Climate change is real, and the risks of doing nothing are greater than preparing for it, says a new study created by a non-partisan group.
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View full sizeIn this 2012 file photo, large waves generated by Hurricane Sandy crash into Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C. Researchers at the University of Utah reported that earthquake sensors located as far away as the Pacific Northwest detected the storm's energy as it surged toward the New York metropolitan region. The network typically records the sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust, but it can pick up shaking triggered by ocean waves, mine cave-ins and tornadoes. Now both the White House and a non-partisan group are urging business and the nation to prepare for more climate change impacts. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Consumers in Ohio and across the nation are probably facing much higher electric and food bills, incredible summer heat waves making it too hot to go outdoors for days at a time and a stumbling economy, warns a new risk analysis of the impact of climate change.
The Risky Business Project -- a joint, non-partisan initiative chaired by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg; and former senior managing member of Farallon Capital Management Thomas P. Steyer -- uses standard risk assessment tools to measure the impact of severe weather driven by global climate changes.
Released Tuesday morning, the analysis takes climate change -- driven by increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide as a given -- and then examines the impact on agriculture, public health and business on a regional and state basis.
The analysis looks at likely impacts of climate change over the next 25 years and also by the end of the century.
In a live teleconference now archived, Paulson likened climate change to the banking catastrophes that he had to deal with as a member of former President George W. Bush's administration.
"Taking a business-as-usual approach is actually radical risk taking," he said. "It is very important that the government and business act soon.
"I think American companies are the very best managed. American business needs to lead. The investment decisions that American companies are making today will have important impact on the future."
Asked what the group hoped to accomplish with the analysis, Paulson said the federal government must set policies.
"I believe that businesses in many ways are ahead the national government. But I think what we ultimately need is not just investment in resiliency to adapt to the outcomes we know are coming or are very likely to come.
"We need strong policy action to prevent the very worst outcomes. That takes action by a national government. That can't be done by business alone," he said.
The report comes just a day after the only Ohio member of the White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience spent a day in Cleveland meeting with city, county and business leaders to hear what they need to advance sustainability, energy efficiency and to prepare for severe weather.
"We are having climate change. The president has already said he accepts it. I think the private sector is saying the same thing," said Paula Brooks, a Franklin County commissioner and member of the 26-member task force, during a "Roundtable on Resilience" discussion at Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs on Monday.
While the task force is focusing on resilience of local programs and on hardening local infrastructure, the City of Cleveland, which already adopted a Climate Action Plan, has for more than five years approached the issue as one of sustainability. Sustainable Cleveland 2019, begun in 2009, has fostered the adoption of sustainable practices in business and government -- including conservation, efficiency and the development of renewable energy.
The Sustainable Cleveland Center, located in Tower City, hosted Brooks on Monday for many of her meetings.
In an interview at the center before CSU roundtable, Brooks said the mission of the task force is to find ways to align current federal grant programs to better match local initiatives to prepare for weather disasters and develop local energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, that is, to create local resiliency.
Other members of the CSU panel later in the day talked of the urgency to prepare now for the consequences of super storms, straight-line inland hurricanes called derecho storms and winter subzero temperatures involving another outbreak of the polar vortex winds.
Maureen Mitchell, an RN and an associate professor and graduate program director of the CSU School of Nursing, said people who are part of "vulnerable populations," such as the elderly, infants, and people with chronic health conditions should be identified now so that they can be assisted during storms or times of extreme heat. "We need the resources in place to move them."
William Bowen, a professor at the College of Urban Affairs, said Ohio's policy makers, whether they know it or not, have "a coal-based mentality" and reminded the group that state lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich just weeks ago decided to freeze state standards on energy efficiency and renewable energy and stymie development of wind turbine farms.
"Our ideational culture -- the beliefs and ideas we have about energy in the state of Ohio -- lags behind the realities of our ecology and the realities we face. As long as we hang on to them, we will not want to deal with climate change," he said.
Wendy Kellogg, associate dean and professor at the College of Urban Affairs and an expert on water resources, spoke of the importance of the Great Lakes Compact on water use. "We need to do everything we can to ensure the compact is supported at the national level, and there are no significant diversions of water out of this basin," she said. "There will be tremendous pressure because other regions will suffer droughts that have not been seen in a long time."
David Beach, director of the Green City Blue Lake Institute at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History said he believes the nation is facing "climate chaos."
"We believe this is the challenge of our times, that the fate of our civilization rests on dealing with this," "We are living in a state of massive denial about how significant this is going to be," Beach said