Transcripts For CSPAN Climate Change In The States 20240714

Welcome to our audience here and those of us joining us by livestream. We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of journalism education at drake. In 1919, ournning program has been characterized by a close relationship with our profession and service to the community. We are proud to continue the tradition by cohosting the conversation tonight about Climate Change with experts on the front lines of this pressing public issue. This event is brought to you through a collaboration between Drake University and the philanthropic we funded, philanthropically funded free service for journalists to accurateore credible, researchbased news stories. We are just wrapping up a boot camp at drake where journalists from around the country received briefings from experts on issues that will be prominent in the president ial campaign. To acknowledge and thank the provost in the front row who is herself a scientist. Also the former Washington Post science reporter and the entire team of scientists and science communicators who have worked so hard to organize this event. Remind folksnt to here and watching remotely that they are welcome to ask questions and join the conversation via twitter using the unitedstatesofclimate. Andse turn off your phones please do not use flash photography. Introducepleased to tonights moderator, miles obrien, an independent journalist who covers science, technology, and aerospace. He is a science correspondent for pbs newshour. A director, producer, and writer , a writernova series for cnn, and correspondent for the National Science foundations series. Please join me in welcoming him to the stage. Thank you. Good to be here. Thank you so much. It is great to see you all here. I will have our panelists get seated. It is good to be back in des moines. Moines wasip to des in 1998 following Michael Dukakis around. That was my first taste of deepfried butter. [laughter] i still remember it. I can still conjure up whatever it was that happened after the deepfried butter. It did not go so well for Michael Dukakis. He was at the fair and suggesting to corn farmers they plant more endive. Massachusetts, they just dont get it. [laughter] how many of you are familiar with the job of state by mattel climatologists . Their two states that do not have a state climatologist, tennessee and massachusetts. We have three allstar state climatologists here and we will ask them about what they do, evidence hear and the they are seeing from the front lines. Of clienteople think change as one big problem but it is a million little problems and all fought in a local, specific way. There are big things we can go after. There are a lot of Little Things we can do. These guys are in the trenches dealing with the Little Things and addressing the concerns of their neighbors. Ultimately, the people that are listened to the most ardent deniers andst to skeptics, or people who do not know what to do about it. Drove threemartha hours from nebraska to be here. I dont know what her Carbon Footprint was for the drive, but it was worth it. Hometownn is our favorite, who is a state climatologist for iowa. She recently was in oregon, an interesting switch. A big move. Theyre probably similarities on the states. All that stuff. A mirror image, right . Without going too deep into the bureaucratic machinations of what a state climatologist does, it is kind of like being the help desk for people in State Government and businesses. It is a little bit of an arbiter of good science, that kind of thing. I am curious who you consider your clients to be. Why dont you start . Climate touches everything and everyone. I found a job where i get to meddle in everyones affairs. Im interested in learning about so many things. You quickly become an expert in things you never thought you would think about or things you did not go to school for. I am a history major so i understand how this works. I work with a lot of somebody thats, makes a decision where climate will be a factor in it. Farmers, climate managers, and people in the public who just want to know what is going on. Anything you would like to add . Being a state climatologist in iowa, my clients are farmers. Farmers are very intuitive. Theyve been on their lands forever. Talking with them, they see what is happening. They see changes in the climate and the weather. It affects their crop yields. It affects what they do on a daytoday basis. Data, weather data, letting them know there is a 40 chance the next month will be above average temperature wise or precipitation lies, just to give them some guidance moving forward because it is somewhat reassuring being in a variable state weatherwise. Would you like to add any more to that . Ditooto. We are 400 miles to the west. That is what we deal with in nebraska. I showed a group of second graders weather stations and then gave an interview to Fuji Television station about the flood. They give you an idea of the range of people we communicate with on the complex topic of Climate Change. Want to talk about the flood and the wild weather and how that is impacting what you are hearing and who you are hearing from. It is interesting the two ladies on the panel are academics inside academic institutions with all the protections we associate with that for them to say whatever they want to say, despite with the governor may think. The gentleman in the middle is a state employee, so you are a little more vulnerable, i guess. [laughter] all, when it comes to denial is an investor nile denialism, is there pressure brought to bear on you to say one thing or another or can you just do your job so far, i can just do my job, at least until tonight. Was this one of the things i was not supposed to ask about . Deepfried butter. Levels. E care at all everybody is talking about it, cares about it, and wants to know what will happen and what are the solutions. In my role, i dont feel any pressure from above to speak a certain way. Good. Let it rip. Justin, you are a state employee. Your boss, the governor, is into renewables but not so much into believing Climate Change has a human component to it. Does that affect how you do your job . I have over 100 years of observations going back into the 1800s. Not alternative facts. Real facts. These are real facts and trends that i give to stakeholders and legislators, any level of the government, and i do not feel impeded in my position. Glad to hear that. She has the benefit of a governor who is in the forefront of suggesting drastic action to fight Climate Change. What has that been like for you . Well, it has been four weeks. [laughter] awesome, huh . One of the reasons i took the job in North Carolina is i was so encouraged by what was happening in the state. The state is obviously taking Climate Change seriously. We have coastal flooding, huge hurricanes. It is undeniable. Being part of that was exciting for me. Was that a big part of the move for you . Absolutely. Personally, this is the biggest problem of my generation and a bigger problem for the generation behind me. Also professionally, asking tough questions and trying to come up with solutions. As long as we are on the dangerous political shoals, lets keep going, shall we . With the complete lack of leadership in washington we have right now and going in the opposite direction, does that put more pressure and responsibility on the states to do something . Is there evidence that is happening . I think it does. Some of the best solutions are local solutions. You know what is going on in your area and the best way to solve it. I am finishing up a project where we worked with 11 cities where they are incorporating climate projections into planning documents. Hazard mitigation plans, emergency operating plans, they are looking at what the temperatures will look like. Need shelters and cooling shelters and snow removal . These are all things they are looking at. These are cities that chose to join the project and work with us to develop localized climate reports and tools for them Going Forward to enhance their decisionmaking. When i saw what was happening at the epa soon after the Trump Administration came in, i was trying to be optimistic and thought maybe the grassroots will be better. To the extent there is an absence of leadership in washington, i thought it would mobilize people at the local level to do more. What would you say . Iowa farmers are resilient individuals. They do not rely on anybody but themselves. Being told what to do is not something that goes over. Discussions to various groups across the state, farmers, schoolkids, each has a different, unique idea or view on what is going on. I talked to farmers often. They know what is going on. They know the Solutions Like cover crops and sequestration, these are things we can do on the state level that will start to impact moving forward and up. It has to be pragmatic when you are talking to a farmer, right . It cannot be way down the road. It has to be something that will help them in the relative near future. That might be a bit of a problem for a climatologist thinking and much longer terms. We talk about the weather a lot, which is shortterm variations in the atmosphere. Farmers are very seasonallybased because that is their livelihood. During the growing season, they want to get planted and harvested. Looking forward seasonally gives them an idea of what they can expect yield wise for example. Moving out further onto a seasonal, yearly, and multiyear gives them an idea of solutions they can start putting in place now that will benefit them moving forward. What about you . I think rahm emanuel said never waste a good crisis. We have a crisis of leadership in washington on Climate Change. Is that an opportunity to do something meaningful at the state level and in particular in North Carolina, after four weeks . [laughter] do you have it solved yet . Even when the federal government is moving, it is not our most nimble institution. When you think about large social issues, it is the states that start flipping and then we move as a country toward the direction of addressing the issue. With Greenhouse Gas mitigation, absolutely the states have a role to play showing leadership, standing up. California has been on the lead. Other states are trying as well. On adaptation and preparing for the impacts of Climate Change and becoming more resilient, local and state solutions are the ones that are going to stick because it is the people and communities that need to come to the table. Martha, you mentioned briefly the 2019 floods. Lets talk about whether it is the floods or the fire that devastated paradise, or a hurricane, whatever it is, to what extent is the strong evidence that the weather is changing impacting the kinds of questions and who you are hearing from and the reception you get when you talk to the public . Is it changing . My sense is that it is somehow. One thing you can do with weather events is you can use it as a tool to explain the difference between the weather and climate. Depending on the audience, i will say the weather is your atbat and climate is your batting average. The weather is your mood and climate is your personality. New use that as a gateway to talk to folks about Climate Change. The flood is a gateway drug for climate, essentially . Yes. It is what grabs peoples attention. Whenever you need. A climate denier but i have never met a weather denier. With the floods, we talk about the events leading up to it. It was a big factor in the flood. It was not just the storm. It was what happened leading up to that. You talk about how springs have gotten weather wetter over all and how that will tie into Climate Change. What i have discovered covering this for about 25 years is there is the scientific method, and scientists do not talk like the rest of us. They are constrained by Little Things like peerreview and evidence and all that stuff. What it does, at times, as they have historically been extremely reluctant to connect all the tornado ory this hurricane has a climate link. It has been very hard to get out of a lot of scientists. Is that changing . We were affected by the flood in 2019 also. Iowa had the second wettest year on with record. 1993 being the wettest. We were three inches shy of breaking that record. Into theat goes largescale circumstances that lead to historic flooding. Had 2008, 2011, 2019, these three floods in 10 years. Pretty soon, you have a stack of evidence that is hard to counter. Would you go along with that . Are scientists a little bit unencumbered by some of the constraints in the past to make these links . Yeah. Attribution science which is seeing the fingerprints Climate Change on events has moved along in the last few years. Week, our colleagues were saying this makes it more likely. 10 years ago, a reporter would call up and you would say we cannot tie one event to Climate Change. I think we are past that point. We are seeing heat waves and big fires out west and we are saying Climate Change is here and in our face. It is the opposite of journalism. We go from the sexy lead. You go to the disclaimers at the bottom that say, by the way, we are screwed. If you switch that around, that might be good, just saying. [laughter] when you pick up the phone and say, climatologist, what are they asking . There are people who are asking about their daughters wedding. [laughter] i hope you charge them extra. [laughter] people, i find a lot of people just want to talk about it. They want somebody to talk to. Im on the other end of the line. They are worried, concerned, looking to buy a house in oregon or North Carolina. If it is somebody making a decision, they want to sit down and get to know each other. They want me to listen to what they are working on and figure out if there is a climate angle to that. Theres counseling involved. A little bit. A Big Mental Health issue with farmers in the midwest, given the variability we have seen in conditions just going from last year to this year. Iowa. D3 in southeastern we are moving into dryness. In between, we had record wetness. Reassurance that my crops will come out all right or they just need somebody to talk to. It weighs on you. But you are there as a service. You are there trying to make things better giving them the proper information. Martha, weddings and bar mitzvahs for you, too . Two primary climate questions forecast fore the upcoming season. Primarily agricultural people. Not the baseball season we are talking about. Right. Are we going to be wetter, drier, colder, or warmer overall . The other question increasingly is what Climate Change will mean for nebraska. What can we grow in nebraska . What will it mean for fisheries and wildlife . What will it mean for cities . People want to know how it will impact them and what we can do about it. It is not a simple answer. Climate impacts are very intricate. There are a lot of interconnections. You really have to get to know the concerns, the interconnections, how the climate looks for a particular area. It is not an easy answer. It takes time and building a relationship and working with somebody handinhand. Is it hard to take a global problem and make it fit for some guy in one county in nebraska . Comes to people , andg about Climate Change you dont show them the polar bear on the ice flow if they live in nebraska, you talk about crops and changes in precipitation. You talk about things that are local. Climate changes here and affecting all of us. December the sooner we act, the less risky it is. Risksk about localized and localized solutions. You have that tension. The concern is it is getting late in the game. We have to move things along. Do you feel people are listening in a different way than they were when it was the polar bear on the ice cube . Sure. The amount of evidence we have and the amount of extreme events recently in the United States and across the globe, we are torting to the together put together a container of evidence that is irrefutable. When you are talking to the state climatologist, people are worried about their land, their county, first and foremost in general. Then you get into other interest groups. Elementary school kids ask the greatest questions. Even in their short lives, theyve seen this is how a rain gauge works. They have seen five inches of rainfall in three hours like last year. We are showing people graphical ways of showing extreme events as a way of getting the information to them. There is a real generational component to this, isnt there . Absolutely. I am not that old, but i was in Elementary School at the time where it was give a that isnt enough. We are seeing this youth uprising that i think is encouraging and they absolutely have a right to be completely off about pissed the earth. I heard a lot of people say, they are smart. They will figure this out. We owe them more that, dont wait . Passing the buck never works. It didnt work for my generation. It will not work for passing it to them. We are all in this together. I hope to have a few more decades on this planet. I have to wake up every day and feel optimistic about going to work and being a good steward of the planet, the people in North Carolina, and also for my friends and family. Lets walk through your states in a thumbnail sketch. What are the topline Climate Change impacts going on right now . I will start with you. Yeah, it all starts with water. I would say in nebraska, we get twice the amount of precipitation in the east than the west. We have vast groundwater resources. A lot of it has to do with water and the timing of precipitation and how effective that precipitation is. That is something that is changing in on peoples minds. Changing and on peoples minds. Another thing is the warming and looking forward into the future, the rate of warming. If we dont do anything to mitigate future Climate Change, that future rate of warming is something i am particularly concerned about. How about you . What is at the top of peoples minds . Precipitation. The variability and unpredictability. The intensity. We are also saying a seasonal shift in the midwest, iowa, we are getting more rainfall when we are starting fieldwork, then we shift into summertime, starting to dwindle our rainfalls right when crops are maturing when they needed it the most, right now, then we move into harvest time. We are getting more rainfall during harvest, september, october, and this really impedes fieldwork, and fieldwork is iowa. And then you get into the intensity of these events. They are increasing. We have seen a shift from gentle rainfall to two or three inches over three hours. That water cant soak in. It runs off and you get flash flooding. When you talk to farmers, do they connect the dots to Climate Change, or are they like my taxi driver this afternoon who thinks it is magnetic forces causing Climate Change . [laughter] our farmers realize something is going on, so we have started installing these agricultural solutions. We can be agricultural leaders in mitigating these things. There are not a lot of denialists on the farms . No, sometimes we dont get into it. They see what is happening and we go from there. Best left unsaid. Sure. Kathy, did you want to go through North Carolinas top issues . We had a big hurricane last year. I saw something about that. Here is a question for you. From rain panda, i dont think is the real name of the person. This is a twitter question. I was born and raised in iowa. My question is regarding the ice melt happening decades before predictions estimated. When will this hit the coastal United States . Will ocean water backflow into our major or minor river outlets, and will it damage freshwater ecosystems . This is an issue of concern in North Carolina. We saw this with Hurricane Florence where you have storms pushing ocean water up these large river systems, then water coming down the rivers. We had a really wet year last year. You get this compound flooding. This is the intersection of risk and vulnerability. You have these low income communities in some areas that get devastated. When you think about groundwater in some of these coastal ecosystems, saltwater intrusion is a big concern. Yes, the ice will play into the Sea Level Rise problem, and it certainly has local impacts for people in North Carolina. I dont know if it will make it all the way to iowa. We are probably safe here, i think. What about this idea that science has been so conservative that it may be happening faster than the peerreviewed body of knowledge would suggest. What do you say about that . You are scientists, so you probably dont want to get to outside your lane, but there is a term it is concerned that we dont have the ability to come up with good data on this particular issue. People should think of science as constantly evolving and changing. We hope improving. There are examples where we underestimated the trend. Arctic sea ice is a great example. That has been retreating faster than the model stood project. Did predict. That tells us something, we do we did not get the physics right. We can learn from that. We can improve on that. I think it is something we think about. Some people say what if you are wrong about Climate Change . What if it is not happening . I say, what if it is wrong in the other direction and it is worse than we think . With models you will run an ensemble and get a spread, so you get a high and low scenario and you take the average and that is your best guess. All we are doing is giving people this cone to work with, and that is the best we can do at the moment. We hope to improve. Here is another question. Cassidy has this. Science tells us there are climate cycles that happen naturally. How is science going to differentiate between what weather events are manmade and could have been avoided and what is not . So this goes to the attribution science i was talking about. You can take climate models and run them without Greenhouse Gases and see if it will reproduce these events. That is something we are seeing showing up in the literature. This has been reported in the media as well. We are double able to play devils advocate and we are able to look at these events and say, yes, Climate Change made these more likely. We are also able, these are Natural Cycles we know, the way the earth goes around the sun, the tilt of the earth we know these are naturally occurring cycles, so we can remove those from our solutions and we get a good idea of what these projections show us. I get the sense that you three are mostly involved in talking to people who recognize there is a problem, and trying to sort through what to do about it. Do you spend a lot of time going through, like the taxi cab driver, the magnetic fields, or do not waste your time at this point because there is work to be done . Alesm thinking about y six americas on Climate Change, and im thinking about the dismissives. They are not going to change their mind. But there are people in the middle and i am paid to think about Climate Change day in and day out, but they are not. They are worried about getting jimmy to the doctor and paying their bills. And, can i meet him in the middle . Can i answer questions that are respectful and just asking for more information, so i will spend time with those folks. How about you guys . The hardcore denialists, you are not going to convince people that the earth is not flat so you just move on, but there are people in the middle here who recognize there is a problem, not entirely certain, is that the group that needs to be addressed the most . Sure, and you show them the impacts we are seeing. 11 a flood in 2019, 20 2011 and 2008. We are seeing a set of facts evolve that show us we are moving in one direction, and if you can show them personally or how it will impact them moving forward, or their kids moving forward, then you start to make a connection, but again, these are relationships you build over time. I would say the same thing. I regularly get asked the question, you dont believe in Climate Change, do you . I say, it is not a beliefs this them belief system. I say it is looking at data and facts. I get them to talk. I say, where do you live and have you noticed any changes in your area . Are your farming practices different than 10 years ago . What about the drought of 2012, how did that impact your operations . I get them to start talking. I gauge where they are. What do they care about . You start from there and connect the dots. That is a good way of a coaching it. Of approaching it. Here is a question. We have three state climatologists who know something about agriculture. Rose can any of you talk about the effects of Climate Change on insects, both agriculture and Public Health . Certainly ticks and mosquitoes. We have shark week, but we should have mosquito week, that is the animal that kills the most of us. What about insects . That is a big subject. There a few things you can share with us. We are seeing Invasive Species move further north. Because of the warming nature of mid and high latitude. We see the japanese beetles, stink bugs. Our projections are showing, yes, more Invasive Species are moving into agricultural parts of the United States across the United States. Kathy . From the Public Health angle, especially in the southeast, this is a concern, especially with insectborne diseases showing up in major southeast cities. I just moved to North Carolina, and it has been mosquito week for me. This is a good followup to that. Britney from twitter says, what are some healthrelated concerns related to Climate Change, particularly in the midwest . I would say risk to heat waves, heat events, and not necessarily high temperatures, but high minimum temperatures, nighttime lows are not getting down. We are not able to cool off, humans or animals. Say, for cattle production. So, heat events would be one thing. Floods, Water Quality impacts that comes with that. Insects, mosquitoes, those kinds of things as well. It gets kind of a grim pretty quickly. We are ready to take some questions from the audience. Do we have any out there . Lets bring up the lights a little bit to see who is interested in joining the conversation. I think i see a couple of hands up. I am going to head out to the audience phil donahue style. That is a carbon dating thing. Does anybody know who phil donahue was . Back in the 70s. The old man is going to crawl over here with his walker like phil donahue. Today would be dr. Phil. Say your name. I have to do it this way. What is your name and your question . David sheridan. This is an Elementary School students question. You look a little old for that. [laughter] global temperatures, what is the protocol for determining the global temperature . Who decides the protocol, collects the data, and evaluates it . Who wants it . So i can start and they can help me. Both noaa and nasa. They have global temperature data sets. It is done through a number of station observations, satellites brought together. We cant have station observations in the middle of the ocean. They both adhere to pretty similar protocols. The numbers will be off by a decimal or something, but they are usually pretty close. We know that this july was the warmest month ever on record. Both outlets are saying that. There are Quality Control processes we use for temperature and precipitation data. If the low temperature is higher than the high temperature, we know something is wrong, so we flag it and correct it. There are procedures in place to produce a robust temperature data set. I have a suggestion for lowering temperatures, we just switch to celsius. [laughter] right away, right there. I have a question, this gentleman. Kevin. I heard a lot about what the three of you said that these are the issues we are faced with. I did not hear a lot about how we begin to mitigate this. So the question is, what are one or two things you would say, here is how we mitigate that Climate Change locally, and second, i am going to be devils advocate and say, who gives a damn, because weather is not local . What we do here, weather is the big globe, right . Even though we may make some change here, how would that affect anything that happens in russia, asia, or south america. Can you speak to that . Good question. Local and the big picture. Dont all go at once. What we can do about it, and this goes back to what states can do about it. We can take a leadership role in reducing our greenhouse emissions as a country and as a state. When you look at the countries most affected by Climate Change, they are the ones not contributing as much to the problem. We certainly are. When we start pitching into this huge problem that we created, i think we absolutely have a moral obligation to do that. Yes, all of us not driving today will not change anything in russia, but small change leads to big change, and we need big, systemic change. What can you do about it . Vote. Im not just talking about the candidates who will flood you in two days, but local elections better. City council, mayor. We overlook some of these. These people can affect real change in the community. Somebody told me the other day that the biggest thing we should be focused on, which is not a sexy subject, is building codes. It is a huge issue, how we build our buildings. Absolutely. Another question here. Rick smith. My question is about the reluctance to talk about weather Climate Change on the part of weatherman. Iowa has had tremendous coverage about floods and the infrastructure damage. You mentioned that june 30 flood last year, 6000 homes had damage. Never did i hear a weatherman covering all of this talk about Climate Change. Why is that . This is a pet peeve of mine. Martha, go ahead. This is changing, by the way, a little bit. I can expand on this a little bit, too. Go ahead. A few decades ago, on camera meteorologists were not so accepting of the science in general and not willing to talk about it and denying the science of Climate Change, but i see that is shifting, and it is not necessarily the weather person on camera, but the television station. What did they think is valuable to talk about . In nebraska, i see that changing. I get a lot of media is one of the top three groups we engage with, agricultural and education are the other two. But i see that is not a huge issue in nebraska, but it would be good if we could get more stories out there about Climate Change. The local tv person is kind of the trusted source, and a lot of people tune in just for the weather, so it would be great if added onto that were little climate pieces. I think for most people do people who have contact with anybody might be considered a scientist would be their local weather person. For years they have this opportunity to make those connections and did not. There is a long story related to the Weather Channel that i can go on and on about, but when you got your meteorological degree, they did not teach climate simultaneously, so there was a fundamental misunderstanding, they were applying weather principles they learned to the climate and there was confusion. I think that is changing. I know penn state is teaching climate along with meteorology, and i think also going back to that generational component. I think that younger weather people are more likely to make those connections. It is important, because that is who people listen to, more so than people like me. Another hand . Lets stay in this zone for a minute and i will work my way down. All right. Go ahead. I have been dealing with Climate Change since i was in fifth grade. Why in your opinion is this just becoming an issue now . I think it has always been an issue. It is just a matter of generational, and again, when i started college in 2001, we were talking about mitigation and attribution. We had climate also with our meteorology. I have two meteorology degrees. That was not as widespread as it is now. We are starting to again develop a lot more evidence, and again it is pointing in one direction. It has always been in the background when you talk to climatologists, atmospheric scientists, it is in the foreground. For a long time it was something that was distant and in the future. It was in the arctic circle, involved a polar bear and might happen in 20 or 30 years. It is happening all around us now, so people are paying attention. That would be the Silver Lining that people are paying attention. The dark side is hopefully it is not too late. More questions from the audience. Im going to move in this direction here. All right. Here we go. I am cassidy, thanks for answering my twitter question. Wait a minute, you are disqualified. [laughter] you cant have two. I think you will like this one. [laughter] so, the common consumer, the common voter who wants to understand these issues, i think that climate gets very politicized. That is what it is about, finding credible sources. You guys say you work with the media. How do you advise the average citizen who wants to learn more about this to decipher all of the things that you read online and see in the media to get to the facts . The internet is a scary place. What do you tell them to do, aside from call you up all day . [laughter] i was going to say. I have a staff. They answer the phone too. Definitely start with your state climatologist, local university folks, and there are reports online, the ipcc. The National Climate assessment. They are Getting Better and taking their summaries and making them readable. I study this sometimes. It is a lot to take in. I study this and sometimes it is a lot to take in. There is a lot of Bad Information on the internet about a lot of things. I would say find your person, your state climatologist or local tv weather person and start there. There are a few good aggregators of content. There is an editorial process, the Environmental Health news comes to mind. Where they sift through all the stuff out there. You can get a daily or weekly email from them that has gone through a little bit more vetting than the random stuff you see. Other questions from the audience . I am going this way. I am going deep. How am i going to get there . I dont want to step on anybodys toes. It is better than fenway park and i dont have a beer in my hand. Go ahead. Sharon johnson. I know kathleen mentioned the east coast. They are very familiar with the hurricanes. So i expect the cities along the east coast have prepared safety measures, preventative measures, and i was wondering what they are. Could you talk about that a little bit . And, when do you expect the big impact to hit the florida coast, and specifically maralago . [laughter] [applause] which by the way, sits on limestone, which is a sieve, so there is nothing to do for maralago. Go ahead. There is a Florida State climatologist. And i urge you to reach out for him specifically for maralago. Cities on the east coast are thinking about hurricanes. Two that i am thinking of in particular, sandy and florence. Just a few days ago North Carolina found out it is getting all sorts of money to put resilience measures in place post florence. Taking money and putting action on the ground. The thing is, we are good at talking about planning for Climate Change. We write all sorts of reports. Implementing it has always been a challenge. You need somebody with regulatory authority, social capital, political will, actual capital. I have none of that. I am just a piece of this puzzle, but the more these things happen, the more obvious it is we need these plans in place. To what extent can you develop a bully pulpit from your position based on compiling the evidence and throwing the evidence in their face . Is that enough to do it . If people arent reporting to you, it is hard to get them to do things. You cannot order them around. Science is not enough. If it were, we would have fixed this problem by now. Recognizing that as a scientist is important. A lot of what we do is travel around the states and work with the communities to come up with solutions, because they are the people who can implement them. They are the people who will be making the decisions. I think understanding our role in this is important, but not the only piece. Another question here. Charles hirschman. The discussion about relatively small matters, providing information, education, and how adjustments might be made, but some of the solutions are not easy. Should people be living near the coastline in flood prone areas . In the middle of the forest where it is impossible to protect them . Should much of contemporary agriculture like the prairie come back . There are deepseated economic interests that will have to change before this problem is addressed. I am wondering how we will get to that point. I will throw one more thing in there, there is a component of Environmental Justice as well. Rich people can build the walls, but what about the people who cannot afford it . What you all three take this one. It is a big one. I think what we can provide is a local trusted source so we can make it relevant and local and tangible to people and provide the sciencebased evidence they need to base their decisions off of. We can help foster relationships and start or continue dialogue or bring people to the table. At least, i see that as my role. Implementation plans are great, but getting people to have a vested interest is difficult. That is personally where i love to work with social scientists. A lot of what we are talking about is behavior change. I am a climatologist. I am not a social scientist. That is what i say to young people, if you are interested in this topic, get into social science and work with people to institute this behavior change, because that is the way this will be solved. That is a good point. When i was at iowa state, they started bringing in sociologists and psychologists so they could translate what we do to stakeholders and people who could do something about it. I am from st. Charles, missouri. 1993 flood, 500 year flood three miles from my house. Look at that floodplain now, it is told up built up. Restaurants, infrastructure there. We like to build berms to mitigate flood impacts, but we are still building on floodplains. That is something climatologist s cannot answer. Kathy, the idea of buying people out is not an easy one. I did a story in the netherlands, they went through the floodplains and rivers and bought people out and put them on high ground and set them back up. Different culture, different system, but they all did it. I dont see that happening here. This is a tough conversation because it takes the person out of the place. A lot of people have generations of families who have lived in a certain town in this house. It is not as easy as saying, hey, joe, you cant live in new orleans anymore. I think when we remove the human component from it, then we will not solve anything. But like you said, this is a huge problem. It is not easy. Nothing worth doing is easy. To the point earlier, it is a bunch of small problems that we can start to knock off and get at the bigger problem, but we have a huge task in front of us and we need everybody on board. If it is having that tough conversation about buyouts, but remembering there is that human component to that. More questions here . Watch your toes. Go ahead. I am carolyn. Many cities across the United States are working on or have adopted Climate Action plans. Des moines is working on one, a slow process, but working on one. As a state employee, are you involved in recommending, encouraging our state politicians to create state Climate Action plans . Because we have to go beyond the city ones to the state level, and i just wondered that your influence of their with mitigation and adaptation with Climate Action plans at the state level. Good question. This has to be multiagency, publicprivate partnership. One agency cant do it. Iowa did have a plan in 2011 from the legislature, mandated in the legislature, then it expired. There was a starting point in iowa, and we have noticed smaller cities, des moines, iowa city, iowa flood center, our universities. They have the pieces there. Getting those pieces together is why we need a larger collaboration. Alright, another question over here. I teach at drake. I can see indeed the Younger Generation is getting slowly but surely, it is not that fast, to it. My question is how bad do you think things have to get before those who actually make decisions wake up . And then the question is that beyond the Tipping Point that point we can still do it . So the train hasnt left the station. We in the Climate Community bicker about timelines, but every day that goes by is a chance for us to take action. Things will get bad. Things are bad. India is unlivable at certain times of the year. What will it take for people making decisions to wake up . New people in their place. [laughter] [applause] but what about if we got the fossil fuel industry out of the political realm a little bit . Yeah, and i think about when people point fingers. You flew here. Yes, i flew here. I didnt drive. Holding certain groups accountable is going to be more effective than me and martha saying she drove and i flew, so she is better than me. Justin walked. He wins. [laughter] did you see how Greta Thunberg is going to be arriving in new york . The 16yearold swedish climate activist is coming across in a sailing yacht. It will be a twoweek miserable ride. It is a racing yacht with no galley and no refrigeration. She will sail over, zero impact. God bless her. [laughter] she is a 16yearold who changed the world, so give her credit for that. Speaking of young people, what is your name, young man . Jack. How old are you . 10. What would happen if we did not change our current problem in time . Dot, dot, dot. [laughter] hopefully that wont happen. That is a great question, difficult to answer, but coming from a 10yearold, that is hard to deny and negate, so thank you for your question. I dont have a great answer for you. All i will say is the sooner we act, the better. Every day that goes by, we are losing our chance. This is one of those parental moments where you are trying to figure out how much honesty to give the kid, right . [laughter] we are counting on you, jack. You will fix this for us, right . Please. Question here. Go ahead. Tyler granger. How do you advocate for Wildlife Protection in an era of urban sprawl . How do you talk to stakeholders on why we should protect wildlife . Yeah, good question. A lot of nebraska is privately owned, so we dont have a ton of public lands, but im increasingly working with fish and wildlife professionals, looking at plans for managing wildlife in the changing climate. How will species shift and so forth . That is something they are increasingly looking at. I am in the school of Natural Resources at the university of nebraska, we have a lot of folks who are tackling this issue. I work here in iowa with the department of Natural Resources and provide them observational records, trends, and then they use that data for their needs, and there actually was a legislative action just last session about game hunting. Another question here . You talk about voting, and that is an important part of this, but you also mention small changes. What are those small changes . Is voting the only thing we can do . It is effective, but what can we all do tomorrow, or next week, or is it not even worth it and we just wait for the election . No, that is a great question. You could work with the woman putting together the Climate Action plan for des moines. I would say get involved with your community, whatever effort is going on. In terms of climate, and i think mobilizing others to do the same. Justin. Agricultural state, we have agricultural solutions. We have renewable fuels. 40 of our Power Generation is from wind turbines. Looking at the agricultural scope. Cover crops. Since we are getting into a regime in which we are getting more intense rainfall events. These cover crops act to lock in flow and carbon, and they prevent runoff into our streams. Since the last Agricultural Census in 2012 to 2017, we have had a 250 increase in cover crops across iowa. That will make an impact, especially in runoff and Water Quality. Those are the Small Solutions we can talk about. Serving as an informed citizen and an agent of change. I have heard famous climatologists say the best thing we can do is talk about it, have dialogue and meaningful communication, not just battling each other, but talking about it in a real and local sense of partnering with your local climatologist, and action plans that are going on. There are all kinds of ways that we can keep this conversation moving forward in a good direction. Question here . Along these lines, i was thinking you are such wonderful resources. It would be nice if there were ways to get you, your voices heard more publicly, like on the news. Has any of that been going on . I give about two or three presentations a week on average to various groups, so yes, lots of questions in the media also. Would you say your Media Inquiries are on the rise . Yes. That is good news. Yes, sir. Matt russell. We are talking with farmers, connecting with president ial candidates and other elected leaders. In the last 10 days, two weeks, i have engaged with half a dozen media folks. The first question is, how can we talk to people about the extreme weather happening, and is that changing peoples minds . And that is such a last year question, because that assumes we have to convince people that it is happening, and they say, oh, how can we talk to farmers , is extreme weather is changing their minds . Nobody is creating the space for farmers to talk about it, so how do we not just convince people, but recognize that people have moved faster because of the youth, have moved faster than the media thinks, the politicians think, how do we create the space . This has been such a pregnant conversation tonight. Nobody wants to talk. I understand why we cant, but we have to get past that. [applause] good. You want to amplify that at all . I think that gets to my point that science is a piece of this. People would say, why arent things happening faster . Why arent you doing enough . We need to recognize that and bring these people into the conversation. Can we create platforms for the people who need to be there the most . This is something i grapple with, the people most affected by Climate Change are rarely at the table for these conversations. So making sure i recognize that and can bring it up, but i am not a community organizer, and there are people more skillful than i am, so working with him with those folks would be more effective. Question . My question is technical. It seems to me that there has been an increase in intense, straightline wind events in iowa. Do you agree with that, and do you think that will be more and more aggressive . Actually we have had studies that show Severe Weather is decreasing across iowa. In fact, with the amount of co2 in the atmosphere, we are getting more vegetation at the surface, more trees, and that is 10 ing down when speeds by in one city one study. I have not seen anything in the data that would suggest more straightline wind events. Maybe they are just getting reported more. Otherwise, i have not seen hard evidence, which does not mean it is not out there. I think tornadoes are one of the hardest things to connect the dots on, right . Tornadoes are difficult to study. I saw the movie, it was really hard. [laughter] remember . Cow, cow . Go ahead. [laughter] i read an article about modern agriculture and how the corn crops are getting closer together and bigger and putting more water in the atmosphere and almost creating conditions like a rain forest and everything. What i want to know is modern agriculture a positive or negative on our Climate Change . Things can be done in agriculture to improve our climate footprint and everything we need to change our trajectory on Climate Change . Youre talking about livestock and the consumption of meat as well . That figures into it too, but right now i want to know about effectps because of the of large amounts of water in the air. Addictionng the meat aside, where does agriculture come in with climate . Iowa is built for row crops. Transpiration of corn produces more lowlevel humidity. We have seen in the trends more humidity across the midwest. With this humidity in the atmosphere, we are getting overnight convection. That is how we get a lot of our rainfall during the summer months. It is tied in with the way the crop transpires and the effects on the atmosphere. So yes, there is a partnership between agriculture and the way precipitation is falling across the state. Those are more microscale impacts, but yes, again, i spoke about cover crops putting in watersheds and wetland projects across the state which are able to take runoff and make water available to farmers in drier parts of the season. So, i mean, sure, there is probably something in agriculture, methane from livestock. We are also sequestering that at larger dairy farms across the state. They are using that methane to power those operations. We are using agriculture as a solution, Smaller Solutions, but the Smaller Solutions do add up, so i think we can be an agricultural leader in terms of Climate Change. Agriculture pushes technology quite a bit. Sure. So i am like you guys, i think about climate a lot. Probably not quite as much as you. Most every story i do has some link to it. We talk about it in the office, the burden of dark knowledge that comes along with that. It is a burden, but i am curious. You guys are as enmeshed in this as anybody here obviously, and this will be the final point. Are you at all optimistic . Yeah, you have to be. There is not a choice. It is my job to not talk about doom and gloom. All the questions i get whenever i talk about Climate Change is solutions. We have had several here. People want to know what can i do tomorrow . How can i be involved in this . People are eager to help, which makes me optimistic. I teach an undergraduate course on Climate Change and i had 50 students this past semester, and there is an Climate Action bill going through the nebraska legislature. It did not pass, but i had a freshman, First Generation College student go and testify in front of the committee. It is things like that that make me hopeful. We are not going as quickly as we need to and what would be good. But i stay hopeful. Justin . When you are given a problem, the natural human side of you wants you to find a solution. I wake up every morning, especially in the summertime, i look at radar for the driest parts of the state to see if any rain fell overnight. That is how invested i am in our state and our farmers, so it is hard not to sometimes be sorrowful and crestfallen about where we are, but again, we have solutions. We have groups across the state, across the United States that want to do something. And i do think we have solutions. Yeah, i am optimistic. I am a few other things. I am angry. We have known about this problem and have not solved it. [applause] i grapple with these places i have called home. I grew up in new york. I lived in oregon for a decade. These are special places to me. I hope North Carolina will also become special, but i want people to experience the magic of oregon, being in the mountains without a huge wildfire breaking out. But also, we have to do this. This is hurting people in a real way and its not going to hurt rich people. It is hurting people in lowlying countries that dont have the power to deal with what is happening to them, and that weighs on me. Certainly it is difficult at times, and i have had to learn how to unplug sometimes just to save my energy and a little bit of my sanity. So people watching who has not been watching the apollo 50 stuff . 50 years since the apollo 11 moon landing. It is a reminder of what this country can do when it sets its mind to something. Think about the mobilization during world war ii, ford plants knocking out cars were spitting out bombers just as quickly. We could do this, and frankly i dont think there is a single thing that needs to be invented. The technology is on the shelf. It is a matter of political will and some economic incentives, and those obviously go hand in hand. I am so impressed with this audience. Thank you so much for your great questions. I had no idea how such smart people came up with deepfried butter. [laughter] was that like a bad day you had . Thank you for your great questions. Thank you to our panelists. They did a great job. [applause] allstars. State climatologists. Thank you for your time. We enjoyed it. [applause] tonight on q a, university of Pennsylvania Law School professor amy wax on Free Expression on College Campuses and the conflicts surrounding an opinion piece she coauthored in the philadelphia inquirer. Rufflesnk this is what a lot of people, that not all cultures are alike. We were trying to tout a code of behavior as being one that was particularly functional and suited to our current technological, democratic capitalist society, and comparing it to other cultures that are not as functional. We gave some examples. That immediately caused a firestorm. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. On friday, President Trump announced the establishment of the u. S. Space command. Vice president pence, defense secretary mark esper, and the commander of the space command, general john redmond, joined him in the white house rose garden. [applause] thank you very much. It is a great honor on a Beautiful Day in the rose garden. Please sit, thank you