>> today, on "earth focus," e risingost of ahanging 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, andivelihoo 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

o ability to rvive. >> in this crisis, 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 already 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 threatto

li on eartas we kn it day. ands time gs on, thossevere teats bece greer and gater, an uimately think ha the tentialf becomi castroph. >> en if yo're sptical aboutlimate cnge, the's denng that t presen major rks that companycity, or untry c afford ignore. >> i belve the arican buness comnity cannd must ad the w in helpg to ruce thesrisks. to rise the chaenges climatchange, ey must so w. this not a pblem for anotr day. t investmts we're maki today wl detmine ourconomic ture. >> according to the u.s. government's 2014 national ctesmen 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 us that thclimateis changg, cnging radly, andhanging prarily beuse of han activits. e science tells us that. extreme events are one of the

most important parts of our changing climate and having very serious rificatio on our society. in particular, we're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. one othe thin we' seeing isthat theet are gting wetteand the y are geing der. >> yoknow wha i was--was born he in plaview, i s raised in plainviewi'velways been in ainview,nd it ju-- itseems li it is dng noing but tting hoer and driernd less in yearl

it'been aough droht. in 20, we hadike 29 ihes of rainand i di't ink there'd evere anothepoor da. in 201 we had inches ofain. wor drought'd er see and 11 was t first te we've ev had to andon ou cr. and wead to pi and choe whiccrop we re gonna savewhich cr we wereonna abaon. and,an, thatas-- that walike choing whh child weere gonnlose, or leave bend, and never h to that bore. we ways had enou water tmake tha oice. this isy far thworst i've er see it'by farhe rst a buch of pple have eveseen it. wel the oth day i w blding fee and ju driving ow withhe windo down, a

thehermomet was reang 0-plus. u'llook at 1. >> we wr twhats. we u our fming hato raise theeed sour, and th we use our cooy or oucattlem's hat toaise theattle onur paste land. corn doenot do wl in the heat. that's a probm right ther corn do not polnate well. th's ne of oufeed source cattleo not doell abo 95 degrs. just ke you. y don't like stand oside hen it's 95 drees. the's dferenceetween aow and you. cattle mbers a down. cow herdare goindown dai. us we're losincargill's,

packinplants. , just-- there's notnough cale to keephem openthese communits are drng up. the taxase is ding up. when t cargilplant cled we lost,200 jobinstantl so that s 10% ofur pulationwhen i dve by th ant and see thatmpty parkingot, it jt remindme how ma jobs we lost, how manpeople we affect, how iaffectedur busins. >> you kw, some ople say his is t new norl, that is is wh we' gonna srt eeing althe timeif we ge rain, i'll lucky. but we n adapt.here's no uestion out it. may not g our fir choice,ut we ca adt. we're gonnaeed the bghtest othe brig to meet the chaenges. 's nna be tougher do thisn the ne 20 yearthan it s to geto

the mo. >> anoer day rain, ather day of wking inse. anoth day thawe can't takeare of the crs. when i'm in the middle of a rainstorm or in the middle of the conitions wre it's hard fous to beble to danything t in theield, i's to muddytoo wet,r somethg going n, you ow. and en you ave thatext eventhat you see comi and y wonder,ow are youonna get all your rk done? w are yogonna ta

care of e crop t way it should btaken ca of? we' been he in iowabout 35 yea now. i've beefarming since was 15.o this imy 46 crop that we' putting ut. and just ses that we' having re extre events. theast sevel years,he volility hajust bee extre. you kw, we ha those rain eves that a 3, 4, 5 ihes inn hour, 6 or 8 10 inch in a 24our peri. and the are ju not norl. and 's the kind oevents that 's ve hard tolan for ando reallyry to migate. whw. man! at'windy. wh this cess moiure, we're goingo have se diseas roblem iour cornnd our oybeans,ecause othe exce wet, bause of e excess huidity. s? very srt.

it's, uh, bwn-looki. don'have tooany root and it'just sufring frotoo uch moisre. ll, younow, andefore th las3 or 4 yrs, clime change--guess myision ofhe world oclimate ange was abo a few pple tryi to make moy on theeal, to y scare eugh peop into investg in, yoknow, technoly and nethings tt would usless fue that wod mitigatsome of the efcts that they claim was going to happen, and particularly the heat. but as a farmer in the la severalears, were actuallseeing tse changes happehere on e farm. we're having more and more extreme events, you know, whher it's heat ocold or too much rain or not enough rain. in the last 10 years, our costs

torow a cr have go up lmost alst 5 tim. uh, you know, we've added equipment so we can plant and hvest in much shoer time window. 'vebeen mormindful of th soil cver that we have beuse of t seriousain eves. those blessin that weave to be out with mher natu anto adjusto the cnging seaso that weave are ally natural r us. wh is unnatural is theast pacehat e'reaving todjust 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, 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 then one woman also died at her home. it just kept happening and happening all summer long. traditionally, march was the snowiest 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 changed 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 fast pace of clime change iclearly en on 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 in harm's way, viously en a storm ds strikethe onsequens are en 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 county, very close to the coast. so, we are coastalountry,f you wi. what climate change is gonna do, thmost imprtant iact to coaal areass gonna me throh sea lel rise. d that mes that cstal floing gets wor, coasl erosi gets rse, we're gon see coastal eas inunted. and ifact, thimportanthing , this inot someing abou the fure. it's alrey hapening n. virgin beach, miam 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 thing iwhat putmillionsf amerans at risevery 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. 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 reair and covery, th for the hoowners awell as e 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 to shore up our coastlines and make america safe for people to live in the face of this extreme weather. >> nativalaskansre on th frontlinof clima change. ver the st 50 yes, alask has wmed twe as fasas the tional arage. meltg permafrost and coastal sea ice, as well as increasing eroon are vibly chaing people's lives. >>e take askan nate commities th are almt sely--in der for transpoation, 's eier very traditiol method so eith ocn-going,anoes, oon foot, in swshoes, in someases, owmobile and it's diffult to maintain that subsistence lifestyle when the changes are impacting the food resources,

likmarine mmals, umor peafrost ithawed, d so ccess ttraditiol homelas for carou or fomoose ar impted byarying asons. yo're arting tsee earlr aws, sohe timin of hunt and gaerings a impacte and soconsequtly, whamay have haened thimonth in years st now h to beumped up, in me cases month earer. and we' startin to s a changin how w ierpret t environnt aroun us. >>kipnuk, 's small communy. a vilge. it's not ally concted to thoutside rld. but was alys interested in wt's gng on alaround u i was rious out clime chan and howt was afcting s. i di't reize how d it s. when finally derstood

what cmate chnge was, thoug, what cld i do help? i thout that wld help lot tell mytory of w we're beng affecd by clite chang on ts side othe worl it's most about t winter cong late.he snow uld uslly comeround seember or oober. bufor the st year it'been comg around novemr. inecember 08, it was the worst flood that i remember. you could seall of ts water ju flowinswiftly to the villagthat wayand at t same te, thereere theshuge icsheets tt were jt coming in fas and hea these ld thmps and mps on t side of the use. ani figur out thatas probay the icsheets that bre apart om the rer hat are tting thhouse. andfter theater wenback ino the rir, thereas just brown, icky mudll over e grod wherev the wat

toched. tat mud w on top these steps--1, 23, and 4 flods in dember aruncommon the rirs are ually fron all e way ti spring. and alsthe erosn that 're cing he. the waer mperatur are caung the rmafrosto melt, d the peafrost tmelt affts the and throh erosio so, the erosiocuts offome landhat falls to the rer, and lose que a bit ch year. is sprin my dad d i, measurehow far was. this ar we lt about feet, and eh year wlost anoer feet. and whave anoer 40 oro feet lefuntil e bank othe riverreacheshe house if iteeps movg at theame rate, en in thnext few years,hen we mht have ve the hse to anher

locati. it doesscare mebecause don't know if the'lle an icepa or not the fute. but ifhere's not, tn it ould be ch hardeto harve sl for ousubsistee way of lifesty, especily for t seal o that weheavily pend on, and 's art of o everydalives. e warmetemperates could afft our waof life t here. d if weidn'get to ce out here d do anyf this wh picking rries orny of th, would hard onur famil nd not oy my famy, but a e famili in the mmunity well, bause abo 90% or our dt year-und is fm the tund or the ean. andt will hard ecomically yeah, w're ally depdent on l thisood thate get, a 'm ve thankfufor it. >> [lahing]

>> 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 then 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 protecting 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 the more severe the consequences, on a scale that we may not ever want to see.

04/17/23 04/17/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we found out it is not protected in one area, but in the tri-state area. it is happening in other cities around sudan where the armed forces