Resilience: Climate Security and Preserving Democracy

The climate is changing.

Climate Security is now the province of the local emergency manager.

We have been witnessing extreme weather events for the last several decades in the United States. Wildfires, mudslides, flooding, intense hurricanes, and tornados have all increased in occurrence since the late 20thcentury.

And increased in impact, with trillions of dollars being supplied by governments to deal with the health and safety of communities, and the restoration of the viability for people and institutions to restore themselves.

Local communities are the places where these things occur. And local responders are the ones dealing with the immediate and long-term impacts. Local officials find themselves in the center of these events, trying to restore normalcy and engage the community as the rebuild begins.

They are too often given the mantle of resiliency, and held accountable for the esprit de corps.

Climate Resiliency in our communities should be a priority for every state, county, and local official.

Increasingly, as climate change events continue to occur, government resources become taxed and overburdened, causing a reevaluation of policy priorities.

In local communities, this may cause a shift in dollars to fire and police budgets from other areas- economic development, recreation, rainy day funds, or infrastructure investments.

In rural counties this may mean diminished support for farmers, schools, and roads. In poorer counties this may take away from the social net spending that affects seniors, youth activities, and those that deal with mental illness.

In all these communities, volunteer resources from businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals are also drained. Goodwill has limits at the local level.

In short, the fabric that sustains our communities becomes frayed, challenging our will to exist peaceably with each other.

Human Leverage

Humanity has never had such leverage over the environment.

No Pharoah, Emperor, Queen, Sultan, Tlatoani, or Czar has had an ability to impact global temperatures or weather patterns as we have today.

In the approximate 300 years since we have been using fossil fuels to empower our way of life, surface temperatures have risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit, with the fastest growth occurring in the last 100 years.

The quest for fossil fuels became the center for competition among nations in those 100 years, becoming an underlying cause for world wars and many other regional conflicts.

Petropolitics defined the period.

Now we deal with the long-term impacts of the era as we race to become more sustainable. The climate is the focus now and how to moderate our influence on it.

Our impact on the world has never been greater. We are racing to become better stewards of this place we call earth.

At scale, there are examples of climate issues leading to destabilization of the social order. The war in Syria precipitated by mass migrations due to drought, the war in Somalia because of food insecurity and migrations, and the challenges in Pakistan because of severe flooding leading to power outages and diminished heath care.

While these issues of climate change impacts are in other countries, we can look much closer to home for issues in the United States.

The recent fires on the Hawaiian Island of Maui destroyed hundreds of homes, displacing thousands of residents.

The 1000 wildfires in Canada this summer negatively impacted the air quality in Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and Atlanta, among others.

Most recently, coastal flooding in NYC shut down large parts of the subway system, stranding many passengers and disrupting economic activity along those lines. 7 inches of rain in 24 hours stalled cars, busses, and suspended air travel.

Michigan has been experiencing power outages due to severe storms. The average customer in Michigan experienced 14.6 hours of no service, about double the national average of 7.3 hours in 2021.

These local issues keep front line workers busy and test the ability of local responders to reestablish order amidst cascading crises.

Doom vs. Hope

There are plenty of scenarios that play out doom and gloom… an inclement habitation zone…mass migrations…food insecurity…poor morale and increased issues of mental health…wars erupting as humanity fights over new scarcities.

But there is hope.

Local officials must incorporate resiliency efforts in their regular planning to mitigate against extreme weather events. Discussion should be had with local scientists about the potential impacts of climate change and how to remediate them.

Combating disinformation is also key. Many rumors and false hoods can be promulgated for political gains or for criminal activity. Local EM officials should work through methods to authenticate information, so that proper dissemination may occur.

Lastly, lets educate our children as they need to prepare to become leaders in this world. They will only inherit what we leave behind, so they will benefit from a head start in digesting these issues.

We can only save the planet one person at a time.