>> today, on "earth focus," the sing cosof 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

our ality to survive. >> in this cris, no one escapes. >> as far as climate change, how does it actually affect the mitary? there are really 3 things. one is it affects our bases. so those impacts could be rising seas, they can be droughts, they can be flos. 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

lifen earth we knowt toda and as me goes , those sere threa become great and greer, and ultately i ink havehe poential obecoming castroph. even ifou' skeptic abo climatehange, the's denyi that ipresentsajor riskshat noompany, ty, or contry canfford tognore. >> ielieve t america businessommunityan and mt lead theay in heing toeduce the risks. to rise tohe challges of imate chge, theyust do so now.his is n a probl for anotr day. t investmts e'rmaking tay will determi our ecomic futu. >> 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 clate ishanging, hanging pidly, a changing primarilbecause human actities. the science tells us that. extreme events are one of the

most important parts of our changing climate and having very sious ramicationsn 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 isthat theet are gting wetteand the y are geing drier >> you know what? i was--i was born here in plainview, i was rsed in plainview.'ve always been in ainview, and it just-- it seems liket is doi thing bugetting tter and driernd less in yearl

it'been aough drought in 2010we had le 29 incs f rain, and didn't thin the'd ev be anher poor y. in 2 we ha5 inches of rn. worstrought 'd ev seen. an2011 w the fir time 've ev had to andon ou crop. anwe h to picknd choe which op we we gonna sa, which op we were gon andon. and,an, thatas-- that walike choing which chilwe were nna loseor lee behind, d we nev had to do at bore. we ways had engh watero make tt oice. >> ts is by r the wot i've evereen. it's by farhe rst a buch of pple have ever se it. well, t other d i was buildg fence d just dving

slw with t windo down, a he thermeter waseading 120-plusyou' cook at20. >>we wear o hats. wese ourarming hato ise he feed urce, and then wuse r cowboyr our calemen's hat raise t cattle our pasture nd. corn ds not doell in t he. so th's a oblem rit ther corn do not polnate well. at'one of r feed sourcs. catt do not well above5 grees. jt like y. ou don't liktotand outde wheit's 95egrees. there's no differce betwe a cow a y. cattle nuers areown. cow herds argoing do daily. thuse'reosing caill'

paing plts. uh, st-- tre' not enoh cattleo ep them en. these communies are ying up. the taxase is ding up. >> whenhe cargl plant osed welost,200 jobinstantl so that s 10of our populaon. when drive bthat planand i e thatmpty parng lot, just remis me how many jobs re lost, w many ople weraffected howt affect our biness. >>ounow, sompeople s this the newormal, tt this is at we're gonna srt seeg all thtime. ife get in, it'll beucky. >>ut we caadapt.here's no uestion out it. may not get o first cice, bute can adap we' gonna nd the rightestf the brht to me th challenes. it's gonnbe ugher too this ithe next 20 years an it wato get t

the mo. > anoth day ofain, another y of worng insid another day thawe can't takeare of e crops. en i'm in theiddle of ranstorm oin the mdle of the cditionshere it's hard fous to beble to danything t in theield, i's to muddytoo wet, or sothing going o you kn. and th you ave that next ent thatou see cong and ou wonde how areou gonnaet all yr work

done? w are yogonna take care of e crop t way it shou be takecare of? 've bn here iiowa abo 35 yea now. i've beefarming since i s 15. sthis is 46throp thate'reutting outand itust seemthat w're hing morextreme event the lasseveral ars, the volatility s just bn extreme. you kno we ha those rain ents thatre 3, 4, inchesn an ho, or 6 o8 or 10 ches in 24-hour riod. and those are st not nmal. and it's thoskind of ents that it's veryard to pn for and to ally t to mitite. whew. m! that's wind with ts exce moistur we' gng to ha some sease pblem in r corn and our oybeans,ecause othe exce wet, becse of thexcess humidy. see? ry short

t's,h, brownooking. does't ve too my roots,nd it's justufferingrom too much isture. wel you kno and bore the las3 or 4 yrs, clime chge--i gus my visn of the wold of clate chan was about aew peoe tryingo makmoney onhe deal,o try to sca enough ople io insting inyou know chnologand new ings that would use le fuel, tt would mitate somef the effects hat they claim w going t hapn, and parcularly th at. but a farmein the last seval yearswe are acually seng thosehanges happen here on the farm. we're having more and more extreme evts, you know, whether it's heat or cold or too much rain or not enough rain. in the last 10 years, our costs

to gw a cropave gonep almosalmost 5imes. uh, you know, we've added equipment so we can plant and hvest in much shoer time wiow. we've be more miful of theoil cor that whave because the serus rain event those blessings thawe have be ot in wit mother ture and todjust the cnging seans tt we have are ally naturafor us. at is unnaral is t fast pa that we're havg to adjt 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 er home. ijust kephappening and happening all 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 chang 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 faspace of climate chan is cleay seen o ameca's coasts, hard 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 we have more people har's w, obviouy when a sto does stke, the conseences a even mo 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 coasl coutry, if u 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 an in factthe impoant thing is, th is not mething out e futureit'already happeni now. viinia bea, miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impact. one trillion dollars 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 thi is whatuts millns 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 look 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

property lues, high-valued properties, but the cost of reair and coveryboth for thhomeowne as wells the publ infrastcture that supports them. so think roads and bridges and that kind of thing. so it--the cost of climate change has 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 o shore up our coastlines and make america safe for people to live in the face of this extreme weather. >> native alaskans are on the ontline of climatehange. ovethe la 50 year alaska hasard twe fast the tional arage. meltg permafrost and coastal sea ice, as well as increasing erosion a visiblyhanging people' lives. >> we take alaskan native counities that are almost solely-n order r traportatio it'either vy traditiol method so eith ocean-ing, cans, or onoot, in snowses, or isome cas, owmobile and it's diffult to maintain that subsistence lifestyle when the changes are impacting the food resources,

likmarine mmals, umor permrost is awed, anso accs to aditionahomeland or carib or for ose are impact by vaing seass. y'restartingo see eaier aws, sohe timin of hunt and gaerings are impacd. and so nsequeny, what y have haened thimonth in ars pastow has tbe bumpe up,n someases a mth earli. and we' startin to see change how we interet the eironmentround s. >>kipnuk, 's small counity. aillage. 's noreally cnected t the outsidworld. b i was always interested in what's going on all around us. i was curious about climate change and how it was affecting us. i didn't realize how bad it was. when i finally understood

what climate change was, i thought, what could i do to hep? thought at wouldelp a t tell mytory of w we're ing affted by cmate chae on this de of thworld. it's mostlybout t winter coming le. the sw would usuallcome arod september or octer. but r the pa year it's been coming around november. in december 2008, it was the worst flood that i remember. you could see all ofhis wate justlowing iftly in the villagthat way, and athe me time,here werthese hu ice shts that re just ming inast, andeard the loud umps anbumps onhe side the hous and figuredut at was pbably thice shee habroke apt from t river tt are hiing the use. and aft the wat went ba ino the rir, thereas just brown, icky mudll over th ground erever t water

toched. th mud wasn top of these sps--1, 23, and 4 flos in decber are common. the rirs are ually fron all e way ti spring. and also the erion that we're facinghere. thwarmer temperures are caung the peafrost tmelt, anthe permafro to melt affects the land through erosion. so, the erosion cuts off some land that falls in the riv, and we le quite bit eachear. th spring,y dad ani, we meared how r it was. his yeare lost out 8 fe, and eacyear we st anoth 5 ft. and we ve anoth0 or so fe left unil the nk of th ri reach the hou. ifit kee moving the sam rate, th in the xt few years, then we might have to move the house to another

location. it does scare me, because we don't know ifhere'll be an icepackr t in theuture. but ifhere's not, tn it wld be mu harder harvest seal r r substence waof lifesle, espeally forhe seal o that weheavily pend on, d it's part our eryday lis. e warmetemperates could aect our y of lifout here an if we dn't t to come out herand do a of thisith pickg berrieor any othat, wod be haron our fily, andot only family, but a the famies in thcommunit well, bause abo 90% or of ouriet yr-round from the ndra or e ocean.nd it wilbe hareconomally. yeah, w're ally depdent on all th food th we get,nd i'm very tnkful foit. >> [lahing]

> i think that more and more of the public understands the truth about climate change, and that if we do not deal with this problem, it will be far worse. >>ne thing that we want to also ask is not just what climate change costs, but what fossil fuel dependency costs us. >> there are many ways to cover the costs associated with extreme weather. some things we need federal funding for, and, yes, that comes from the taxpayers, and there only is so much money to go around. we understand that. but there are creative solutions, too. >> better land use planning, better building codes so that homes are less susceptible to damage. and better disaster preparedness so that we don't really just continue to rebuild in these areas and en fund the recovery through taxpayer dollars for disaster assistance. >> making investments in natural defenses, green infrastructure, and community resilience, is a tremendous benefit to the nation and it's something we should do immediately.

>> to create a climate resilience fund to be smart about procting our coastal communities and protecting our pocketbooks as taxpayers. >> failing to step up to the challenge of our time and to create more resilience for our communities would be to sit and watch rome burn. >> the longer we wait, the more expensive it is because t more severe the consequences, on a scale that we may not ever want to see. @ñ■ñ■ñ%çwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwç■

man: our people have lived here for thousands of years and not just survived, but really thrived. different man: the valley was plumbed. the more you spread water, the more life you have. different man: when creeks and rivers and ditches and everything was channelized and it didn't flow around freely like it used to, that definitely impacted a lot of the ground, the soil, and the