These blog posts are a compilation of Irwin’s op-eds, publications, media interviews, and a variety of other features.
The massive fire catastrophe in LA will be remembered as one of the most devastating disasters in modern U.S. history. Having worked on the prevention of, response to, and recovery from megadisasters for many years, I have watched how the devastation of such events impacts communities and people, especially people with important vulnerabilities like chronic illnesses, mobility challenges, and other conditions, including people who are economically fragile.
It was our 5th trip to Ukraine. But this time, we traveled with legendary singer/ social activist Joan Baez. This was no coincidence. Fast forward to our most recent trip to a country at war, where there is fierce combat in the east and, for the most part, in western Ukraine, people living in some of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
China’s decision to grow its nuclear weapons arsenal to be on a par with or potentially more advanced than that of the U.S. could not be worse news. I fear that the danger of an intentional or inadvertent launch of global nuclear war will soon be greater than it was when the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 put us on the brink of a nuclear apocalypse.
