Let's prepare for our new climate

Set aside the politics: Data shows that climate change is happening, measurably, now. And as Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for the new climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the world -- local examples of thinking ahead.

This is the skyline
of my hometown, New Orleans.

It was a great place to grow up,

but it's one of the most vulnerable
spots in the world.

Half the city is already below sea level.

In 2005, the world watched as New Orleans

and the Gulf Coast were
devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

One thousand, eight hundred and thirty-six
people died. Nearly 300,000 homes were lost.

These are my mother's, at the top --

although that's not her car,

it was carried there
by floodwaters up to the roof --

and that's my sister's, below.

Fortunately, they and other
family members got out in time,

but they lost their homes,
and as you can see,

just about everything in them.

Other parts of the world
have been hit by storms

in even more devastating ways.

In 2008, Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath

killed 138,000 in Myanmar.

Climate change is affecting
our homes, our communities,

our way of life. We should be preparing

at every scale and at every opportunity.

This talk is about being
prepared for, and resilient to

the changes that are coming
and that will affect our homes

and our collective home, the Earth.

The changes in these times
won't affect us all equally.

There are important
distributional consequences,

and they're not what you
always might think.

In New Orleans, the elderly
and female-headed households

were among the most vulnerable.

For those in vulnerable,
low-lying nations,

how do you put a dollar value
on losing your country

where you ancestors are buried?
And where will your people go?

And how will they cope in a foreign land?

Will there be tensions over immigration,

or conflicts over competition
for limited resources?

It's already fueled conflicts
in Chad and Darfur.

Like it or not, ready
or not, this is our future.

Sure, some are looking
for opportunities in this new world.

That's the Russians planting
a flag on the ocean bottom

to stake a claim for minerals
under the receding Arctic sea ice.

But while there might be
some short-term individual winners,

our collective losses
will far outweigh them.

Look no further than the insurance
industry as they struggle

to cope with mounting catastrophic losses

from extreme weather events.

The military gets it.
They call climate change

a threat multiplier that could
harm stability and security,

while governments
around the world are evaluating

how to respond.

So what can we do? How can
we prepare and adapt?

I'd like to share three sets
of examples, starting with

adapting to violent storms and floods.

In New Orleans, the I-10 Twin Spans,

with sections knocked
out in Katrina, have been rebuilt

21 feet higher to allow
for greater storm surge.

And these raised
and energy-efficient homes

were developed by Brad
Pitt and Make It Right

for the hard-hit Ninth Ward.

The devastated church
my mom attends has been

not only rebuilt higher,
it's poised to become

the first Energy Star
church in the country.

They're selling electricity
back to the grid

thanks to solar panels,
reflective paint and more.

Their March electricity
bill was only 48 dollars.

Now these are examples of New
Orleans rebuilding in this way,

but better if others act proactively
with these changes in mind.

For example, in Galveston,
here's a resilient home

that survived Hurricane Ike,

when others on neighboring
lots clearly did not.

And around the world,
satellites and warning systems

are saving lives in flood-prone
areas such as Bangladesh.

But as important as technology
and infrastructure are,

perhaps the human element
is even more critical.

We need better planning
and systems for evacuation.

We need to better understand
how people make decisions

in times of crisis, and why.

While it's true that many who died in Katrina
did not have access to transportation,

others who did refused to leave
as the storm approached,

often because available
transportation and shelters

refused to allow them to take their pets.

Imagine leaving behind your own pet
in an evacuation or a rescue.

Fortunately in 2006, Congress passed

the Pet Evacuation and Transportation
Standards Act (Laughter)

— it spells "PETS" — to change that.

Second, preparing for heat and drought.

Farmers are facing challenges
of drought from Asia

to Africa, from Australia to Oklahoma,

while heat waves linked
with climate change

have killed tens of thousands of people

in Western Europe in 2003,
and again in Russia in 2010.

In Ethiopia, 70 percent, that's 7-0
percent of the population,

depends on rainfall for its livelihood.

Oxfam and Swiss Re, together
with Rockefeller Foundation,

are helping farmers like this
one build hillside terraces

and find other ways to conserve water,

but they're also providing for insurance
when the droughts do come.

The stability this provides
is giving the farmers

the confidence to invest.

It's giving them access
to affordable credit.

It's allowing them to become
more productive so that

they can afford their own insurance
over time, without assistance.

It's a virtuous cycle,
and one that could be replicated

throughout the developing world.

After a lethal 1995 heat wave

turned refrigerator
trucks from the popular

Taste of Chicago festival
into makeshift morgues,

Chicago became a recognized leader,

tamping down on the urban
heat island impact

through opening cooling centers,

outreach to vulnerable
neighborhoods, planting trees,

creating cool white
or vegetated green roofs.

This is City Hall's green roof, next to Cook
County's [portion of the] roof,

which is 77 degrees Fahrenheit
hotter at the surface.

Washington, D.C., last year,
actually led the nation

in new green roofs installed,
and they're funding this in part

thanks to a five-cent tax on plastic bags.

They're splitting the cost
of installing these green roofs

with home and building owners.

The roofs not only temper
urban heat island impact

but they save energy, and therefore money,

the emissions that cause climate change,

and they also reduce stormwater runoff.

So some solutions to heat can
provide for win-win-wins.

Third, adapting to rising seas.

Sea level rise threatens coastal
ecosystems, agriculture,

even major cities. This
is what one to two meters

of sea level rise looks
like in the Mekong Delta.

That's where half
of Vietnam's rice is grown.

Infrastructure is going to be affected.

Airports around the world
are located on the coast.

It makes sense, right? There's open space,

the planes can take off and land
without worrying about

creating noise or avoiding tall buildings.

Here's just one example,
San Francisco Airport,

with 16 inches or more of flooding.

Imagine the staggering cost of protecting

this vital infrastructure with levees.

But there might be some changes in store

that you might not imagine. For example,

planes require more runway for takeoff

because the heated, less dense
air, provides for less lift.

San Francisco is also
spending 40 million dollars

to rethink and redesign its
water and sewage treatment,

as water outfall pipes like this
one can be flooded with seawater,

causing backups at the plant,
harming the bacteria

that are needed to treat the waste.

So these outfall pipes
have been retrofitted

to shut seawater
off from entering the system.

Beyond these technical solutions, our work

at the Georgetown Climate
Center with communities

encourages them to look at what existing
legal and policy tools are available

and to consider how they can
accommodate change.

For example, in land use,
which areas do you want

to protect, through adding
a seawall, for example,

alter, by raising
buildings, or retreat from,

to allow the migration
of important natural systems,

such as wetlands or beaches?

Other examples to consider. In the U.K.,

the Thames Barrier protects
London from storm surge.

The Asian Cities Climate
[Change] Resilience Network

is restoring vital ecosystems
like forest mangroves.

These are not only important
ecosystems in their own right,

but they also serve as a buffer
to protect inland communities.

New York City is incredibly
vulnerable to storms,

as you can see from this clever
sign, and to sea level rise,

and to storm surge, as you can
see from the subway flooding.

But back above ground, these
raised ventilation grates

for the subway system show
that solutions can be both

functional and attractive.
In fact, in New York,

San Francisco and London,
designers have envisioned

ways to better integrate
the natural and built environments

with climate change in mind.

I think these are inspiring
examples of what's possible

when we feel empowered to plan
for a world that will be different.

But now, a word of caution.

Adaptation's too important
to be left to the experts.

Why? Well, there are no experts.

We're entering uncharted
territory, and yet

our expertise and our systems
are based on the past.

"Stationarity" is the notion
that we can anticipate the future

based on the past, and plan accordingly,

and this principle governs
much of our engineering,

our design of critical
infrastructure, city water systems,

building codes, even water rights
and other legal precedents.

But we can simply no longer
rely on established norms.

We're operating outside the bounds
of CO2 concentrations

that the planet has seen
for hundreds of thousands of years.

The larger point I'm
trying to make is this.

It's up to us to look
at our homes and our communities,

our vulnerabilities
and our exposures to risk,

and to find ways to not just
survive, but to thrive,

and it's up to us to plan and to prepare

and to call on our government
leaders and require them

to do the same, even while they address

the underlying causes of climate change.

There are no quick fixes.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

We're all learning by doing.

But the operative word is doing.

Thank you.

(Applause)