Over the past summer, Americans were forced to face the realities of climate change as the country was struck by multiple, overlapping natural disasters. In addition to managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cities and towns across the nation confronted wildfires, hurricanes, oppressive heat waves, and flooding.
According to a September study by The Washington Post, nearly one in three Americans live in counties which were affected by federally declared disasters in the summer of 2021. These repeated disasters have enacted a high human cost, with at least 388 Americans dying from heat waves alone so far this year.
New forms of “rapid attribution analysis” — which use computer modeling to compare events in our actual atmosphere to ones in a hypothetical climate without human emissions — have confirmed that recent weather events were exacerbated by climate change. For example, scientists have shown that the deadly heat wave which disrupted the Pacific Northwest in June had a 1-in-1000 chance of occurring in a normal year.
Public opinion does not fully reflect the reality of these scientific findings. As of April 2021, a Gallup poll reported that while 88% of Americans believe that global warming will eventually affect humans, opinions on whether or not global warming has already begun to take effect are dramatically split by party lines. Eighty-two percent of Democrats believe that the effects of global warming have begun, compared to 29% of Republicans. Members of the two parties also assess their own risk differently, with 67% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans believing that global warming will pose a threat within their own lifetimes. Although this survey was conducted before a summer of extreme weather, the study noted that polling has remained stable in the last five years.
Opinions on America’s actions concerning climate change are also split by ideology. In 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 67% of conservatives agree that the government is doing “a good job” on climate change, whereas only 26% of liberals agree. These wide-ranging partisan opinions on climate change constitute a significant barrier to implementing policy. This presents a challenge, since lawmakers from both major political parties will have to work together to surpass these divisions and implement a sound climate agenda.
Such government action — which rises above party lines — is crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change. The most recent report from the International Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that many of the effects of climate change — such as sea level rise and changes in regional precipitation — are irreversible at this point in time. Therefore, the U.S. government must invest in infrastructure and strategies that account for a hotter climate, which may be wetter or drier than current infrastructure is capable of supporting.
Previous infrastructure investments have already proved effective in recent months. In the years after Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implemented a $14.5 billion flood protection system for the city of New Orleans, which includes strengthened levees, seawalls, and other barriers. This system was tested in September this year, when Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana exactly 16 years after Katrina.
Although Hurricane Ida was a smaller storm than Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ flood protection performed successfully against Ida’s storm surge, leading to reduced flooding. In other less protected communities such as LaPlace, Louisiana, inadequate flood protection led to flooding and displacement. LaPlace’s levee is scheduled to be completed in 2024, as one of many ongoing efforts to bolster coastal Louisiana’s hurricane defenses.
While New Orleans’ flood defenses protected the city from Ida’s storm surge, widespread and long-lasting power outages demonstrated the dangers of inadequate infrastructure. Within Entergy New Orleans — the city’s biggest power provider and one of the country’s only utilities supervised by a city council — mismanagement and previous failures to invest in upgrades contributed to problems across the company’s grid.
The victories and weaknesses of New Orleans’ infrastructure reveal the importance of building resilient cities to prepare for an uncertain future. Repeated flooding has plagued the New York City subway system in recent months, highlighting the need for further mitigation measures. Building climate-focused infrastructure must be a priority at every level of the American government in order to adequately protect communities.
Within Congress, there has never been a more important time to pass comprehensive infrastructure legislation with sufficient funding for communities to invest in resiliency and mitigation measures. The current infrastructure bill makes progress, in part by assigning more than $60 billion to rail systems, which is more necessary than ever to help subway systems address increased flooding. Although this is helpful, climate infrastructure requires a significantly greater investment. In England, London’s planned infrastructure to reduce flooding and protect property — including 140 subway stations — is projected to cost at least $4.6 billion.
While such financial commitments to infrastructure may seem daunting, other forms of innovation may help protect people and property. In particular, organizational changes within the government have the potential to make a significant difference for American citizens. For instance, the immediate government response to Hurricane Ida reflects key strategic shifts since Hurricane Katrina. Since 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been updated by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, and the Disaster Recovery Reform Act. These acts improved communication within different levels of government, strengthened FEMA’s ability to assist impacted communities, and helped citizens effectively access resources in the wake of disasters.
FEMA is not the only government agency adapting to the climate crisis, either. The new Office of Climate Change and Healthy Equity — created by President Biden within the Department of Health and Human Services — will address the impact of heatwaves, wildfires, and other extreme weather events on human health.
Climate change will continue to produce extreme weather, and thus America must adapt to a “new normal” by updating infrastructure and responding to the diverse and multifaceted effects of global warming. This effort cannot fall to FEMA alone, although disaster mitigation and relief will be important components of this effort. Climate change will affect the economy, health, infrastructure, land, and national security. As a result, comprehensive government action will be necessary to meet these challenges.
Image by Kelly Sikkema is licensed under the Unsplash License.
