>> today, on "earth focus," the risingng cost ofof a changig climate. coming up, on "earth focus." we have never confronted a crisis likike this. . in its eay stages it's producing g record- breaking heat, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation. and the cost is way too high in lives lost, in damage to propey,y, and livelelihood. and it may get worse. unless addressed, climate change stands to affect the security of the natioion, the stability f 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 t te mimilitary? there arare really 3 things. . one is it t affects or bases. so t those impacts coulde rising seseas, ey can be droughts, they can f floods. for examp, if you ha a drought and you dry up the ranges, you cannot use live ammunition anymore because it sets too many fires. seconond is the arctic is opepeg 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 threreats that we're g a seeee 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 ddid wheat almlmost double r ris the arab spring got going? it doubled because there were terrific d droughts in australi, and if everyody 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 y bad governance with already exexistingng stre, i i's sort of like dumping gasoline on and then just throwing matches. even though our budgets are very, very c constrained in the department of defense and the department of the navy, the climate doesn't care about our budgets. it doesn't t care about our politics. it's just going to change according to the e laws f 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 annd 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 seve e thres toto life on eartasas we ow i it daday. a as s ti goes s ,

thosseseverehreaeatsecomee greerer andreataterand ultimately ththink ve t the potentialf f becong cattrophic. >> even you're skeptal abo clilima change,here''s no enying tt it t esents major isks thano c cpany, city, or couury can afford to ignore. >> i belve the arican business community canndnd mus leadadhe way in helpgg to reduce thesririsks. to rise to the challges of climatchchangetheyey mt do so now. this n not a pblblem for anotr r day.he i invtmentsts we'rre mang t tod willl detmimine o ecoconoc fututu. >> 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-w-wave events. extreme flooding and prprecipitatation in the midwes. 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 actctivities. the science tells us that. extreme events are one of the most important parts of our changing climate and having very serious rifificatns o on r

sociy. in prticular, we're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in prprecipitation happppening as larger e events. one oththe thgs w we're s sing thatathe wet are getting wetter d d thdry arare ttingg dri.. >> you ow what? ias--i s orn here iplainew, i was raised inlalainvi. i'i've alwlws been in aiainvie andnd ijust---- it seems like it is dngng noining bugettttinhotter and drier a less ra y yearl

>> it'been aouough dughtht. in 20, we hadikike 29nchehes f rain, d i didn't inink ere'ever be other po day. in 21, w we d 5 inines of rain. wor d droht i'evever see and 1111 washe f fir time we've er h hado abanann our cr. . and hadad tpick and ooose ich h cr we wewe gonna savewhwhich op w we re gonon abaonon. an manan, at wasas that walilike cosining ich chchild werere nna lo, or ave behi, and we never h to thatefore. walwawaysad enou water tmamake tt ooice. >> thiisis by r ththe rst i've er s see it'by fararhe worsrst a nnch peoplplhave eveseseen i wel t the oer d day was building fee e and st d dring oow wi thehe wdows d dn, and thehehermomer w waseadingng 0-0-plusyou'u'll cooooat 120.

>> w wear o hahats u use o fararmi hat t traise the feed soce, , and en we us our cooyoy or r cacattmen's hat toaiaise t catattlon ourur paste e land corn doenonot doell l inhe heat. t that's s a oblem rit ther c corn es n notollinana well. th''onene oour fefe source c catt do o nodo welel abo 9 95 deees.s. jt like y. y d don't t le to s snd outsi when it's 95egrereesthere'e's no dfeferen betetwe a cow a you. cattle numbers a d down. cocoherds are goindodown dly.. thus we'rere losg cacargl' paing plantsuh, just there's notnough cale to

ke thehem op. ththese communits s are yingng u the taxasase isryining . >> when t c cargl plplancloseded stwe lo,200 js ininsttly, so that s s 10% ourur polation. when i dveve by at plant and sesee th empmpty parkingot, it jt t remis meme of how ma j jobwere l lt, how manpepeopleere e afcted,, how iafaffect ourur biness. >> you kw,w, sompeopopleay this is t n new nmal,l, tt this is wh w we're g gon startrt sing all the timeifif we t rain, i'llbe l luc. >>ut we can adapt.hehere's s no qststion out it. m may n get our fir c choic butut wcan adapt. we'rere gon neeeed e brightest oththe brht t to et the chaenengesit''s gonnnnbe tougher d do th in n thnext 20 yearththan iwas s toet too the moon.

>> another day r rain,nothther day of wkiking iide. anoer day thawe can't takeare of the crs.s. when i'm in t middle of instormr in theiddle of the conititionsherere 's s rd for us to beble to dananythi out in theieield, 'too muddytoo wet,r r someingg going on, you owow. anthenen y havthat nexevent that you see comi a and ou wononr, howow are you gonna getllll youworkrk done? w w are u gogonntake care of e e crophe w wayt should btataken re o of?

we' b been re i in wa abobo 35 yea n now.'veeen fafaing since was 15.o ththiss mymy 46throp that 're pting out. and itusust ses ththat '' havavinmore e ereme eents. the lt t sevel yeyear the volatity has st been extreme. you kno we havehohose rainvents th are 3, 5 incss inn hohouror 6 o o8 or inch in n a -hour r riod. and thosarare ju notot nmal. and it's the kikindf evenen that it's ve harard plan n r and trereallyry t to tigatete whe m man! at''s windnd wittthis cessss msture,e,e're going thave somdidiseas problem in r r cornnd o our soybeans, bauause othe e exss wet, becausef f the cessss humitity. s? veveryhort.. t's, uh, bro-l-looki. does't veve tooany y ros, andnd

''justst sferingngrom too much moistu.. wel,l, younow,w, a befororthe last oror 4 yrs, , clate anange--guess myisioion the rrld oclimimatchangegeas about a few peoe tryingoo make moneonon theeal, to y tocacare eugh peop intnto investininin, yoknowow, cchnoly anand w thinin that ululd uslessss fl, that would tigate so of the fects thathey cla was goi to hpen, andarticurly the heat. t as a fmer in t lasteveveralearsrs, are tually eing tse changes happehere on e farm. 're haing more a more treme evtsts, yoknowow, ether r 's he or coldr too ch rain or not enougrain. in thlalast 1years,s,ur cosos to grow a cropavave go upp almost almo 5 5 tim.

uh, you kno we've adddded equipment so c can pnt a and harstst in muchch srter t te window. w'vebeenen me mindndl of e soilover at we ha because the serus rain event those blessingshahat weave to be out initith mher r nare and to adjust t the cngining seasonshahat weave e arreallyly natul for uswhat is unnaturaisis theast t pa thatt we're hining todjusust . >> there is not debate that climate change will exacerbate forest fires. because of the heat and the precipitation changes, drought, those e sortsf factors. scientists are

projecting a a 50- 100% incncree 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. >> wewe had sent assistant chief page up o onto a ridge, uh, to t a good, you know, overview of the fire.e. >> 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 oneneoman also died at her home. ijust k kt happening andappeng alall mmer long. tradionally,arch w the snowit month of theear aroundere. thipast march we h no snowt all. basally summer pe contions. a that lgthenng seaean is causi cnges ithe fuel, we're seeing g e fuels art to gw earlier inhe sean, and so hey dry t earlie climatehanges very rl. it's hanged mentireife. this ye was ourost deructive fi season.he two mt destruive firein corado'history currinat t sametime. it's dierent. it's a difrent wor. the fire season is now longer.

in most cases, we didn't have to worry about fires in the rocky mountains or the northwest untilil 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. >> theasast pa of f clate anange icleaearlseen o o meric's coas, hard t by rising sea levels, flooding, and severe storm surges. >> what we see is the united stateses, the eastern part o ofe 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 pplple in harm' w way, viououslwhen a a storm doeststrikethee consequences re evemomore dir > there is a ton o of coastle

in amamerica. we e have sometetg like 94,000 miles of coastline, 60,000 miles of coastal roads. half of america lives within a coastal watershed coununty, very clolose to the coast. so, we are a astal cnntry,f yoyou ll. what climate change is gonna do, the mostmportant impact to coastal areas is gonna come through sea level rise. and that means that coastal flooding gets worse, coastal erosion gets worse, we'rere gon seeee coastal ars s inunted.d. and in ctct, thimpoportt thinin is, this is t t someing g abt the futureit'already hapnining n. vivirgia beaea, miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impapact. one t trilliododolr worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so flooding will get more extensive, it will happen more frequentlyand thatorort of thing is atat putmillionsf americs at risisevery year. >> byby 2045, we cocould see as

little as 5 inches of extra sea level rise or 11 inchehes of exextra sea level rise. . now, o put that in concrete terms, let's 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 scscenario, in 30 years hee it could be as high as over 240, about, hihigh tides a year. if we have a highesest-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 pointnt. >> 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 valueses, high-valued properties, b t the ct ofof

repr r and coveveryboth f f the homeneners awellll athe puic infraructure at suorts s em. so think r rds and idges anthat kind thing.o it--thcost of imate change has to be factored in both in public and privivate insurance and public d private finanancial support for the structures that suppoport people's homes a 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 donone everything t to prototect themselves and can't rely wholly on the federal government. >> we are looking at some commmmunities that a are puttinn climate action plans that are on the scale of millions of dollalars. 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 shorere up our coastlines and make america safe for people to live in the face of f this extre weather. >> nativalalaska are on the frontlinofof clite c chae. over the stst 50 ars,s, aska has ward d twicas f fasas thehe national ararage. meltinpermafro and cstal sea i, as welas increing erosion are vibibly cnging peopl's les. >>e take askan nate commitities th a are aostt solely--in order for transpoatation,t'either vy traditiol l meths, s so ther ocean-going,anoeoes,r onon ft, innowshoesor in someases, snowmobis. and it's diffult to maiain th subsistce lifesty when thchanges e impactinghe fooresource like marine mmamals, , oror

permafrost iththawedand d so access ttraditiol l homendss for carouou or r momoosare imptted vaaryg seasass. yo'restararti to seseearlier aaws, thehe tings o ohunts and gaereringsre i impted. and soconsequtly, whamay have haenened ts momontin years pastowow haso bebe bped up,n n someaseses aonth earerer. anso w we're s srting to s a changinin howe iererprethe envnvonmentntround s. >> kipnuk, 's smsmal communy.y. a vlagege. it's noreally cnectctedo thououtsidworlrld.ut i was ways interted inhat' gng on l arounds. i wascurious out clime chan and howt was afcting s. i dn't alize hobad it was. when i finally understood what climate change was, i

thought, what could i do to help? i thout t thatouldld hp a lolo toell my story of w we'rere bengng affted d bylimate cnge on this side oththe wod. it's moly abouthe w winr congng lat the snowould usuallcome arod septemr or octer. but fothe past ars, 's be coming arnd nember. in dember 2008it was t rst floothat i rember. yocould sealall ofhis s war ju f flowig swswify intotohe villagththat w, anand the same te,e, the werere ese huhu icshsheetshat wereust comi fast, a heard tse loud thmpmps anbumpmps the s se of the ususe. ad i figed o out thatasas probly y thice shshts tt broke art from the river tt are hitting thhohouse. and aft the wat went ba into e river,here wasust brwn, stic mud allver the grod wherever the wer touchd. thatud was otop of these spsps--1,, 3,3, a 4.

floods in demember e ununcoon. the rivers are ualally fzen all the way ti spring. nd also the erosn n thate're facing he. ththe rmer temperaturesre causi the rmrmafro to o me, and th peafafrost tmelt afftsts the land throh h erosn. s so,he erosiocucuts o somome nd thaha falls toto theiverer, d we lose que e a bieachch yr. this sprin m my daand d i, we measurehow far w was. this arar we ost t abt 8 feet and eh h yeare lolostnotherer 5 feet. and whahave ather 40 soo feet lefuntil e e bankf ththe ver rehes theouse. it kee moving the sam te, then ithe ne few ars, thewe might he to movehe houseo anothe cation.

it do scare , becauswe n't know ifhere''ll be an icepa o or noin t theuture.e. but ifhehere's s no then n would be chch harr toto hvest seal for oususubsisnce e waof lifesty, , espeallyly f the seal o t that heheavy depepe on, and ''parart our everydalilives. ee warr tetempaturesesould affect our waofof lifout t he. dd if didn't geget come ou here d d do a of f th with picking rrrries anyny othat,, would h hard ourur fily, and not oy y my fily,y, b all thfamilies in the mmmmunit well, bauause aut 9 90%r so of our dtt yearounund fromm the tund o or thocean. a itt will h hard onomomicly. yeah, w'rrealallyependede on ll th fooood at we e t, and 'm ry t thaful fofoit. >> [lahihing] >> think that more anmore o

th public derstandthe trutut out climate change, and ttt if wdo not deal with ts prprobem, it wl l be f w worse >> onehing that we wanto also asks not ju what clime change costsbut what foil fuel dependen costs u >> therere many ys t to ver the cos a assocted with erememeeather. so things eed fedel l fundg for, a, yeyes,hat cocos from the taxpers, a a there onlis so much moy y to garound. we unrstand that. but there are crtiveve solions, to > betterand use annining, betteruilding codes sohat mes are less susptible to damage.nd bettedisaster eparedne so that we don't ally just connunue to ruildld in the areas and thenund the revery throu taxpaye dollars r disasr r assianance. making vestmentin natur defses, gre infrastcture, a communi resiliee, is tremendoubenefito the nion nd it'somethg we shouldo immiately. >> creata climat resiliee fund to be sma aboutrotectg our cotal

communies and ptectinourr poetbobookas taxaxyers. > failinto step to the challge of outime ando create re resilnce for rr commununies would be to t and atch romburn. the loer we wa, the more expensivet is becse theheore severe e e consequenceson a sca that weay notver want to e. gñ

nina: our next speaker is someone who has been tirelessly and courageously tackling some of the most--the thorniest, most persistent core contradictions that have roiled our society for centuries andnd that are curreny more hotly contested than everr today. she had done so as an activist, a leader, and a scholar, and is one of the most influential actors and penetrating thinkers on race, gender, immigration, social class, and poverty. you know, all those light-hehearted topics that no one gets t too