Let's prepare for our new climate
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0:00 - 0:05This is the skyline of my hometown, New Orleans.
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0:05 - 0:08It was a great place to grow up,
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0:08 - 0:12but it's one of the most vulnerable spots in the world.
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0:12 - 0:14Half the city is already below sea level.
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0:14 - 0:18In 2005, the world watched as New Orleans
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0:18 - 0:21and the Gulf Coast were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
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0:21 - 0:28One thousand, eight hundred and thirty-six people died. Nearly 300,000 homes were lost.
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0:28 - 0:30These are my mother's, at the top --
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0:30 - 0:31although that's not her car,
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0:31 - 0:34it was carried there by floodwaters up to the roof --
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0:34 - 0:36and that's my sister's, below.
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0:36 - 0:40Fortunately, they and other family members got out in time,
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0:40 - 0:42but they lost their homes, and as you can see,
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0:42 - 0:45just about everything in them.
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0:45 - 0:47Other parts of the world have been hit by storms
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0:47 - 0:49in even more devastating ways.
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0:49 - 0:52In 2008, Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath
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0:52 - 0:55killed 138,000 in Myanmar.
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0:55 - 0:59Climate change is affecting our homes, our communities,
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0:59 - 1:01our way of life. We should be preparing
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1:01 - 1:05at every scale and at every opportunity.
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1:05 - 1:09This talk is about being prepared for, and resilient to
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1:09 - 1:11the changes that are coming and that will affect our homes
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1:11 - 1:14and our collective home, the Earth.
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1:14 - 1:18The changes in these times won't affect us all equally.
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1:18 - 1:21There are important distributional consequences,
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1:21 - 1:23and they're not what you always might think.
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1:23 - 1:26In New Orleans, the elderly and female-headed households
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1:26 - 1:28were among the most vulnerable.
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1:28 - 1:30For those in vulnerable, low-lying nations,
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1:30 - 1:33how do you put a dollar value on losing your country
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1:33 - 1:38where you ancestors are buried? And where will your people go?
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1:38 - 1:40And how will they cope in a foreign land?
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1:40 - 1:42Will there be tensions over immigration,
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1:42 - 1:46or conflicts over competition for limited resources?
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1:46 - 1:51It's already fueled conflicts in Chad and Darfur.
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1:51 - 1:55Like it or not, ready or not, this is our future.
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1:55 - 1:59Sure, some are looking for opportunities in this new world.
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1:59 - 2:02That's the Russians planting a flag on the ocean bottom
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2:02 - 2:05to stake a claim for minerals under the receding Arctic sea ice.
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2:05 - 2:09But while there might be some short-term individual winners,
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2:09 - 2:12our collective losses will far outweigh them.
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2:12 - 2:14Look no further than the insurance industry as they struggle
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2:14 - 2:16to cope with mounting catastrophic losses
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2:16 - 2:19from extreme weather events.
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2:19 - 2:22The military gets it. They call climate change
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2:22 - 2:25a threat multiplier that could harm stability and security,
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2:25 - 2:28while governments around the world are evaluating
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2:28 - 2:30how to respond.
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2:30 - 2:34So what can we do? How can we prepare and adapt?
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2:34 - 2:37I'd like to share three sets of examples, starting with
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2:37 - 2:40adapting to violent storms and floods.
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2:40 - 2:43In New Orleans, the I-10 Twin Spans,
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2:43 - 2:46with sections knocked out in Katrina, have been rebuilt
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2:46 - 2:5021 feet higher to allow for greater storm surge.
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2:50 - 2:52And these raised and energy-efficient homes
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2:52 - 2:55were developed by Brad Pitt and Make It Right
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2:55 - 2:58for the hard-hit Ninth Ward.
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2:58 - 3:01The devastated church my mom attends has been
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3:01 - 3:04not only rebuilt higher, it's poised to become
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3:04 - 3:06the first Energy Star church in the country.
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3:06 - 3:08They're selling electricity back to the grid
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3:08 - 3:12thanks to solar panels, reflective paint and more.
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3:12 - 3:15Their March electricity bill was only 48 dollars.
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3:15 - 3:19Now these are examples of New Orleans rebuilding in this way,
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3:19 - 3:24but better if others act proactively with these changes in mind.
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3:24 - 3:28For example, in Galveston, here's a resilient home
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3:28 - 3:30that survived Hurricane Ike,
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3:30 - 3:33when others on neighboring lots clearly did not.
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3:33 - 3:36And around the world, satellites and warning systems
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3:36 - 3:40are saving lives in flood-prone areas such as Bangladesh.
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3:40 - 3:43But as important as technology and infrastructure are,
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3:43 - 3:47perhaps the human element is even more critical.
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3:47 - 3:50We need better planning and systems for evacuation.
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3:50 - 3:54We need to better understand how people make decisions
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3:54 - 3:56in times of crisis, and why.
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3:56 - 4:00While it's true that many who died in Katrina did not have access to transportation,
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4:00 - 4:03others who did refused to leave as the storm approached,
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4:03 - 4:07often because available transportation and shelters
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4:07 - 4:09refused to allow them to take their pets.
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4:09 - 4:14Imagine leaving behind your own pet in an evacuation or a rescue.
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4:14 - 4:17Fortunately in 2006, Congress passed
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4:17 - 4:21the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (Laughter)
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4:21 - 4:25— it spells "PETS" — to change that.
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4:25 - 4:28Second, preparing for heat and drought.
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4:28 - 4:31Farmers are facing challenges of drought from Asia
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4:31 - 4:33to Africa, from Australia to Oklahoma,
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4:33 - 4:36while heat waves linked with climate change
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4:36 - 4:38have killed tens of thousands of people
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4:38 - 4:44in Western Europe in 2003, and again in Russia in 2010.
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4:44 - 4:49In Ethiopia, 70 percent, that's 7-0 percent of the population,
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4:49 - 4:52depends on rainfall for its livelihood.
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4:52 - 4:56Oxfam and Swiss Re, together with Rockefeller Foundation,
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4:56 - 4:59are helping farmers like this one build hillside terraces
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4:59 - 5:02and find other ways to conserve water,
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5:02 - 5:06but they're also providing for insurance when the droughts do come.
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5:06 - 5:08The stability this provides is giving the farmers
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5:08 - 5:10the confidence to invest.
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5:10 - 5:13It's giving them access to affordable credit.
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5:13 - 5:15It's allowing them to become more productive so that
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5:15 - 5:18they can afford their own insurance over time, without assistance.
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5:18 - 5:21It's a virtuous cycle, and one that could be replicated
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5:21 - 5:23throughout the developing world.
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5:23 - 5:26After a lethal 1995 heat wave
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5:26 - 5:29turned refrigerator trucks from the popular
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5:29 - 5:32Taste of Chicago festival into makeshift morgues,
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5:32 - 5:34Chicago became a recognized leader,
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5:34 - 5:37tamping down on the urban heat island impact
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5:37 - 5:39through opening cooling centers,
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5:39 - 5:42outreach to vulnerable neighborhoods, planting trees,
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5:42 - 5:45creating cool white or vegetated green roofs.
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5:45 - 5:49This is City Hall's green roof, next to Cook County's [portion of the] roof,
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5:49 - 5:52which is 77 degrees Fahrenheit hotter at the surface.
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5:52 - 5:57Washington, D.C., last year, actually led the nation
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5:57 - 6:00in new green roofs installed, and they're funding this in part
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6:00 - 6:03thanks to a five-cent tax on plastic bags.
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6:03 - 6:06They're splitting the cost of installing these green roofs
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6:06 - 6:08with home and building owners.
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6:08 - 6:10The roofs not only temper urban heat island impact
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6:10 - 6:13but they save energy, and therefore money,
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6:13 - 6:15the emissions that cause climate change,
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6:15 - 6:17and they also reduce stormwater runoff.
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6:17 - 6:22So some solutions to heat can provide for win-win-wins.
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6:22 - 6:26Third, adapting to rising seas.
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6:26 - 6:30Sea level rise threatens coastal ecosystems, agriculture,
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6:30 - 6:33even major cities. This is what one to two meters
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6:33 - 6:36of sea level rise looks like in the Mekong Delta.
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6:36 - 6:39That's where half of Vietnam's rice is grown.
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6:39 - 6:42Infrastructure is going to be affected.
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6:42 - 6:44Airports around the world are located on the coast.
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6:44 - 6:46It makes sense, right? There's open space,
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6:46 - 6:49the planes can take off and land without worrying about
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6:49 - 6:51creating noise or avoiding tall buildings.
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6:51 - 6:54Here's just one example, San Francisco Airport,
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6:54 - 6:57with 16 inches or more of flooding.
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6:57 - 7:00Imagine the staggering cost of protecting
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7:00 - 7:03this vital infrastructure with levees.
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7:03 - 7:04But there might be some changes in store
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7:04 - 7:07that you might not imagine. For example,
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7:07 - 7:10planes require more runway for takeoff
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7:10 - 7:14because the heated, less dense air, provides for less lift.
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7:14 - 7:17San Francisco is also spending 40 million dollars
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7:17 - 7:20to rethink and redesign its water and sewage treatment,
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7:20 - 7:24as water outfall pipes like this one can be flooded with seawater,
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7:24 - 7:27causing backups at the plant, harming the bacteria
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7:27 - 7:28that are needed to treat the waste.
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7:28 - 7:30So these outfall pipes have been retrofitted
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7:30 - 7:34to shut seawater off from entering the system.
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7:34 - 7:37Beyond these technical solutions, our work
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7:37 - 7:38at the Georgetown Climate Center with communities
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7:38 - 7:42encourages them to look at what existing legal and policy tools are available
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7:42 - 7:46and to consider how they can accommodate change.
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7:46 - 7:49For example, in land use, which areas do you want
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7:49 - 7:52to protect, through adding a seawall, for example,
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7:52 - 7:55alter, by raising buildings, or retreat from,
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7:55 - 7:58to allow the migration of important natural systems,
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7:58 - 8:01such as wetlands or beaches?
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8:01 - 8:03Other examples to consider. In the U.K.,
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8:03 - 8:07the Thames Barrier protects London from storm surge.
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8:07 - 8:09The Asian Cities Climate [Change] Resilience Network
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8:09 - 8:12is restoring vital ecosystems like forest mangroves.
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8:12 - 8:15These are not only important ecosystems in their own right,
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8:15 - 8:20but they also serve as a buffer to protect inland communities.
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8:20 - 8:24New York City is incredibly vulnerable to storms,
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8:24 - 8:27as you can see from this clever sign, and to sea level rise,
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8:27 - 8:30and to storm surge, as you can see from the subway flooding.
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8:30 - 8:34But back above ground, these raised ventilation grates
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8:34 - 8:36for the subway system show that solutions can be both
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8:36 - 8:39functional and attractive. In fact, in New York,
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8:39 - 8:42San Francisco and London, designers have envisioned
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8:42 - 8:45ways to better integrate the natural and built environments
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8:45 - 8:47with climate change in mind.
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8:47 - 8:50I think these are inspiring examples of what's possible
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8:50 - 8:53when we feel empowered to plan for a world that will be different.
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8:53 - 8:57But now, a word of caution.
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8:57 - 8:59Adaptation's too important to be left to the experts.
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8:59 - 9:03Why? Well, there are no experts.
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9:03 - 9:06We're entering uncharted territory, and yet
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9:06 - 9:10our expertise and our systems are based on the past.
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9:10 - 9:13"Stationarity" is the notion that we can anticipate the future
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9:13 - 9:16based on the past, and plan accordingly,
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9:16 - 9:18and this principle governs much of our engineering,
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9:18 - 9:21our design of critical infrastructure, city water systems,
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9:21 - 9:25building codes, even water rights and other legal precedents.
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9:25 - 9:29But we can simply no longer rely on established norms.
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9:29 - 9:33We're operating outside the bounds of CO2 concentrations
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9:33 - 9:37that the planet has seen for hundreds of thousands of years.
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9:37 - 9:41The larger point I'm trying to make is this.
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9:41 - 9:44It's up to us to look at our homes and our communities,
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9:44 - 9:47our vulnerabilities and our exposures to risk,
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9:47 - 9:51and to find ways to not just survive, but to thrive,
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9:51 - 9:53and it's up to us to plan and to prepare
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9:53 - 9:56and to call on our government leaders and require them
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9:56 - 9:58to do the same, even while they address
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9:58 - 10:01the underlying causes of climate change.
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10:01 - 10:03There are no quick fixes.
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10:03 - 10:06There are no one-size-fits-all solutions.
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10:06 - 10:08We're all learning by doing.
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10:08 - 10:12But the operative word is doing.
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10:12 - 10:14Thank you. (Applause)
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10:14 - 10:18(Applause)
- Title:
- Let's prepare for our new climate
- Speaker:
- Vicki Arroyo
- Description:
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Set aside the politics: Data shows that climate change is happening, measurably, now. And as Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for the new climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the world -- local examples of thinking ahead.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:36
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Let's prepare for our new climate |