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