Top Three Things We Urge Obama to Do to Curb Climate Change--And Without Waiting for Congress

Frances Beinecke, President of NRDC, New York City

Most people don't think chocolate factories or hardware stores have much to do with climate change. Yet residents of Queens, New York have discovered that extreme weather can devastate local businesses. Hurricane Sandy swamped the Madelaine Chocolate Company, for instance, and two months later, owners were still clearing out mud and suspending pay for 450 employees. A nearby hardware store won't reopen until February and other businesses don't know if they will reopen at all.

Neighborhood residents are left reeling. "It's like anyone who didn't lose his home lost his job," Juan Colon told the New York Times.

When I first started working on climate change a decade ago, we spoke in terms of distant forecasts and long-range impacts. Now we simply look out the window to see what climate change can do to our communities. As demonstrated by the drought that gripped more than half the nation last summer or the intense storms that pummeled towns from Duluth to Queens, climate change is upending lives and costing billions of dollars.

We no longer have the luxury of time. We must act now to prevent more Americans from feeling the pain of lost jobs, destroyed homes, and shuttered businesses.

That is why NRDC and 68 other civic, healthcare, labor, and environmental groups are calling on President Obama to use his second term to take bold and decisive action on climate change.

This week we sent a letter outlining the top three things the president can do to defuse the climate threat. Right now. Using existing authority. And without movement in Congress.

First, we urge President Obama to elevate the issue of climate change in the public discourse. As my colleague Dan Lashof explains on his blog, the way the president talks about climate change has the ability to rally public support and build political will for climate solutions.

Hurricane Sandy debris in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Photo Credit: Sunset Parkerpix.

Second, we urge President Obama to use the Environmental Protection Agency's existing authority to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants-our nation's largest source of global warming pollution. NRDC has proposed a flexible, cost-effective plan for how the EPA can set standards that will reduce carbon pollution by 34 percent by 2026 compared to 2005 levels and generate between $25 and $60 billion in benefits by 2020.

Third, we urge President Obama to reject the use of the dirtiest fuels. Producing tar sands oil, for instance, generates three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as conventional crude-and that's even before we burn it in cars and trucks. As my colleague Susan Casey-Lefkowitz writes in her latest post, we can't rely on dirty tar sands oil without threatening our health and communities. That's why the president must reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

These three steps put America on a path toward climate stability. They will shield more Americans from devastating drought, heat waves, and storms. And they will unleash more investment in clean energy resources that generate jobs and make our air safer to breathe.

But we have to act now to reap the most benefits, because climate change isn't waiting. According to a NOAA report released on Tuesday, 2012 was the hottest year on record for the continental United States. Our climate is mutating before our eyes, and we must arrest its destructive changes.

President Obama recognizes this reality. He has already acted to cut carbon pollution from cars and new power plants and he recently said he would make climate change a top priority for his new term. He can begin by taking these three steps.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/top_three_things_we_urge_o

Maryland is Taking Action to Prepare for Rising Seas

Ben Chou, Water Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

As Hurricane Sandy vividly demonstrated in late October, coastal communities across the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to flooding and storm surge as sea levels rise. Storm surge from more extreme storms on top of higher sea levels increases coastal flooding by allowing floodwaters to move further inland, putting people, homes, and businesses in harm's way.

Given Maryland's thousands of miles of shoreline, coastal hazards are an ever-present threat. The state's coastal zone includes the 16 counties that border the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, and Potomac River-an area encompassing two-thirds of the state's total land, which contains nearly 70 percent of all residents. Since the early 1900s, relative sea levels along Maryland's coast have risen over one foot, placing 13 islands in Chesapeake Bay underwater. And approximately 580 acres of coastal land are lost to erosion every year.

• Abandoned home on Holland Island in 2009, which has since collapsed into the sea (photo credit: flickr user baldeaglebluff)

Rising seas due to warmer, expanding oceans and melting ice will only exacerbate existing coastal hazards, further jeopardizing communities in coastal areas. Relative sea levels are projected to rise by approximately one foot by mid-century and about three feet by the end of the century-though these projections were developed in 2008 and more recent data on rates of future sea level rise are now available. In fact, a 2012 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that rates of sea level rise along the mid-Atlantic coast (from Cape Hatteras to Boston) are three to four times greater than the global average primarily due to the weakening of ocean currents. Warmer water temperatures and melting glaciers are decreasing the density of water in the northern Atlantic, which is subsequently affecting ocean circulation patterns.

According to our recent report, Maryland has been among the leading states in the country when it comes to preparing for climate change impacts. And the state is not idly standing by. Last week Governor Martin O'Malley signed the Climate Change and Coast Smart Construction Executive Order, which will help to reduce flooding risks to state buildings and public infrastructure in coastal areas. The order directs:

• State agencies to consider coastal flooding and sea level rise risks in the siting, design, and construction of new state buildings and the reconstruction of substantially damaged state buildings;
• The Department of General Services to update its engineering and design guidelines to require state agencies to elevate new and rebuilt state structures two or more feet above the 100-year flood level;
• The Department of Natural Resources to develop recommendations for siting and design requirements for coastal state infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and water systems and non-state infrastructure that receive public funds;
• The Scientific and Technical Working Group of the state's climate change commission to update statewide sea level rise projections based on the latest climate science.

These are critical first steps that every coastal state should be taking to prepare communities for more extreme storms and higher seas. By not factoring climate change into fundamental land use and structural design decisions, states are turning a blind eye to a problem that will only get worse. It's time for other governors across the country to stop ignoring the problem and, like Governor O'Malley, start implementing solutions.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/bchou/maryland_is_taking_action_to_p