Environmental disasters generally fall into two categories: natural and manmade. The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 destroyed flora and fauna across hundreds of square miles and partially blocked out the sun in areas where sunlight is essential to ...

Forty years ago, the world’s worst nuclear power disaster exploded into history at the Soviet Union’s Chornobyl nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine. The ensuing cover-up and clean-up operation made Chornobyl a byword for dereliction and mismanagement.

From tornadoes and hurricanes to wildfires and floods, weather and climate disasters cause billions of dollars in damage, on top of their steep human toll. Those costs could rise sharply in the years ahead, finds a new study by University of Chicago Asst.