We study disaster preparedness, and ‘climate change’ is far too mild to describe the existential threat we face.

When Senator Kamala Harris was asked about climate change during the Democratic debate in June, she did not mince words. “I don’t even call it climate change,” she said. “It’s a climate crisis.”

She’s right – and we, at Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, wish more people would call this crisis what it is.