Photo by Yelena Odintsova

The Climate Crisis - What Can We Do to Prevent Disaster?

Climate change is happening quickly on this planet, due to our planet's increasing reliance on fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas for heating purposes.

World leaders are proposing solutions to reduce emissions and build resilience, but these policies need the support of citizens. That is why it's vital we pressurize governments and corporations into taking action.

1. Mitigation

Mitigation is the best way to safeguard people and their property against climate impacts, by limiting greenhouse gas production by improving energy efficiency, producing clean energy sources and restricting fossil fuel usage. Unfortunately, however, implementation of mitigation measures often faces various barriers; economic, social and political hurdles often preclude their successful implementation; many communities reject such programs due to being seen as restrictive, costly or incompatible with economic development goals of communities.

As our planet warms rapidly, every child stands a greater risk of harm or even death from climate hazards such as air pollution, cyclones, drought, flooding, disease outbreaks, heatwaves and water scarcity. Children are especially vulnerable due to having less resources at their disposal to respond effectively when disasters strike.

Weather- and climate-related disasters have become more frequent and severe across all continents, costing an estimated USD520 billion per year and plunging millions into poverty or leading to humanitarian crises.

These costs and consequences can be avoided. A key priority should be shifting global production and consumption towards greener production and consumption practices, including by increasing clean energy deployment, setting ambitious carbon reduction targets, and developing national roadmaps to meet them. Also crucial are supporting and strengthening adaptation efforts - for instance building resilience into new infrastructure assets may increase initial costs by only 3 per cent while providing benefits that far outweigh this increase; such as protecting lives and property against climate impacts.

Now is our moment to address climate change head-on. To do so, we must invest in clean energy through investments and tax credits to bring down sticker prices of electric vehicles; weatherize homes and businesses to save American families an average of $500 annually on energy costs; weatherize properties to save energy through weatherization efforts; protect Americans from fossil fuel price spikes through an effective climate security strategy that includes strong military capabilities to defend against Russian aggression or threats from states that wish to undermine our clean energy progress; and continue safeguarding them through climate security plans with robust military capabilities in place to defend against Russian aggression or threats from states seeking to undermine progress made towards cleaning up our energy resources; climate security plans must include provisions including strong military capabilities to defend against Russian aggression or threats from nations seeking to undermine our clean energy progress through robust climate security strategies designed to protect our families as Americans from rising fossil fuel price spikes through robust climate security strategies that include strong military capabilities to defend against Russia or from threats such as Iran who are seeking to undermine progress made; additionally we must keep Americans protected against fossil fuel price spikes through robust climate security plans that include military capabilities to defend against threats such as Iran or Russia which seek to undermine progress made.

2. Adaptation

Adaptation is one of the best ways to avoid disasters caused by climate change. This involves making adjustments in social-ecological systems (such as human communities) in order to better adapt to actual or expected environmental changes, while taking advantage of any beneficial opportunities created by climate change.

Climate change poses dangerous effects that must be mitigated quickly; to do this we must rapidly take measures to lower emissions, increase energy efficiency and build resilience. Yet these measures may not always be popular with voters; thus making gaining public support difficult for policies designed to ward off disasters or mitigate them difficult. UConn Department of Political Science Assistant Professor Talbot Andrews studies what affects public opinions and support when adapting to climate change.

Climate change makes many of its consequences easier and cheaper to protect ourselves against, making the steps we must take relatively straightforward and affordable. Installing an early warning system which provides climate forecasts can save lives while helping prepare people for storms, heat waves and other emergencies - research shows they reduce mortality by 30 percent and prevent costly forms of damage such as blocking doors with sandbags prior to floods or stockpiling supplies prior to wildfires.

It is also crucial that we invest in building the capacity of vulnerable communities to respond and recover from climate-induced natural disasters, including low-income areas, those experiencing homelessness or members of communities of color experiencing systemic racism. Such communities have already been severely impacted by extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change; as this frequency of climate-related disasters increases they will face even greater effects.

As we enter a crucial decade for climate action, it is critical that we act now to protect vulnerable communities and maintain development gains we've worked so hard for. By setting more ambitious emission reduction targets and expanding adaptation efforts while aligning these with national priorities, we can work toward building a safer, more prosperous, and sustainable future for all.

3. Resilience

Resilience refers to individuals' and communities' ability to prepare, adapt, recover from, and thrive in times of uncertainty. Disaster resilience calls for numerous approaches ranging from building more resilient infrastructure and homes, developing community risk assessment methods and engaging with federal agencies, states, local governments, businesses and communities on an integrated national strategy plan.

As our climate evolves, our world's inhabitants are becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards. Heat waves, droughts, floods, landslides and storms have become more frequent, intense and costly; forcing 26 million into poverty annually; endangering international peace and security; leading to forced population migration; forcing displacement of populations. The poor are especially at risk when natural disasters strike - their limited incomes and savings being easily decimated by these disasters; this should be addressed urgently to avoid economic losses escalation as well as instability or conflict escalation.

Disasters and weather-related climate events cost the global economy an estimated annual loss of some $520 billion dollars and plunge 26 million people into poverty each year, but reducing risks remains low on many countries and cities' agendas; as they see implementation costs as outweighing anticipated returns - which would be a mistake.

Communities across the globe possess the capacity to become more resilient, yet require support to make that a reality. Families and small firms with incentives to adapt require help with preparation, guidance on investments, financing - particularly as solutions often have high initial costs - before being implemented. Governments should integrate climate risks into urban and land-use planning to make infrastructure more resilient, while improving disaster data collection methods by creating a central agency which collates all pertinent information needed for informed decision making.

World leaders must also take immediate and decisive action to reduce carbon emissions. Failing to hold global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius would increase extreme weather- and climate-related disasters; worsen food insecurity, water shortages, climate refugees as well as create security threats for the United States.

4. Transition

The world must accelerate efforts to transition towards renewable and clean energy as an urgent response to the climate crisis that is now underway and escalating rapidly. This transition must occur rapidly for its success to be realized successfully and sustain itself into the future.

Only by rapidly switching to renewables and cutting back fossil fuel use can we avoid catastrophic 1.5degC of warming. Anything less will have serious repercussions for society as a whole, such as:

Global temperatures continue to increase at an unprecedented pace, yet no one appears capable of slowing them down. The United States made significant strides forward by passing one of its largest pieces of climate legislation ever: Inflation Reduction Act. This landmark bill puts America on course towards fulfilling President Biden's bold goals of net-zero carbon by 2050 and half way there during this decade.

Governments must step up efforts to reduce emissions, build resilience and adapt to climate change's effects. Established economies should meet their nationally determined contributions while emerging ones needing financial and knowledge support can access assistance for doing the same.

Developing countries are particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. They typically possess greater intrinsic vulnerability to weather-related hazards and lower capacity for risk reduction; as a result, these nations face greater disaster risks and economic losses from disasters - for instance Grenada suffered losses equaling 2.5 times its GDP from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 alone!

Weather and climate extremes strike every continent, costing billions each year in losses to businesses and forcing millions of people into poverty. Furthermore, climate change heightens competition for land, water and food sources resulting in social tensions which sometimes lead to mass displacements.

Climate change has devastating impacts, yet many voters remain reluctant to support measures designed to prevent or mitigate disasters due to investment requirements. UConn Department of Political Science Assistant Professor Talbot Andrews studies this reluctance as part of his research on what influences public opinion and support for adaptive policies related to climate change adaptation. He recently published research in Journal of Politics that demonstrated trust can erode when leaders fail to act decisively enough in protecting constituents against environmental disasters.