>> 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.

>> as far as climate change, how does it aually affect the military? there are really 3 things. one is it affects our bases. so those impacts could be rising seasthey c be droughtsthey can floods. f exampleif you ve 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 sife, 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 rth as wknow it today.nd as ti goes on

ose seve threatsecome reater a greaterand ultimaty i thk have the potenal of beming catastphic. >>ven if y'rekeptical about clite chang ther's no denyinghat ipresentsajor ris that noompany, ty, or contry canfford tognore. >> ielievehe america siness cmunity c and mus lead theay in heing toeduce the risks. to rise the chaenges clime changethey musdo snow. thiis not a pblem for other da the invtments 're king tod will etermineur econoc 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

serio ramificions on r societyin particular, we're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. o of the ings we're seeg is th the wetre getti wter anthe dry e getting drier >> u know wt? i w--i was born re in lainview, was raisein plainew. i've alway beenn plainvw, and ijust-- it seemlike it doing nothing t gettinhotter a dri and ls rain yrly.

>> it's beea toughrought. in2010, wead like inches of in, and didn't think the'd ev be anher po day. in011, we d 5 inch of rain.orst droht i'd ever een. d 2011 w the fir time 'veever hado abandoour crop. anwe had tpick and chooswhich cr we wereonna ve, whiccrop we re gonna bandon. d, man, at was-- thawas likehoosing ich chilwe were nna lo, or leavbehind, d we nev had o do th before.e alwaysad ough wat to makehat choic >>his is bfar the rst 'vever see it'by far t worst bunch people ve ver seent. ell, thether day was buildinfence anjust dring slow th the wdows dow and he thermeter waseading 120-pl. you'll cook 120.

we weatwo hats we useur farmi hat to ise he feesource, anthen we e oucowboy oour cattmen' hato raisehe cattlon our sture la. cornoes not well inhe at. so tt's a oblem rit ere. cordoes notollinate wellthat's one oour feed soues. cale do nodo well ove 95 grees. jt like y. you do't le to sta outside when t's degreesthere's no differce betwe a cow a y. cattle mbersre down. cow herdare gog down dly. thus we're losg cargils, packing ants. uhjust-- tre' not enoh catt to

keep tm open. thes commities ardrying u theax base drying . >> wh the carill planclosed we st 2,200obs inantly, so tt was 10of our populaon. when drive bthat plant d i see at empty parng lot, just rends me of homany jobwere los howany peop were afcted, ho it affeed our biness. >> y know, se peopleay this the newormal, tt this iwhat we're gon start seeinall the me. if wget rainit' be luc. >> bute can adt. ther's no questn about . we mayot get ourirst choe, but wcan adapt. 're gna need e brighte of the ight to et thehalleng. it's gonna tougr to do is in thnext 20 ars thant was toet to thmoon.

>> other dy of rai another day workingnside. ather dayhat we c't ke care e crops. whn i'in the mdle of a raitorm or the mide of theonditio where 's ha for us tbe able do anytng out inhe fieldit'too mudy, too t, or sothing gog on, y know. d then y have th next ent thatou see ming anyou wonr, how areou gonnaet all yr work do? how aryou gonntake caref the cr the wayt shou be takecare of?

we've beehere in wa about 35ears nowi'veeen farmg sie i was . so th is my th crop at we're putti out. anit just ems that we're havinmore extme event th last seral year the volility hajust bee extrem you kw, we ve those rain eves that a 3, 4, 5 nches i an houror 6 or or 10 ines in a -hour peod. and ose are st not nmal. andt's ose kindf events thatt's ry hard plan fo a to real try to tigate. ew. manthat's windy. ith thiexcess msture, 're goi to haveome disee problemn our co and our soybean becausef the exss wet, becse of thexcess midity.ee? veryhort. it's, uh, bwn-looki. esn't have t many ros, and

it's just sfering fm too much moture. well, y know, a before e lt 3 or 4ears, clate changei guess vision the worldf climatchange w aut a feweople trng to make ney on t deal, ttry to scarenough pele into inveing in, u know, technogy and w thingshat would e less fl, that wod tigate me of theffects that th claim wasoing to happen,nd parcularly e at. but a farmein the st sever years, are actuallseeinghose chang hpen re on thfarm. we're ving mo and me extreme events, u know, whher it's at or coldr too ch rain not enough rain. ithe last 10 years, our costs grow a op have ne up almost most 5 tes.

u you kw, we've added uipmento we canlant and arvest ia much srter tim windowwe' been me mindfu of th soil cver thate have beuse of t seriousain ents. thse blessgs that have to be ouin withother nare d to adjt to thehanging seans that have arreally natural r us. wh is unnaral is t fast pa that we' having adjust . >> 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 th one womanlso died a her he. it justept haening and hpening l summerong. tradionally,arch was t snowiest nth of t year ound her this pastarch w had nsnow aall. basally summer pe conditis. andhat lgtheni season isausing chaes in thfuel, soe're seeing thfuels stt to gro earlr in t seaso and so hey dry t earlie imatehange is ry real. it's chaed my enre life. this ye was our mt destructivfire sean. the two most deructivfires in corado's historoccurrinat he sa time. 's dierent. 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. >>he fast ce of clate changes clearlseen on ameca's oasts, hd 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 have mo people harm's wayobviouslwhen a stormoes stri, the onsequens areven more de. >> 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 countyvery close to the coast. so, we are a coasta countr if you ll. what climate change is gonna do, the most important iact to coastal areas is gonna come through sea level rise. and that means that coastal flooding gets worse, coastal erosion gets worse, 're gna see coastaareas indated. andn fact, e importt thing is, thiss not sothing abt the future. 's ready ppeningow. virgia beach miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types impact. one triion dolls worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so flooding will get more extensive, it will happen more frequently, and at sort things what ps millio of americans risk everyear. >> by 2045, we could see as

little as 5 inches of extra sea leverise 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

pair anrecoveryboth for the meownerss well athe blic infstructure at supprts th. so thi roads and brids and at kind thing.o it--the st of clime changeas to 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 askans a on the fronine of cmate chae. over e last 5years, aska hasarmed twe as fasas the nation average meltinpermafro and coast sea i, as welas increasg rosion a visiblyhangin peopl'sives. >> we take alaskanative mmunitiethat arelmost solely-n order r traportatio it'either vy tradional meods, so ther ocean-gog, canoe or on ft, in swshoes, in some ces, owmobiles.nd it's diffult to maiain that ssistence ifestylehen the anges ar pacting t food reurces, ke mari mammalsum, or

permafro is thaw, and so acces to tradional holands foraribou ofor moosare mpactedby varyg season ou' starti to see rlier thawsso the tings of nts angatherin are impted. anso consquently,hat may havhappenedhis montin years st now h to be bped p, in so cases aonth arlier. d so we're staing see a cnge in h we interpr the envonment aund us. >> kipn, it's a sml counity. aillage. t's t reallyonnectedo the outse worl but i was alwaysnteresd in wh's goingn all arnd us. was curus abouclimate changend how it s affectg u i didn't reale how bait was. when i finally understood what climate change was, i

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the plic undetands thtruth abo climate cnge, andhat if we do n deal wi this problem, it will far wse. one thi that want to al ask inot justhat climatchange cts, but wh foss fuel pendencyosts us. >>here areany wayso cover th costsssociad with ereme weath. some tngs we neefederafundinfor, and yes, that mes fromhe taxpays, and the only iso mucmoney too around we dersta that.ut there a creati solutio, too. >> tter lanuse planni, beer buildg codes that homes are lessusceptib to dame. and bter disaer praredness sthat we n't reay just connue toebuild n these eas and en fund e recoveryhrough tpayer dollas for daster assiance. >> 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 bemart out proteing oucoastal

cmunitiesnd procting ou pocketoks as tpayers. >> iling totep up tthe hallenge oour ti and to eate mo resiliee for ou counities uld be tsit and wat rome bu. >> e longer wwait, e more expenve it isecausehe more seve the nsequenc, on a scalehat we m not evewant to see.

severine: there's so 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 and applause]