1. Assess the Impacts of Climate Change
Firstly before action is made it is crucial to assess where efforts should be put in place by successfully being able to assess the impacts of climate change. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) have a legal obligation to carry out a National Climate Assessment (NCA) every four years, the most recent of these was carried out in May 2014. A team of 300 experts under the guidance of a 60 member Federal Advisory Committee worked together to create the report. The following bullet points provide an overview of some of the key changes in each of the twelve sections...
- Changing climate: sea ice is melting faster than climate models have predicted, US average temperature has increased by 1.3F to 1.9F in just over a century but the majority of this increase has been from 1970, increased green period of plants
- Extreme Weather: number of heat waves is increasing each year, most recent heatwaves in Texas (2011) and Midwest (2012) set records for highest average monthly temperatures, heaviest rainfalls on record are becoming heavier and more frequent, increasing flooding as a result, substantial increases have been seen in the majority of hurricane activity measures since 1980s, winter storms have also increased in frequency and intensity
- Future Climate: sea levels predicted to rise by 1 to 4 feet by 2100, increases in temperature, precipitation and changes in consecutive dry days
- Widespread Impacts: impacts severe when multiple systems fail for example Hurricane Katrina and it's devastating impacts on New Orleans or the loss of electrical power during heat waves, coral reef collapse due to effects of ocean acidification and rising temperatures
- Human Health: respiratory stress from poorer air quality, extreme weather leading to fatalities, heat stress, reemergence of diseases uncommon in america such a dengue fever
- Infrastructure: compromised by extreme weather and rising sea levels, an example was NYC's subway system saw the worst damage in 108 years from the Superstorm Sandy, extreme weather disruptions on transportation projected to increase, net electricity use projected to increase as hotter summers will increase electricity use
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| NYC Subway Source: NCA, 2014 |
- Water Supply: heavy precipitation events projected to increase, droughts projected to intensify, increased risk of flooding in many parts of the US
- Agriculture: climate disruptions are expected to increase over the next 25 years as they have done for the past 40 years, declines in crop and livestock production due to stress from weeds, diseases and pests, heat and drought damage will have increasing negative implications of crops
- Indigenous Peoples: impacts of climate change threaten Native peoples lifestyles including their access to crops and traditional foods that serve more than for sustenance (medical, economical uses etc)
- Ecosystems and Biodiversity: timing of biological events changing for example bud burst, increased species extinction risk, emission of CO2 continues to exceed ecosystem sink uptake by up to three times
- Oceans: rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification severely altering marine ecosystems, increasing disease in marine life and humans due to rising sea temperatures
- Responses: adaption needs to be specific for each case, vulnerability to climate change is affected by factors such as pollution and poverty (NCA, 2014)
The full report is very long winded and the most detailed report of it's kind and can be found here if you wish to take a more in depth look than the whirlwind summary above.
2. Support Climate-Resilient Investments
Obama's goals here include the establishment of a task force to advise the federal government on action that needs to be taken on a local scale to prepare for climate change, this helps specify changes on a local scale and will make investments into climate change protections more effective. The executive order for this task force was signed by Obama in November, 2013. The members of the task force include governors, county officials and tribal leaders from across the US. the recommendations that the task force have provided include the modernisation of current programs and removal of barriers to community resilience. (CEQ, 2014)
3. Rebuild and Learn from Superstorm Sandy
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| Both pictures taken from The Telegraph: full article entitles "50 dramatic images of destruction caused by superstorm and hurrciane Sandy" take a look for more images!
Hurricane Sandy struck the US in 2012 with winds reaching 74mph and caused $62 billion worth of damage in the US and a further $315 million worth of damage in the Caribbean. At it's peak 7.5 million people were without power. (DoSomething, 2012) In the affected areas, pilot schemes funded by the government were put in place in order to strengthen communities against the effects of future extreme weather. As of August last year the aforementioned task team submitted a rebuilding strategy that is being used as a model for communities across the United States.
4. Launch an Effort to Create Sustainable and Resilient Hospitals
5. Maintain Agricultural Productivity
6. Provide Tools for Climate Resilience
In 2014 the White House released a new Climate Data Initiative, allowing access to local data relating to coastal flooding, ecosystem vulnerability and the like. The aim was to bring together government data and make it accessible and to create resilience tools for the communities.
7. Reduce Risk of Droughts and Wildfires
One of Obama's aims is to create a greater deal of help and support for communities having to adapt to drier conditions. Current progress includes the launch of the Nation Drought Resilience Partnership - which aims to provide a greater wealth of web-based information to help communities be more aware of their current conditions and to host more frequent regional drought outlook forums.
That concludes the 7 main points of Obama's master plan on preparing for climate change - good job Obama!
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