>> today, on "earth focus," the rising cost of a changing climate. coming up, on "earth focus." we have never confronted a crisis like this. in its early stages it's producing record- breaking heat, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation. and the cost is way too high in lives lost, in damage to property, and livelihood. and it may get worse. unless addressed, climate change stands to affect the security of the nation, the stability of the u.s. economy, and ultimately our ability to survive.

>> in this crisis, no one escapes. >> as far as climate change, how does it actually affect the military? there are really 3 things. one is it affects our bases. so those impacts could be rising seas, they can be droughts, they can be floods. for example, if you have a drought and you dry up the ranges, you cannot use live ammunition anymore because it sets too many fires. second is the arctic is opening up, the ice is melting, and that's opening up a whole new theater that the united states navy and our coast guard partners are gonna have to work in. and finally, when we have the national guard responding to natural disasters in the united

states, those are less forces that potentially the president could call on to go overseas. and where we already see the kind of threats that we're gonna see from national security, is just look no further than north africa. look at the arab spring. one of the contributing causes was a very rapid run-up in the price of wheat. now, why did wheat almost double right as the arab spring got going? it doubled because there were terrific droughts in australia, and if everybody remembers the fires of a few years ago, and the russian summer. there were big droughts there. worldwide wheat harvest really contracted. so, you couple the drought with really bad governance with already existing strife, it's sort of like dumping gasoline on and then just throwing matches. even though our budgets are very, very constrained in the department of defense and the department of the navy, the climate doesn't care about our budgets. it doesn't care about our politics. it's just going to change according to the laws of physics.

>> it's not only the military that is increasingly concerned. so are many financial and business experts. "risky business" is a nonpartisan analysis of the economic risk of climate change in the united states. it was led by michael bloomberg, henry paulson, and tom steyer. among the findings, if we continue on the same path, by the year 2100, the country could see $701 billion of coastal property underwater. $108 billion in average annual losses from hurricanes and coastal storms on the eastern seaboard and gulf of mexico. and in some states, a loss of up to 70% in average annual crop yields. extreme heat and humidity would also threaten human health, reduce labor productivity, and strain electricity grids. >> global climate change over time poses severe threats to life on earth as we know it today. and as time goes on,

those severe threats become greater and greater, and ultimately i think have the potential of becoming catastrophic. >> even if you're skeptical about climate change, there's no denying that it presents major risks that no company, city, or country can afford to ignore. >> i believe the american business community can and must lead the way in helping to reduce these risks. to rise to the challenges of climate change, they must do so now. this is not a problem for another day. the investments we're making today will determine our economic future. >> according to the u.s. government's 2014 national climate assessment, average temperatures have increased by as much as 1.9 degrees fahrenheit in the u.s. since 1895, with most of the increase occurring since 1970. temperatures are projected to rise another 2 to 4 degrees in most areas of the country in the next few decades. people are

already feeling the impact, these early effects of climate change a harbinger of what the future may hold. >> if you're on the coast, most likely it's sea level rise. if you're in the midwest, extreme heat-wave events. extreme flooding and precipitation in the midwest. the heaviest rain events are getting 30% heavier. the folks in the rocky mountain west, they're not gonna recognize the forest even 60 years hence. we're losing most of the pine trees in the southern part of the rocky mountain forests in future projections 'cause it's getting too hot and too dry. >> it's very clear to us that the climate is changing, changing rapidly, and changing primarily because of human activities. the science tells us that. extreme events are one of the most important parts of our

changing climate and having very serious ramifications on our society. in particular, we're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. one of the things we're seeing is that the wet are getting wetter and the dry are getting drier. >> you know what? i was--i was born here in plainview, i was raised in plainview. i've always been in plainview, and it just-- it seems like it is doing nothing but getting hotter and drier and less rain yearly.

>> it's been a tough drought. in 2010, we had like 29 inches of rain, and i didn't think there'd ever be another poor day. in 2011, we had 5 inches of rain. worst drought i'd ever seen. and 2011 was the first time we've ever had to abandon our crop. and we had to pick and choose which crop we were gonna save, which crop we were gonna abandon. and, man, that was-- that was like choosing which child we were gonna lose, or leave behind, and we never had to do that before. we always had enough water to make that choice. >> this is by far the worst i've ever seen. it's by far the worst a bunch of people have ever seen it. well, the other day i was building fence and just driving slow with the windows down, and the thermometer was reading

120-plus. you'll cook at 120. >> we wear two hats. we use our farming hat to raise the feed source, and then we use our cowboy or our cattlemen's hat to raise the cattle on our pasture land. corn does not do well in the heat. so that's a problem right there. corn does not pollinate well. that's one of our feed sources. cattle do not do well above 95 degrees. just like you. you don't like to stand outside when it's 95 degrees. there's no difference between a cow and you. cattle numbers are down. cow herds are going down daily. thus we're losing cargill's, packing plants. uh, just--

there's not enough cattle to keep them open. these communities are drying up. the tax base is drying up. >> when the cargill plant closed we lost 2,200 jobs instantly, so that was 10% of our population. when i drive by that plant and i see that empty parking lot, it just reminds me of how many jobs were lost, how many people were affected, how it affected our business. >> you know, some people say this is the new normal, that this is what we're gonna start seeing all the time. if we get rain, it'll be lucky. >> but we can adapt. there's no question about it. we may not get our first choice, but we can adapt. we're gonna need the brightest of the bright to meet the challenges. it's gonna be tougher to do this in the next 20 years than it was to get to the moon.

>> another day of rain, another day of working inside. another day that we can't take care of the crops. when i'm in the middle of a rainstorm or in the middle of the conditions where it's hard for us to be able to do anything out in the field, it's too muddy, too wet, or something going on, you know. and then you have that next event that you see coming and you wonder, how are you gonna get all your work done? how are you gonna take care of the crop the way it should be taken care of?

we've been here in iowa about 35 years now. i've been farming since i was 15. so this is my 46th crop that we're putting out. and it just seems that we're having more extreme events. the last several years, the volatility has just been extreme. you know, we have those rain events that are 3, 4, 5 inches in an hour, or 6 or 8 or 10 inches in a 24-hour period. and those are just not normal. and it's those kind of events that it's very hard to plan for and to really try to mitigate. whew. man! that's windy. with this excess moisture, we're going to have some disease problem in our corn and our soybeans, because of the excess wet, because of the excess humidity. see? very short. it's, uh, brown-looking.

doesn't have too many roots, and it's just suffering from too much moisture. well, you know, and before the last 3 or 4 years, climate change--i guess my vision of the world of climate change was about a few people trying to make money on the deal, to try to scare enough people into investing in, you know, technology and new things that would use less fuel, that would mitigate some of the effects that they claim was going to happen, and particularly the heat. but as a farmer in the last several years, we are actually seeing those changes happen here on the farm. we're having more and more extreme events, you know, whether it's heat or cold or too much rain or not enough rain. in the last 10 years, our costs to grow a crop have gone up

almost almost 5 times. uh, you know, we've added equipment so we can plant and harvest in a much shorter time window. we've been more mindful of the soil cover that we have because of the serious rain events. those blessings that we have to be out in with mother nature and to adjust to the changing seasons that we have are really natural for us. what is unnatural is the fast pace that we're having to adjust to. >> there is not debate that climate change will exacerbate forest fires. because of the heat and the precipitation changes, drought, those sorts of factors. scientists are

projecting a 50- 100% increase in area burned in the next 40 years or so. >> it was like a nightmare, the whole evening. my only thought was, if we get through this day and everybody's alive, it'll be as good as it gets. there it is, right here, right here. >> oh, my gosh. >> ok. we're out, we're out. >> it was definitely the worst night of my life. >> on the day of the lower north fork fire, it was a red flag breezy day. we were dispatched initially to a grass fire. >> we had sent assistant chief page up onto a ridge, uh, to get a good, you know, overview of the fire. >> when that fire made that turn and went through that gully, it started running up towards

where i was. when it took off, it took off fast. >> one couple died at their home and then one woman also died at her home. it just kept happening and happening all summer long. traditionally, march was the snowiest month of the year around here. this past march we had no snow at all. basically summer type conditions. and that lengthening season is causing changes in the fuel, so we're seeing the fuels start to grow earlier in the season, and so they dry out earlier. climate change is very real. it's changed my entire life. this year was our most destructive fire season. the two most destructive fires in colorado's history occurring at the same time. it's different. it's a different world. the fire season is now longer.

in most cases, we didn't have to worry about fires in the rocky mountains or the northwest until usually june or july. now, you know, the fires are getting earlier and earlier. the first season's getting longer. we're starting to get to be like california where fire season is year-round. >> the fast pace of climate change is clearly seen on america's coasts, hard hit by rising sea levels, flooding, and severe storm surges. >> what we see is the united states, the eastern part of the united states from the gulf of mexico all the way up to new england is among the highest local sea level rise rates in the world. >> more people live on the coasts than ever before. and now that we have more people in harm's way, obviously when a storm does strike, the consequences are even more dire. >> there is a ton of coastline

in america. we have something like 94,000 miles of coastline, 60,000 miles of coastal roads. half of america lives within a coastal watershed county, very close to the coast. so, we are a coastal country, if you will. what climate change is gonna do, the most important impact to coastal areas is gonna come through sea level rise. and that means that coastal flooding gets worse, coastal erosion gets worse, we're gonna see coastal areas inundated. and in fact, the important thing is, this is not something about the future. it's already happening now. virginia beach, miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impact. one trillion dollars worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so flooding will get more extensive, it will happen more frequently, and that sort of thing is what puts millions of americans at risk every year.

>> by 2045, we could see as little as 5 inches of extra sea level rise or 11 inches of extra sea level rise. now, to put that in concrete terms, let's look at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland. now, annapolis right now experiences about 50 nuisance floods a year. under the best- case scenario, in 30 years hence it could be as high as over 240, about, high tides a year. if we have a highest-emission scenario, it could be as high as 380 tides a year, many of those twice a day. we think, there's only 365 days in the year. pretty much, that's almost... you know, it's inundation at that point. >> and in this country, we have encouraged people to build on coastal areas, barrier islands, and other high-risk areas that inevitably raise the risk level and the exposure, not only by property values, high-valued

properties, but the cost of repair and recovery, both for the homeowners as well as the public infrastructure that supports them. so think roads and bridges and that kind of thing. so it--the cost of climate change has to be factored in both in public and private insurance and public and private financial support for the structures that support people's homes and where they live. >> when floods and hurricanes happen, a lot of people assume that insurance will cover everything, and what isn't covered, the federal government will then come in and make them whole. unfortunately, that's rarely the case. if i live in my own home, the federal government is not responsible for coming in and taking care of me. people need to continue to make sure they've done everything to protect themselves and can't rely wholly on the federal government. >> we are looking at some communities that are putting in climate action plans that are on the scale of millions of dollars. for example, new york city is

thinking about over $350 million to try to make new york city more resilient to sea level rise. >> we need billions of dollars to shore up our coastlines and make america safe for people to live in the face of this extreme weather. >> native alaskans are on the frontline of climate change. over the last 50 years, alaska has warmed twice as fast as the national average. melting permafrost and coastal sea ice, as well as increasing erosion are visibly changing people's lives. >> we take alaskan native communities that are almost solely--in order for transportation, it's either very traditional methods, so either ocean-going, canoes, or on foot, in snowshoes, or in some cases, snowmobiles. and it's difficult to maintain that subsistence lifestyle when the changes are impacting the food resources, like marine mammals, um, or

permafrost is thawed, and so access to traditional homelands for caribou or for moose are impacted by varying seasons. you're starting to see earlier thaws, so the timings of hunts and gatherings are impacted. and so consequently, what may have happened this month in years past now has to be bumped up, in some cases a month earlier. and so we're starting to see a change in how we interpret the environment around us. >> kipnuk, it's a small community. a village. it's not really connected to the outside world. but i was always interested in what's going on all around us. i was curious about climate change and how it was affecting us. i didn't realize how bad it was. when i finally understood

what climate change was, i thought, what could i do to help? i thought that would help a lot to tell my story of how we're being affected by climate change on this side of the world. it's mostly about the winter coming late. the snow would usually come around september or october. but for the past years, it's been coming around november. in december 2008, it was the worst flood that i remember. you could see all of this water just flowing swiftly into the village that way, and at the same time, there were these huge ice sheets that were just coming in fast, and heard these loud thumps and bumps on the side of the house. and i figured out that was probably the ice sheets that broke apart from the river that are hitting the house. and after the water went back into the river, there was just brown, sticky mud all over the ground wherever the water touched. that mud was on top of

these steps--1, 2, 3, and 4. floods in december are uncommon. the rivers are usually frozen all the way till spring. and also the erosion that we're facing here. the warmer temperatures are causing the permafrost to melt, and the permafrost to melt affects the land through erosion. so, the erosion cuts off some land that falls into the river, and we lose quite a bit each year. this spring, my dad and i, we measured how far it was. this year we lost about 8 feet, and each year we lost another 5 feet. and we have another 40 or so feet left until the bank of the river reaches the house. if it keeps moving at the same rate, then in the next few years, then we might have to move the house to another location.

it does scare me, because we don't know if there'll be an icepack or not in the future. but if there's not, then it would be much harder to harvest seal for our subsistence way of lifestyle, especially for the seal oil that we heavily depend on, and it's part of our everyday lives. the warmer temperatures could affect our way of life out here. and if we didn't get to come out here and do any of this with picking berries or any of that, it would be hard on our family, and not only my family, but all the families in the community as well, because about 90% or so of our diet year-round is from the tundra or the ocean. and it will be hard economically. yeah, we're really dependent on all this food that we get, and i'm very thankful for it. >> [laughing]

>> i think that more and more of the public understands the truth about climate change, and that if we do not deal with this problem, it will be far worse. >> one thing that we want to also ask is not just what climate change costs, but what fossil fuel dependency costs us. >> there are many ways to cover the costs associated with extreme weather. some things we need federal funding for, and, yes, that comes from the taxpayers, and there only is so much money to go around. we understand that. but there are creative solutions, too. >> better land use planning, better building codes so that homes are less susceptible to damage. and better disaster preparedness so that we don't really just continue to rebuild in these areas and then fund the recovery through taxpayer dollars for disaster assistance. >> making investments in natural defenses, green infrastructure, and community resilience, is a tremendous benefit to the nation and it's something we should do immediately. >> to create a climate resilience fund to be smart

about protecting our coastal communities and protecting our pocketbooks as taxpayers. >> failing to step up to the challenge of our time and to create more resilience for our communities would be to sit and watch rome burn. >> the longer we wait, the more expensive it is because the more severe the consequences, on a scale that we may not ever want to see. q?q?q?q?q?q?q?8úxú

[applause] >> thank you, nina. it's just wonderful to be here today, and i thank kenny and nina for inviting me. when i get up in the morning and open my closet door, i see a sign that says, "good morning, beautiful business," and it's a daily reminder to me of just how beautiful business can be when we put our creativity and our energy and our care into producing a service or a product for our community. economic exchange can really be one of the most meaningful of human interactions. when i see that sign in the morning, i--i think about the farmers out in the fields