more headlines. They get more scientific attention, too. And climate change is making these slides more common. In fact, they are a prime example of the cascading effect of an altered climate: Drought leads to fires, which destroy the plants that anchor earth to hillsides, and that instability creates slides when rain finally comes. Drought isn't the only cause, either. Across Asia melting snow and ice are engorging rivers and undercutting hill slopes, making them prone to collapse. Last June a landslide after heavy rains in India killed 61 people. Why don't scientists pay more attention to this threat? The U.S. Geological Survey has a landslide research program, but most universities don't. ...
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