>> 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 livihood. 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 rvive. >> 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 roughtsthey cabe 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 alreadexisting 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 today. ands time gs on, those sere threa become greer and gater, an uimately think ha the tentialf becomi atastroic. even if you're skeptal abo climatehange, tre'no denng that it prests major rks that no 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 snow. ts is not problem for anotr day. t investmts e'rmaking tay will 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 miest. 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 societyin partular, w're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. ne of ththings 're sing is at the w are getng wetr and thdry are tting drier. you kn what? ias--i wa borhere in lainviewi was rsed inlainviewi'velways been iplainvie and it st-- it seems ke it isoing nothing t gettinhotter a driernd less in yearl

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blding fee and ju driving slw with t windowsown, and thehermomet was reang 120-plusyou' cook at20. we weatwo hats we use our farng hat to raise he feed urce, and thene use r cowboyr our calemen's hat raise t cattle our pasture nd. cornoes not well inhe at. so tt's problem ght the. corn es not plinate ll. tha's o of our ed soues. cale do nodo well abo 9degrees.ust likeou. you do't le to stand oside when '95 drees. ere'no difrence bween a c and you. catlnumbersre down. cow herdare goindown dai.

th we' losing rgill's, paing plants. uhjust-- here's not eugh catt to ep them en. these communies are ying up. the taxase is ding up. when t cargilplant cled welost 200 jobs instany, so tt was 10% of o pulaon. when drive bthat plant and i e th empty parng lotit just nds me of homany jobwere los ho many pele were fected, ho it fected o busines younow, sompeople s this the newormal, tt this is at we're gonna srt ing all e time. we get rain, i'll lucky. but we n adapt.her's no uestion out it. may not getur firsthoice, b we can adt. we're gonnaeed the brighte of the ight to et th challenes. it's gonnbe tougher do thisn the ne

20 ars th it wato get t the on. >> anther daof rain,nother y of worng insid another ay that can't takeare of thcrops. whei'm the mide of a rainsrm or inhe middlof he conditio where 's ha r us to able too anythi out in t field, 's o mud, too we or sothing going n, you ow. and en you have at next ent thatou

see ming ad you wder, how are youonna getll your rk done? how are u gonna ke caref the cr the wayt ould be ken caref? e'veeen heren iowa aut 35 yrs now.'ve bn farmin nce i s 15. sthis is th crop at we're putti o. and it just ems that we're havinmore extme event the lt severayears, t volatily has ju been exeme. you kw, we ha those rain events at are 34, 5 inchesn an ho, or 6r 8 or 10 ches in 24-hour riod. and the are st not nmal. a it'those ki of even th it'very harto plan r nd to rely tryo mitiga. whew. m! tha's wiy. ith thiexcess msture, 're oing to ve somdisease roblem iour corn and our soybean becausef the exss wet, becse of thexcess

humidy. see? ry short it' uh, bro-looking don'have tooany root and it's justufferingrom too much isture. ll, younow, andefore th lt 3 or 4ears, clate chge--i gus my vion of t rld of clate chan was about few peoe tryingo me money the dea to tr to sre enougpeoplento insting inyou know technoly and nethingshat would use ss fuel,hat woul miigate so of the fects thathey cim was gng to happe and parcularly e at. but a farmein the last seral yea, we are acually seng thosehanges happehere on e farm. 're ving mo and morextreme evts, you ow, whetr it's heat or ld or tomuch raior not eugh in.

in thlast 10 yes, our cos to grow a cr have go up aost almo 5 times uh, y know, we've added equipment so we can plant and harvest ia much srter tim wind. we've beenore mindl of theoil cor that whave because the serus rain events. those blessings tt we havto be out with mher natu and adjust the cnging asons that weave e real natural r us. wh is unnatural is t fast pa that 're hing to aust 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, , 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.t just kephappening andappeninall summer long. traditionally, march was the snowiesmonth 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 chan is cleay seen o 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 people har's w, obviouy when a srm doestrike, e

csequenceare evemore 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 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, we'reonna see astal ars inundad. d in fa, the imrtant thing is, th is not mething out the fure. it's alrey happeni now. viinia bea, 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 frequely, and at sort

tng is wh puts miions 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 lo at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland. now, annapolis right now experiences about 50 nuisance floods a year. unr 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 propey values, high-valued properties, but the cost of pair anrecovery, both f e homeowrs as we as the publ infraructure that supportthem. sohink roa and brids and that kinof thing.o it--thcost of climate ange haso 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. >>ative alkans aren the frontline of clima change. ovethe last 50 ars, alaa hasarmetwicas ft as the natial avera. melting permafro and coast a ice, well asncreasin rosion a visiblyhanging ople's lives >> we ta alaan nativ counitiethat arelmost solely-n order r ansportion, it's eith very traditnal meths, so eier ocean-ing, coes, or foot, in swshoes, in someases, snowbiles. a it'difficul maintaithat substence

lifestyle wn the chs are imacting t food reurces, likmarine mmals, umor peafrost ithawed, d so aess ttraditiol homelas for carou or fomoose ar impact by vaing seass. aws, sohe timin of hunt and gatheringsre impted. and soconsequtly, whamay have ppened ts month years pa now haso be bumd up, in me cases month earer. and so we're startg to s a changin how w intpret thenvironme around us. >> kipn, it's a small counity. aillage t's t reallyonnectedo the outside rld. but was always ierested in what's goingn all arnd us. was cuious t climat changend how iwas affeing us. didn't reize how d it

s. when finally derstoodeá wh climatechange s, thought, wh could i do to help? i thoughthat wou help lot tell story ohow we're beingffected climatehange on ts side othe worl it's mostlybout theinter cong lat the snowould usuallcome arod september or octer. but r the pa yes, it'been coming arou novber. decembe2008, itas the wot flood at i rember. you could e all ofhis wate ju flowinswiftly to the ville that w, and athe me time,here werthese hu ice eets thawere juscoming inast, andeard the loud thumps d bumps the sidof the hoe. ani figur out that wasrobably e ice shts tt broke art fromhe river hat are tting thhouse. and aer the wer went ck into thriver, tre was jt brownsticky m all ovethe

ground erever t water uched.h mud wasn top of hese ste--1, 2, and 4. flos in decber are common. the rive are usuly froze all the y till sing. andlso the osion th we' fang herethe warm temperures are caung the permrost to lt, and e permafst to melt affects the lanthrough osion. s the erion cutsff some nd that fas into t river, d we lose ite a bieach yea is sprin my dad d i, we meared how r it was this ye we losabout 8 et, and eh year wlost anoer 5eet. and whave anoer 40 or s feet lt untilthe bankf the ri reach the hou. ifit kee moving the sam rate, th in the xt few

years,hen we mht have movehe houseo another locaon it es scarme, becae we don' know ifhere'll be icepa or t in theuture. but there's not,hen it ould be ch hardeto harve seafor r substence waof lifesle, espeally forhe seal o that weheavily pend on, d it's part our everydalives. e warmetemperates could aect our y of lifout here d if didn't geto come out he and dony of th with cking beies or a of that it would be hd on ouramily, a not onlmy famil butll the famies in thcommunit well, bause abo 90% or of ou diet year-rounis from the ndra or e ocean.nd it wil be hareconically. all th food at we ge and i'm veryhankful r it.

>> [lahing] > i thinthat morand moref theublic unrstands e truth about cmate chae, and tt ife do noteal withhis prlem, itill bear worse >>ne thinghat we wt to alsosk is nojust wha climatchange cts, but at foss fuel dendency cts us. >> there a many ways tcover e costsssociatewith xtreme wther. so things need feral fundg for, and, yes, tt comefrom the taayers, a there oy is so much moy to go ound. e undersnd that.ut there re crtive solions, to >better lanuse planng, better blding cos so tha homeare lessusceptib to dage. andetter dister preparness so at we n't realljust connue to ruild in ese areaand thenund the recory throu taxpar dolrs for isaster sistance >> ming investnts in nural denses,reen irastructe, andommunityesilienc is a trendous befit to t nation

and 's sothinwe shouldo imediately >> to creata climat resilience fundo be sma aboutrotecting our cotal comnities a protectg our pocketoks as tpayers. >> failing step upo the haengef our ti ando eate mo resiliee for r counities uld be tsit and wch rome rn. >>the long we wa, the mo expenve it isecause t more seere the nsequenc, on a scalehat we m not evewant to se ea n

>> this is dw news live from berlin. germany demands answers of claims that the merck & co. the united states by of angela merkel. german chancellor fell victim to a phone tapping operation and it has not become clear a close european ally was involved. china scrapped its two--child policy. they will be allowed to hav three children. but most say they can't afford.