>> today, on "earth focus," the rising cost of a changining climate. coming up, on "earth focus." we have never confronted a crisis like this. in its early stages it's producing recordrd- breaking heat, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation. and the cost is way too high in lives lost, in damage to prpeperty, a l livelihood. and it may get worse. unless addressed, climate change stands to affect the security of the n nation, the stability f ththe u.s. economy, and ultimaty our ability to surve.e. >> in this crisis, no one

escapepes. >> as far as climate change, how does it actually affefect te military? therere are really 3 thinings. one isis it affects or bases. . so those impacts coulde rising seasthey can be droughts, they can be flood for emple, if yohave 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 openig upup, 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 unitetd states, those are less forces

that potentially the president could call on to go overseas. and where we already see the kind of f threats that we're goa 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 wheatat almost doububle rigs the arab spring got going? it doubled because there were terrifific drouughts in austrar, 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 reaeally bad governance witith alreready exisistingtrifife, i's sort of like dumping gasoline on and then just throwing matches. even though our budgets are veryry, veery constrainened in e 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 goioingo change according t to the 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 seaboardrd 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 timeme poses sevevere threatatso life on rtrth ase knknowt today.ndnd as me g goeon,

those seve t threa bececom greater a g great, anand ultimately i thk hahave the potenalal of comiming atastrophic. >> en if yo're sptical boutut clite chang thehe's s enying tt t ipresenen major riskshat t noompanynycity, or contry c c afford d ignore. >> ielieve t american business communityanan andustt ad the way in helping to reduce these risks. to rise to the cllenge climate chan, , theyust t do so now. this is not a probl for otother y. t thenvestmtmts we're kiking tay w wil determineurur ecomic c fure. >> 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 heaeat-wave events. extreme flooding and precipitation i 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 activitieies. the e science tells us that. extreme events are one of thee most important parts of our changing climate and having very serio r ramifatioionsn ourr

ciety. particular, we're seeing more large heat eventsts, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as largrger events. one of the inings 'reeeingg is at the wet are gting wetr r anthe drdrare gettttg dririer >> yoknow wha i wasi was born he in pinview, i s raiseinin plaviewew.'vevelways beenn n plaiiew,w, a it juju-- it seems like it d doing nothing t t gettg hotttt and dri and lesrarain yrlrly.

>> it's beeaa tou droroug. in2010, weadad lik29 i incs of inin, ani didid't t ink there'd evere another poor y. inin011, we had 5 ineses of rai w worstrought 'd ev seen. and 2011asas theirstst te we' everad to o andon our crop. d d we h to pipi and choe e whiccropop wwere g gna save, whh h crope wewereonna abandonanand, m, ththatas-- tht t was ke c choing which chd d we we gonnlose, or leavbehind, and we nerer had to do at befor w we alys h had ough water to ma thahat choe.e. t this by y fathe wowot i'e e evereen. i is s far the worst a bunchofof peoe have ever se i it. well, t o otheray i i w buildg g fencand d ju drivivi slowiwith t winindo down,n,nd the theomometeras r reang 120-usus. y'llook atat20.

>> we wr r two ts.. we u o our fmingng h to rarae the feesosource, d then wuse our cowboyr r our ttlelem'ss hat to rai t the ctle e onur pasture ndnd. corn does nododo welin t the heat. so tt't's problem ght there. cn n doesot p polnate well. that's o of f oufeed sorcrces.attttleo not t well ove 95 degrees.usust li you. you d''likike stand oside wheiit's 9595 drees. . ere's no diffeenence bween a c andnd y.. cattle numbs are dn.n. cow herds argogoing wn d dai. thus we'reososing rgilill's, packinplants. uhjust-- there's notnough catt too

kekeephem opopen. the coununitieare e drng up.p. the tax basisis dryg upup. >> wenen thearggilplant t osed welolost 200 j js instanany, sohahat wa10% % ofur population. wh i i dri by y th plananand i e that ety paking lotitit jusremimindme of w w manyobs s we lost, how many pelele weraffefect, how it afctcted o busines >>ouou kno somome ople s s thiisis theew n norl, thaha thiss s whate' gonnanatart seeing all thtitime. we get rain, it'llll beuckyky. >> but we can apapt. tre's no queion abouitit. weay n not get o f firsthoicice,ut we e n adapt.e'e' gononnaeed thth brighstst of e brbrig to meme th c challgeses. 'gonna be toheher too ththisn the e xt 20yeyears an i it s to g g to the moon.

>> anotheraay ofain,n, ather daofof worng insid anonoth dd that wean'tatake ce ofof the e crops. whn i'in the mdle of a raitorm oin the mide of the conditnsns whe it'hardrd for uso be abltoto do ythihing out t the fld, , i's s o ddydy, o wewet,r somemeing going on,ouou kn. anand en youou have th next event that you see coming ad yyouondeder,ow are you gon g get a youour rk nene? hoare e yogonna ta care of the opop theay i it should be tan n caref?

'veeen n he in ioio about y yearsow. . i've b bn farming since i wa15.. sthisis imy th crop at we're putti out. d d it jt seseemthat we're hing g mo extrere eves.s. ee lasseveverayears,s,he volility hajust bee extrem you kw, we have those rain eves that a 3, 4, 5 inchesnn an ur, , or or 8 8 10 chches ia 2424-hr periri. and those arjujust n nororma and it'ththose nd o of ents that it'vevery hd toto pn forr and to relyly tryo mimitite. whew. m! ! tha's ndy. with ts s exce moioiste, we'e're gng to ha s some seasase problem in our rnrn andur soybes,s, becse o of e excece wet, bauause othe e exss huhumidy. s seevery s srt. it's, u b brownookiking. doesn't ha toooo my rootot and

it's ju sufuffeng frorotoo much isisture well,ouou kno andnd bore thth last 3 or y yearsclimimate chan--i guess my visn of the wor o of clate e chge wasas about a f people yiying t makmoney onhehe dea to o tr to sca enough opople io investing inyoyou kn, tecolology d nenew ings t tt woulususe le fueuel, tt woul tigate me of theffects that th claim wasoing to happen,nd parcularly e at. but a farmein the last sevalal yea, wewe a actuay seei those chaes hpen here on the farm. we' ving mo and me extreme eventsyoyou knowwhwhetheit's at or ld or tomuch raior not enough rain. in the last 10 0 years, o our cs to grow a crop havgogone u almosalalmost timimes

uh, younow,w, 've aed equipment so we c p plantnd harvestn n a mu shohort timee wind. . we'veve en morormindful of theoil cver thate have beuse of t seriousain events. those bleinings tt we havto be ot t in wh m motr natutu and to ausust tohe c chaing sesosons tt wewe he are e ally natural r us. wh is unnatural ishehe faspacece tt we'rere havg toto aust toto >> there is not debate that climate change will exacerbate forest fires. because of the heat and the precipitatation changes, drought, , those sortsf factors. scientists are

projectcting a 50- 10100% incree in area burned in the next 40 years or so. >> it was like a nightmare, the whole evening. my only thoughtht 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 firire. >> we had sent assistant chief ppage up onto a ridge, uh, to gt a good, you know, overview of thee 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 thth one woman also died at hherome. it t st kephahappenin and hpeneninall summ long. tradionally,arch was t snowiest month ofhe year ound her this past marche had nsnow aall. basally summer pe conditis. andhat lgthening season causing chaes in thfuel, soe're seeing thfuels stt to gro eaier in t seaso and s s hey dry t earlie imatehange is ry real. it's chaed my enre life. this ye was our mt destructivfire sean. the t most destructivfires in corado's historoccurrinat he sametime. 's fferent. it' a diffent 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 until usually june or jy. 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 faspapace oclimimat chan i is clrly y se on arica'coasts,ard hit rising sea levels, flooding, and severe storm surges. >> what we see is the united states, the eastern n part of te 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 rere peoe inin har'say, , obously y en a sto d does rikeke, e consequces a e even mo dire. >> there is aa ton of coastline

in americica. we haveve somethig like 94,000 miles of coastline, 60,000 miles of coastal roads. half of america lives within a coastal watershed countytyvery close to ththe coast. so, we are a coastal couny,y, if u wiwill what climate change is gonna do, the most ioortant impact to coastal areas is gonna come through sea level rise. and that means that coastal flooding gets worse, coastal erosion gets worse,e'e' gononnaee coasl l areainunundad. an i in fa, ththe portananthing is, th i is nosomemethg abouou the futureit's ready happeni n now. rgininiaeach, miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impact.. onerilllliodollarar worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so o flooding will get t more extensive, it will happen more frequently, anththat st ofof thi i is wh puts miionsnsf americans at risk every year. >> by 2045,5, we could sesee as

little as 5 inchches of extra sea level rise or 1111 inches of extra sea level l rise. now, to put that in concrete terms, let't'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- ccase scenario, in 30 years hene it could be as high as over 240, abobout, 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 thatat 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 y values, high-valued prproperties,s, but the c cost f

repair d d recory, , bo for the homeowne a as we as the blic infstructure atat supports them. sohink roads and brids and at kind thing.o it--the st of climate change has to be factored in both in public and private insurance and pupublic d privatete financial support for the structures thatat support people's hhomes and where t they live. >> when floods and hurricanes happen, a lot of people assume that insurance will cover everything, and what isn't covered, the federaral governmet 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 everytything to protect themselves and can't rely wholly on the federal government.t. >> we are looking at s some communities s that arere puttinn 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 peoeople o live in the faface of this extre weather. >> natate alaska arere othe frontline oflilimatehangnge. oveththe la 50 0 yes, alalaa ha w warmetwicice fast t the natialal avege.. meltinpermafro and coast sea i, as welas increasg erosionrere visly chaing peopl'sives. >> we take alaskanative communits s thatre a almt solel-i-in orr forr trnsnsportion,n, 's eier verer trititionameththod so eieier ocean-gog,g, cans,s, or foot, in swshoes, orn some ces, owmobiles.nd it's diffult to maiain that ssistence ifestylehen the anges ar pacting t food reurces, like manene mamls, , umor

permafstst is aweded, d so accs to trititionahomemelas for caribour r for ose e ar impact by vryining asons.s. ou're starngng to e eaearlr tha, , so t timimin of huhus d d gathingsgs a impacacd. d d so nseequtly, w wt may have happen t this nth h in yearpapast n hasas tbe bumumd up, in meme cas a m mon earlieranand soe' startrtg see a change inowow we interet t thenvirironnt arorod us. >> kiuk, it's smalll community. v villa. it'nonot rely c concted to the ouidide wod. but ias alwaysnteresd in wh's goingn all arnd us. was curus abouclimate changend how it s affectg u i didn't realizhow bait was. when i finally understood what climate change was, i

thought, what could i do to help? ththoughthatat wld helela lot to tl mymy sry of howe''re beingffffecteby clima chahang on this dede of e woworl it'mostly autut theinteter comingate. thenow wod ually co arounseptembe orctober. t for thpast yes, it's been comg arou novber. in decembe2008, itas the wot flood th i rememr. you could see alofof thiwateter just fwiwing iftltly to thehe village th w way, d atat t same time,hehere we ththeshuge ice shts that re just ming in ft, and hrd theseoud thumpanand bus onon t side e the hous and iigiguredut that wasrorobablthe e icsheetsts that oke apart from the river that are hittg g the use. a after t water wt back to the ver, the was jus brownsticky m all or the round wherever t w water uched.hat mudas on toof hesese ste--1,1,, 3, and 4.

floodin decemr r are commmmon the rivers are usual frozen all the y till sining. and also thererosiothat we're facici here. e warmer tempatures are causinghehe permrorost tmeltlt, d thee permafst to me a affec thehe lanththrougerososio so, t t ososion ts o offome lala that falls intohehe riv, anand le e quita bibit ch yeaear. thisprpring,y dadad d i, we msured hofafar itas.. this yeare e losabouout feet,, dd eacyearar wlost a ather 5 feet. dd we ve anoth 40 0 oro feeteft until the nknk of e riv reach the hou. if keeps ming at t same rate, en in e next f year then we mht havto move theouse to other locati.

does are me, cause we dodo't knoif t the'll be an iceepa or not in the future. t t if tre''s not,t,hen it wou b be mu harardeto hararst seal r r our bsisistee way y lifestyle, pepecial foror t seal oil tt t we avilily pend on, and it's pt ofof o everyday lis.s. theararmer mpererates couou affect our way ofifife ouherere. andf we di't t to comout here and a any othis wit picking berrs s or a of f th, it would be hd d on o famamil andotot onlmy f famy, bututll the mimiliesn the counitity as well, becau a about0% o or of rr die yeaear-und isisrom thtutundrar the ocn. a andt lll beard d ecomicalal. yeah, we'rre rely d depdent o o allhhis fd ththate get,t,nd i'm m veryhanknkfufor it. [ [laugng]] > i think thatore and mo of

the plic undetands ththtruth about climate chang andnd tt if we do not deal th thi problem, it will be farorse. one t tng that we want to al ask is t justhat climatchange cts, but wh fossil fuedependen costs u >>here a many y ys to cove th c costsssociad with eereme weath. some tngs we neefefederafundinfor, and yes, that comes fr the taxpays, and the only so mucmoney too around we derstata that. but there a crreati solutio, too. >> tter lanuse e planng,, beer building codeso that homes are lessusceptptle to dame. and bter disaer praredness sthat we n't rerelly just continuto r rebld in thesareas and then fund the recoveryhrough tpayer dollas for disaster assistance >> makg investnts in nural defense green irastructe, and cmunity rilienc is a trendous nefit tohe nation and 's mething should immedialy. to eate a imate resience fund to be smart out proteing oucoastal

ommunitiesnd proctining ou pocketbos s as tpayers. >> iling totep up tthee hallenge oour timend to eate mo resiliee for ou counities uld be to sit an wat rome bu. >> e longer wwait, e more expenve it isecauau the more seve the consequenc, on a scalehat we mayot ever nt to see.

severine: there's soso many of you. [laughter] um, my name is severine. he gave me a few more directorships than i deserve, but we'll let the ship sail for now. um, push. i'm severine. i'm coming to you from northern new york, from the adirondacks, on lake champlain. audience: whoo, whoo! severine: that's my land, um, that i love. and i think in this room are some people who love land. [cheers anand applause]