>> today, on "earth focus," the risi cost of 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 propey, 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 survive. >> in this cris, no one escapes. >> as far as climate change, how does it actlly affect the military? 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 about cmate cnge, ther's no 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 climte is cnging, hanging pidly, a changing imarily cause ofuman activits. 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 beenn plainvw, and it just-- it seems like it is doi nothg but geing hott and der and ls rain yrly.

>>t's en a tghrought. in 2010we had le 29 incs f rain, and didn't think there'd ev be anher poor dayin 2011, we d 5 inch of rn. worstrought 'd ev een. and 11 was the fir time 've everad to abdon our crop. anwe hado pick a choe which op we we gonna sa, which op we re gonna andon. and, m, that w-- at was ke choosg whh chilwe were nna loseor ave behind, d we nev had to thatefore. walways h enoughater tmake that oice. >> thiis by fathe wors i'e evereen. it's by farhe wot a bun of peoe have ever se it. well, t other d i was buildg fence d just dving

slw with t windowsown, and t thermomer was rding 0-plus. u'llook at 1. >> wear twhats. wese ourarming hato ise t feed soce, anthen we e r cowboyr our calemen's hat raise t cattle our sture la. corn doenot do wl in the heatso that's a prlem righ ther corn do not polnate well. th's ne of oufeed soues. cale do nodo well above5 grees. jt like y. ou don't liktotand outde wheit's 95egrees. there's no differce betwe a cow a you cattle number are dow cow herds e going wn 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. >>hen theargill ant clos welost 2,2 js instantly, so tt was 10% our popution. wh i drivey that ant and i sethatmpty parkingot, itust reminds ofhow many js were lt, w many ople weraffected how it fected o busines >>ounow, sompeople s this ishe new nmal, that is is wh we're gonna sta seeg all thtime. ife get ra, it'll lucky. >> but wcan adap there's no uestion out it. may not getur firsthoice, b we can adap we' gonna nd the rightestf the brht to me thehalleng. it's gonna ugher too this ithe next 20 years an it wato get t

the mo. >> anoer day rain, ather y of worng insid another day thawe can't takeare of e crops. en i'm in theiddle of ranstorm oin the mdle of theonditio where 's ha for to beble to danything out the fie, it's too mud, too we or sothing going o you kn. and th you ave that next ent thatou see comi and y wonder,ow areou gonnaet all yr work

done? w are yogonna take re of thcrop theay it shou be takecare of? we've beehere in wa about 35 yearsow. i've been rming sie i was . so th is my 46th crothat we're putng ut. anit jusseems th we' having re extre event e last veral yes, the volility hajust bee extreme. younow, we ve those rain ents thatre 3, 4, inchesn an ho, or 6 o8 or 10 ches in 24-hour riod. and those are ju not norl. 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 excessoisture,e' gng to ha some sease proem in oucorn and our sbeans,ecause othe exce t, because of thexcess midit see? ve short.

it' uh, bro-looking don'have tooany root and it's justufferingrom too much isture. wel you kno and befe 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 wod use lessuel, thawould mitate somef the effects hat theylaim wasoing to happe and partilarly the heat. buas a farr in the last seval yearswe are actlly seei those cnges happen heren the farm. 're ving mo and morextreme even, you kn, whetheit' heat or cold or too much rain or not enough rain. in the last 10 years, our costs

to groa crop he gone u almosalmost 5imes. uh, you know, we' added equipment so we can plant and hvest in much shoer time wind. we've beenore mindl of theoil cor that whave cause ofhe serio rain event those blessings thawe have be ot in wit mother ture and todjust tohe chaing seasons that havare real naturafor us. at is untural ishe fast ce that 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 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 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 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 wors 're gna see coasl areas undated. an in factthe impoant thing is, th is not mething out e future. it's alread ppeningow. virgia beach 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 fruently, d that st 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 vaes, high-valued properties, but the cost of repaiand recory, bo for the meownerss well athe 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 esion areisibly cnging people' lives. >> we take alaskan native commities th are almost sely--in der for transpoation, 's eier very traditiol method so eith ocean-ing, cans, or onoot, in snowses, or isome cas, snowbiles. a it'difficul 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 gathings a impacte and so nsequtly, whamay have haened thimonth in ars pastow has tbe bumpe up, isome cas a month earli. and we' startin to see change how we interet the eironmentround s. >>kipnuk, 's small commity. a vlage. 's noreally cnected t the ide wod. but ias 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? i thoughthat wou help a lo tell mytory of w we're bei affecteby clima change onhis sidef the wod. it's mostlybout t winter comi le. the sw would usuallcome arod septembe or octob. but fothe past years, 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 village at way, d at the me time,here werthese hu e shee that we just cong inast, andeard the loud thus and bus on theide of the hous and figuredut at was pbably thice shee hat oke aparfrom t river tt are hiing the use. and aft the wat went ba into thriver, tre was jt bro, stickyud all over the gund wherer the wer

uche that m was on p of hese ste--1, 2, and 4. flos in decber are common. the rirs are ually fron all e way ti spring. and alsthe erosn that we're facing re. the rmer teeraturesre causi the permafst to me, and th permafro to melt affects the land through erosion. so, the erosion cuts off some land that falls in the riv, and we losquite a t each yr. is sprin my dad d i, we measud how fait was. his yeare lost out 8 fe, d each ar we lo another 5 fee and we ve anoth0 or so fe left unil the nk of th rierreacheshe house ifit kps movinat the se te, thenn the ne few years, then we might have to move the house to another

location. it does scare , because we don't know ifhere'll be an icepackr noin the fure. but if tre'not, theit wld be mu harder harvest seal r r subsisnce way lifesty, especily for t seal o that weheavily pend on, d it's part our eveday lives. th warmer mperatur could afft our y of lifout here and if weidn't get comout herand do a of thisith pickinberries any of at, itwould hard onur famil a not onlmy famil butll the falies in e communy well, bause abo 90% or of ouriet year-rounis from the tura or thocean. a it wilbe hareconomally. yeah, w're ally depdent on l thisood thate get, a 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. >> one 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 e 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. ñrç rcrcrcrcrcrcrcrcrcrcq

ç this is "focus on europe." i'm lara babalola, welcome. russia's war in ukraine has severely impacted europe's energy supply and forced countries to find alternatives to get through the winter. securing pipelines and the power grids has also been crucial. that's why the sabotage on the nord stream pipelines last september caused ala for european governments. the explosions destroyed parts of the underwater gas pipes running between russia and germany. gas was sent spewing to the surface of the baltic sea.