On Monday, the United Nations released a landmark climate report authored by 234 climate experts. The report cites detrimental effects of human activity on climate change and a resulting increase in extreme weather conditions — heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and hurricanes. Grim as their findings seem, scientists say it’s not too late to curb global warming and meet targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Still, extreme weather and natural disasters are a threat for the foreseeable future, one that communities need to prepare for.

Francisco Sánchez is the deputy emergency management coordinator and liaison to the County Judge for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in Harris County, Texas, the nation’s third-largest county. He’s an expert in disaster preparedness, public safety, emergency alerting and homeland security, and can speak about tactics to prepare for natural disasters and improve wireless emergency alerting technology.
 
Since 2004, Sánchez has served Harris County in emergency preparedness and response efforts. His recent work includes responses to the coronavirus pandemic, Winter Storm Uri in 2021, and severe flooding events, hurricanes and man-made threats. He led Super Bowl LI’s Traffic and Transportation Security Joint Information Center. In 2017, he served as the public information officer during Hurricane Harvey, the second-most costly hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since 1900. He's also a firefighter for the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department.
 
You can listen to Francisco Sánchez here.

Other sources of interest this week

On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned after a report from the state’s attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed 11 women.
 
Fatima Goss Graves is the president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, where she works on advocacy programs for income security, health and reproductive rights, education access, and workplace fairness for women. Graves is a co-founder of Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which connects those who experience sexual misconduct in the workplace with legal and public relations assistance.

Sources of the Week on the news

Akilah Carter-Francique spoke to WBUR about the sexualization of women in sports, and joined NPR’s Jonathan Franklin for a Twitter Spaces conversation on Black mental health and how women are navigating the Olympics. Briana Scurry spoke to KUOW about home field advantage in the Olympics. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro spoke to The Los Angeles Times about a report that found instances of racial profiling and inequality at the University of Southern California. Dr. Georges Benjamin spoke to Salon about the impact of the delta variant and consequences of coronavirus mutations. Fatima Goss Graves spoke to The Guardian about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s denial of sexual assault allegations. Precious Brady-Davis spoke to Dallas Voice about her memoir, I Have Always Been Me.

Thanks to all who have been utilizing sources.npr.org!