>> today, on "earth focus," the ring cost 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 prorty, and livelood. 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 ourbility to suive.

>> in this cris, 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 drough, they n 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 alrey 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 li on eartas we kn it toy. and atime goeon,

those vere thrts becom greer and gater, an uimately think ha the tentialf becomi atastroic. >> even you're skeptal abo climatehange, tre'no dying thait prests major rks thano compa, city, countryan afforto ignor i belie the amecan busiss commuty can a must leadhe way ihelping to reducthese ris. toise to the challens of clate chan, they mt do o now. ts is not problem for anotr day. t investmts we'e makingoday wil deterne our enomic 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 heat-wave events. extreme flooding and precipitation in the dwest. 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,nd changing primarily because of human aivities. the science tells us that. extreme events are one of the most important parts of our

changing climate and having very erious rificatio on our societ. in paicular, 're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. one of e thingse'reeeing isthat theet are gting wter and e dry argetting der. you kn what? ias--i wa bn here iplainvi, i was rsed in pinview.'ve aays been in ainview,nd it ju-- it ems liket is doi thing bugetting tter and driernd less in yearl

it'been aoughrought. in 2010we had le 29 incs of rain, ani didn't thin the'd er be other po y. in 21, we ha5 inches ofain. wst droug i'ever seen. an2011 w the fir time 've ev had to andon ou crop. d we h to picknd chose whiccrop we re gonna sa, which op wwere gon bandon. d,an, thatas-- at was ke choosg whh chilwe were nna loseor ave behind, d we nev had to that bore. we ways had enough wer to ma that choice. >> ts is by r the wot i've ev seen. 's by f the rst a buch of pple have ever en it. well,he otheray i was buiing fencand justriving ow withhe windo down, a t thermomer was rding

0-plus. u'llook at 1. >>we wear o hats. use o farmingato ise he feed urce, and then wuse our cowb or our ttlemen's hat raise t cattle our pasture nd. corn ds not doell in t at. so tt's problem ght the. corn es not plinate wellthat's one oour feed soues. cale do nodo well abo 95 grees. jt like y.rt ou don't like totand outde when t'95 drees. there'no difrence bween a c and y. catle nuers areown. w herds e going wn daily th we' losing rgill's, cking plts. uh, st--

here's not eugh catt to keep theopen. the communits are drng up. the taxase is ding up. >> whenhe cargl plant osed lost,200 jobinstany, that wa10% ofur populaon. when drive bthat plant and i e that empty parki lot, it just nds me of homany jobwere los howany peop were afcted, ho it afcted our busines >>ou kw, some ople say this the newormal, tt this iwhat we're gonnatart seeg all thtime. ife get in, it'll beucky. but we n adapt.here's no questioabout itwe may n g our fir choice,ut we ca adap we' gonna nd the rightestf the brht to et th challenes. it's gonnbe tougher do thisn the ne 20 ars th it wato get t the on.

>> anoer day rain, aer y of worng insid another day thawe can't takeare of e crops. whn i'in the mdle of a raitorm or the mide of he cditionshere it's hard for to be ae to do ything t in theield, i's to mud, too we or sothing going n, you ow. and en you have at nexevent th you see ming ad you wder, how are youonna getll your rk done? how are u gonna ke care of e crop t way it shoulde taken re of?

've bn here iiowa abo 35 yea now. i've beefarming nce i s 15. sthis is 46 crop th we' putting out. d it jt seems at we're havg more ereme event the lt severayears, t voatility s just bn exeme. you kno we ha those rainvents at are 34, 5 inche in an ur, or 6r 8 or 10inches ia 24-houperiod. and those are ju not nmal. and it's thoskind of ents that it's veryard to pn for and treallyry to tigate. whew.an! tha's wiy. with his exce moistur we' oing to ve somdisease pblem in r corn and our oybean becausef the exss wet, becse of thexcess humity. seevery sho. t's,h, brownooking.

don'have tooany root and i's ju sufferi from to mucmoisture wel, you kw, and before th lt 3 or 4ears, clate ange--i ess my vion of t rld of clate chan was about few pple tryi to me money the dea to tr to sre enougpeoplento vesting , you kn, technoly and nethingshat uld use le fuel, tt would mitate somef the efcts thathey cla was goi to appen, a particurly the heat. t as a fmer in t last seral yea, we are actlly seei those cnges happen here on e farm. ' haing morend more treme events, u know, ether i's heat or ld or tomuch raior t enough rain in e last 10 ars, our cts to grow a cr have go up

aost almo 5 times uh, y know,e'vedded equipmento we can plant and harst in a ch short time wind. we've beenore mindl of theoil cor that whave because the serus rain events. those blessings tt we havto be ot in wit mother ture and adjust the chaing seaso that havare real natul for uswhat is natural the faspace tha we're havinto adjusto. >> 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 ridgeuh, 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 hom it just kt happening andappeninall summer long. traditionally, march was the snowit 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 chaed 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 ft pace of climat chge is clrly seenn arica's coast hard hiby rising s 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 peoplin ha'say, obvisly when srm does rike, th consequces areven moreire. >> 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 cotal cntry, iyou 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 woe, 're gna see cotal areainundate d in fa, the imrtant thing is, is is nosomethinabout the fure. it's alrey ppeningow. virgia beach miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impact. one trilln dollar worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so flooding will get more extensive, it will happen more frequent, and th sort of tng is wh puts miions o 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. der 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 lues, high-valued

properties, but the cost of reair and coveryboth for thhomeowne as wells the puic infraructure that supportthem. sohink roa and brges and that kinof thing. sit--the st of climate change h 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. >> nive alasns are othe frtline of clite chang or the st 50 yes, alask s warmed twice fast the tional arage. meing permafro and cstal seace, as wl as incasing eroon are vibly chaing pele' lives. >> we ke alask native counities that arelmost olely--iorder fo ansportion, it's eith very traditnal meths, so eier oceagoing, coes, or foot, innowshoesor in so cases, snowmoles. a it'difficul to maintn that ssistence lifestyle wn the chs are imacting t food reurces, lie marineammals, , or

peafrost ithawed, d so aess ttraditiol homelas for carou or fomoose ar impaced by vrying seons. y'restartingo see eaier thaws, the timgs of hus and gathings arempacte and soconsequtly, whamay have haened thimonth in years pa now haso be bumd up,n some ces a month earer. and so we're startg to see change how we intpret thenvironme around us. >> kipn, it's a small counity. aillage. 's noreally cnected t the outsidworld. b i was always intested in what's oing on l arounds. i was rious about clime chan and howt was afcting us. iidn't reize how d it was. wn i finay undersod

at clima changwas, thoug, what cld i do to lp? thought at wouldelp a lo to telmy storyf how w're being aected bylimate cnge on this de of thworld. it's mostlybout t winter ming late. t snow wod ually co around ptember or octer. but r the pa yes, it'been coming arou nember. inecember 08, it w the rst floothat i rember. you coulsee all this war ju flowinswiftly to the ville that w, and athe same tim there we these ge ice shee that we just cong fast, a heard tse loud umps anbumps onhe side the hoe. ani figur out at was pbably thice shee thabroke apt fromhe river hat are tting thhouse. and aer the wer went ck intthe rive there w just own, stky mud a over th grounwhereverhe water uched.h mud wasn top of

hese ste--1, 2, and 4 flos in decber are common. the vers aresually fzen althe way ll sprin and ao the erion that we're faci here. e warmer temperures a causinghe peafrost tmelt, anthe permafro to melt affects the land rough erosio so, the erosion cuts offome landt fas into t river, d we le quite bit eachear. is sprin my dad d i, we meared how r it was his yeare lost out 8 fe, and eacyear we st anoth 5 ft. and whave anoer0 or so fe left unil the nk of th rierreacheshe house it kee moving the sam rate, th in the xt few year then weight havto move t houseo another lotion.

it do scare , becauswe don't know there'll be icepa or t in theuture. but there's not,hen it ould be ch hardeto harve sl foour suistence y of lifesle, espeally forhe seal oil that heavildepend onand it's parof our eryday lis. e warmetemperates could aect our y of lifout here d if weidn'get to come t herand do a of thisith piing berrs or anyf that, it would be hd on ouramily, andot only family, butll e families in thcommunit asell, becse about0% or so of ou diet year-rounis from the ndra or e ocean.nd it wil be hareconomally. all th food th we get,nd i'm veryhankful r it. >> [lahing]

>> i thk that me and mo of theublic unrstands e truth aboutlimate cnge, andhat we do n deal wi this oblem, will bear worse one thi that weant to al ask is t just wt climatchangeosts, buwhat foil fuel pendencyosts us. >> there areany ways to ver th costs aociated th extremeeather. me thingwe need deral fuing for,nd, yes, that comefrom the taxpers, andhere onlis so much moy to go ound. we undetand tha but the are creative sutions, o. > better ld use plning, tter buiing codeso that hos are le susceptle to amage. a better saster preparness so at we n' reay just ctinue toebuild ithese ars and th fund th revery thrgh taxpar dollarfor dister assiance. >>aking invements in natural efenses, green infrastruure, and cmunity rilience,s a tmendous nefit tohe natio andt's mething should mediate. >> to creata climat resilnce fu to be srt

aboutrotectg our cotal cmunitiesnd proteing our pockbooks asaxpayers >> failinto step to the hallen of our me and t create re resilnce for r counities uld be tsit and atch romburn. >>the long we waitthe more expsive it becausehe more vere thconsequees, on a sca that weay not er want to e. fvfvfvfvfvfvfvfvfvfvfv■ú=÷r

03/22/21 03/22/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we have lived invisible. relegated as second-class citizens. and now in the wake of a violent shooting, white america is still trying to deny our humanity and