>> today, on "earth focus," thrising ct of a cnging 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 lelihood. 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 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 thres to

fe on eah as we ow it today. a as timeoes on, the severehreats bome gater andreater, d ltimateli think ve the potenti of becong atastroic. >>ven if y'rekeptical abo climatehange, tre'no dying thait prests major isks thano compa, city, countryan afforto ignor >> i bieve themerican siness cmunity c and mus lead theay in heing toeduce the risks. to risto the cllenges of clime changethey musdo snow. thiis not aroblem for anher day.he invesents we're mang todayill dermine o economifuture. >> 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 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 ev be anotr poor da. in 21, we ha5 inches rain. wst droug i'ever sn. an2011 washe firstime w've er had tabandon r op. and had to ck and choe which crop we re gonna savewhich cr we wereonna abaon. and,an, thatas-- at walike choing whic child were goa lose, leave hind, anwe neverad tdo thatefore. walways h engh watero make tt choice. >> this by far e worst i've ev seen.t'by farhe worst a nch ofeople ha er seen i wl, the oer day ias uilding nce and st drivi slow wi the winws down,nd

t thermomer was rding 120-plusyou' cook at20. >> we wr two ts. we u our farng h to rais t feed soce, and en we us our wboy or r cattlen's hat raise t cattle our paste land. corn ds not doell in t heatso that's a prlem righ the. corn es not plinate well. at'one of r feed sourcs. catt do not well abve 95 deees. juslike you ou don't likto standutside when 's 95egrees. ere'no ifferen between cow and you cattlnumbersre down. cow hes are gog down dly. thus we're losg cargi's,

packg plantsuh, just ther's n enough ttle to ke them op. these communies are ying up. the t base isrying up >> whenhe cargl plant osed we lo 2,200 js instany, so thawas 10% our populati. when irive by at plant ani see th empty parki lot, itust remis me of how ny jobs re lost, how my peopleere affeed, howt affect our busess. >> younow, sompeople s this ishe new nmal, tha this is at we're gonnatart seeing l the ti. if we t rain, 'llbe lucky >> but wcan adap there's no questioabout itwe may n et our fst choic but we n apt. we're gon need th rightestf the brht to me the cllengesit'gonna be tougheto do th in the xt 20 yes than iwas to g to

the on. >> anther daof rain,nother day oforking iide. anoer day tt we ca't ta care of the crs. when i'm in the middle of a rainstorm or in the middle of the cditionshere it's hard fous to able too anythi out in t field, 's o mud, too we or someing goinon, youknow. anthen you have th next evt that y see cong and ou wonde how are y gonna get all youwork donehow are u gonna ke

care othe crophe way i shoulde taken re of? we've been re in io about 35 yrs now.'ve bn farmin sinci was 15 so thiss my 46 crop that we're putti ut. and just ses that 'reaving more extre ents. the lt severayears, t volatity has st been extrem you kno we havehose in eventthat are, 4, 5 incs in ahour, or or 8 or inchesn a 24-hr period and thosare justot norma and it's thoskind of ents that it's veryard to pn for and treally t to mitite. whe man! th's ndy. witthis exss moiste, we're going thave somdisease pblem in r corn a our oybeans,ecause othe exce wet, bause of e excess humity. seevery sho.

it' uh, bro-looking does't ve too my roots,nd 's st suffeng from o mh moistu. wel, you kw, and bore the last or 4 yea, climat ange--i ess my vion of t rld of imate chge was about few peoe tryingo ake moneon the dl, to tr tocare enoh peoplento investinin, you ow, chnologand new ings tha uld use ss fuel,hat woul tigate me of the effects that they claim was going to happen, and particularly the heat. but as a farmer in the lasteveral yrs, we a tually eing tho changes happehere on e farm. we're having more and more extreme events, you know, whetr it's heat or ld or too much rain or not enough rain. in the last 10 years, our costs

to gw a cropave gonep aost almo 5 times uh, you know, we've added equipment so we can plant and harst in a ch short time ndow. w've en more ndful of theoil cver that we have becae of theerious rn 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 hom it just kt happenin 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 equentlyand thatort of hing is at puts llions o americs at risk ery 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 repr and revery, bo for the homeners as ll as th publicnfrastruure 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. >> nate alaska are on e frontle of clite chang over thlast 50 ars, alaa has wmed twe as fasas the nationalverage. meing permafrost and coastal sea ice, as well as increasing esion areisibly cnging people's lives we takelaskan nive counities at are aost olely--iorder fo transrtation,t's ther ver traditnal meths, so eier ean-goin canoes,r on foo snowsho, or in me cases snowmoles. andt's fficult to maintain that subsistence lifestyle when the changes are impacting the food resources,

lie marineammals, , or rmafrosts thawedand so accesso traditnal homends for cibou or r moose e iacted varyinseasons. y'restartingo see eaier thaws, the timgs of hus and theringsre impacd. and conseently, wt may have ppened ts month years st nowas to beumped up, in me cases month earer. and we' startin toee a chae in howe nterprethe envirment arod us. kipnukit'a small commity. a vlage. 's noreally cnected t e outsidworld. b i was ways interested inhat' oing on l arounds. i wascuriousabout clate chge and h it was fecting us. i dn't alize hobad it was. whei finallundersto

whatlimate ange wa i thoht, whatould i dto hel i thght thatould hela lot tell mytory ohow we're beng affted by cmate chae onhis sidef the wod. 's moly abouthe winte ming lat the snowould ually co around ptember or october. t for thpast yes, it's been cing around novber. inecembe2008, it was the worst flood that i remember. you could e all ofhis wate st flowig swiftlinto the villagthat wayand athe sameime, the were the huge e sheetshat wereust comi in fas and hea theseoud thmps and mps on t side of the use. ani figur out thatas probay the ice sheets that bre apart om the rer that arhitting e house. a after t water wt back to the ver, the was jus brown, icky mudll over the gund wherer the wer

uched.hat mudas on toof these steps--1,, 3, and. oods inecember e uncomm. the vers aresually fzen althe way ll sprin and ao the erion thate're facing re. the rmer mperates are csing the permafro to meltand the rmafrosto melt aects the land thugh erosn. so, t erosn cuts o some la that fallinto theiver, anwe lose ite a bieach yea is sprg, my daand i, measurehow far was. this ar we ost abou8 feet, andach yeare lost ather 5 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 do't kw 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.

>> hello and welcome to "focus on europe." it's nice to have you here with us. desperation is driving more and more people to europe, many attempt to reach the continent via the dangerous crossing of the mediterranean sea. every week, thousands of people entrust their lives to unscrupulous smugglers, paying huge sums of cash for passage in boats that are barely seaworthy. their goal is a better future. but time and time again, refugees and migrants find themselves in distress at sea, with dramatic, and sometimes