WEBVTT

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This is the skyline
of my hometown, New Orleans.

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It was a great place to grow up,

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

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Half the city is already below sea level.

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In 2005, the world watched as New Orleans

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and the Gulf Coast were
devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

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

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

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although that's not her car,

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

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and that's my sister's, below.

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

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

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just about everything in them.

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Other parts of the world
have been hit by storms

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in even more devastating ways.

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In 2008, Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath

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killed 138,000 in Myanmar.

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Climate change is affecting
our homes, our communities,

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our way of life. We should be preparing

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at every scale and at every opportunity.

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This talk is about being
prepared for, and resilient to

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the changes that are coming
and that will affect our homes

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and our collective home, the Earth.

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

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There are important
distributional consequences,

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and they're not what you
always might think.

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In New Orleans, the elderly
and female-headed households

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were among the most vulnerable.

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For those in vulnerable,
low-lying nations,

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how do you put a dollar value
on losing your country

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

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And how will they cope in a foreign land?

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Will there be tensions over immigration,

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or conflicts over competition
for limited resources?

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It's already fueled conflicts
in Chad and Darfur.

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

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

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

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

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

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our collective losses
will far outweigh them.

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Look no further than the insurance
industry as they struggle

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to cope with mounting catastrophic losses

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from extreme weather events.

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The military gets it.
They call climate change

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a threat multiplier that could
harm stability and security,

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while governments
around the world are evaluating

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how to respond.

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

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

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adapting to violent storms and floods.

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In New Orleans, the I-10 Twin Spans,

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with sections knocked
out in Katrina, have been rebuilt

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21 feet higher to allow
for greater storm surge.

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And these raised
and energy-efficient homes

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were developed by Brad
Pitt and Make It Right

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for the hard-hit Ninth Ward.

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The devastated church
my mom attends has been

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not only rebuilt higher,
it's poised to become

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the first Energy Star
church in the country.

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They're selling electricity
back to the grid

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thanks to solar panels,
reflective paint and more.

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Their March electricity
bill was only 48 dollars.

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

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

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

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that survived Hurricane Ike,

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when others on neighboring
lots clearly did not.

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And around the world,
satellites and warning systems

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

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But as important as technology
and infrastructure are,

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perhaps the human element
is even more critical.

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We need better planning
and systems for evacuation.

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We need to better understand
how people make decisions

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in times of crisis, and why.

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

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others who did refused to leave
as the storm approached,

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often because available
transportation and shelters

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refused to allow them to take their pets.

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

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Fortunately in 2006, Congress passed

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the Pet Evacuation and Transportation
Standards Act (Laughter)

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— it spells "PETS" — to change that.

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Second, preparing for heat and drought.

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Farmers are facing challenges
of drought from Asia

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to Africa, from Australia to Oklahoma,

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while heat waves linked
with climate change

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have killed tens of thousands of people

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

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

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depends on rainfall for its livelihood.

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Oxfam and Swiss Re, together
with Rockefeller Foundation,

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are helping farmers like this
one build hillside terraces

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and find other ways to conserve water,

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

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The stability this provides
is giving the farmers

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the confidence to invest.

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It's giving them access
to affordable credit.

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It's allowing them to become
more productive so that

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

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

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throughout the developing world.

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After a lethal 1995 heat wave

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turned refrigerator
trucks from the popular

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Taste of Chicago festival
into makeshift morgues,

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Chicago became a recognized leader,

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tamping down on the urban
heat island impact

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through opening cooling centers,

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outreach to vulnerable
neighborhoods, planting trees,

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creating cool white
or vegetated green roofs.

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

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which is 77 degrees Fahrenheit
hotter at the surface.

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

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

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thanks to a five-cent tax on plastic bags.

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They're splitting the cost
of installing these green roofs

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with home and building owners.

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The roofs not only temper
urban heat island impact

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but they save energy, and therefore money,

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the emissions that cause climate change,

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and they also reduce stormwater runoff.

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

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Third, adapting to rising seas.

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Sea level rise threatens coastal
ecosystems, agriculture,

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even major cities. This
is what one to two meters

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of sea level rise looks
like in the Mekong Delta.

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

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Infrastructure is going to be affected.

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Airports around the world
are located on the coast.

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

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the planes can take off and land
without worrying about

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creating noise or avoiding tall buildings.

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Here's just one example,
San Francisco Airport,

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with 16 inches or more of flooding.

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Imagine the staggering cost of protecting

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this vital infrastructure with levees.

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But there might be some changes in store

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that you might not imagine. For example,

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planes require more runway for takeoff

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

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San Francisco is also
spending 40 million dollars

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to rethink and redesign its
water and sewage treatment,

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

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causing backups at the plant,
harming the bacteria

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that are needed to treat the waste.

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So these outfall pipes
have been retrofitted

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to shut seawater
off from entering the system.

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Beyond these technical solutions, our work

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at the Georgetown Climate
Center with communities

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

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and to consider how they can
accommodate change.

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

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to protect, through adding
a seawall, for example,

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alter, by raising
buildings, or retreat from,

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to allow the migration
of important natural systems,

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such as wetlands or beaches?

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

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the Thames Barrier protects
London from storm surge.

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The Asian Cities Climate
[Change] Resilience Network

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is restoring vital ecosystems
like forest mangroves.

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These are not only important
ecosystems in their own right,

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

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New York City is incredibly
vulnerable to storms,

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

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

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But back above ground, these
raised ventilation grates

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for the subway system show
that solutions can be both

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functional and attractive.
In fact, in New York,

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San Francisco and London,
designers have envisioned

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ways to better integrate
the natural and built environments

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with climate change in mind.

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I think these are inspiring
examples of what's possible

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

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But now, a word of caution.

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

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Why? Well, there are no experts.

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We're entering uncharted
territory, and yet

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our expertise and our systems
are based on the past.

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

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based on the past, and plan accordingly,

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and this principle governs
much of our engineering,

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our design of critical
infrastructure, city water systems,

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building codes, even water rights
and other legal precedents.

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But we can simply no longer
rely on established norms.

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We're operating outside the bounds
of CO2 concentrations

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

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

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

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our vulnerabilities
and our exposures to risk,

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

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

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and to call on our government
leaders and require them

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to do the same, even while they address

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the underlying causes of climate change.

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There are no quick fixes.

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

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We're all learning by doing.

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But the operative word is doing.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)