Transcript How to talk to local officials about stormwater & stewardship

Climate Change and City Hall:
What local governments need to consider
Jane Goodman
Council Member, City of South Euclid
Outreach & Communications Director,
Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization/RAP
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
• What Local Governments Do
• What Local Governments Face
• How (some) Local Governments Think
• Mitigation
• Preparation
• Adaptation
• Communication
• Information
“My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on”
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
Disclaimer:
Generalizations will be made.
Your experiences may differ.
Any criticism implied or expressed herein is not about you,
it’s about those other people.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
When smart people get frustrated with the actions
or inactions of local governments, they should bear in mind:
• Climate change may be your full time job, but
it’s not for most public officials.
• Most public officials have had little or no education or
training about climate, geophysics, or sustainability.
• The folks who pass the laws are mostly
part-timers.
• Ignorance is not bliss, and at this time
in history it could be fatal.
• You elected these people, or elected those
who hired them.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS DO
Keep us Safe & Secure – Police, Fire and Emergency Response
Provide Services – waste management, snow removal, social
services, traffic management, recreation
Construct and Maintain infrastructure – roads, bridges,
water and sewer, urban forest
Plan Land Use and zoning, building and housing policy
and inspect for safety and property values
Support Quality of Life – laws regulating behavior,
businesses, aesthetics;
Collect and Expend funds to support the above activities
“…establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FACE
PHYSICAL EFFECTS:
• milder, wetter winters, more ice storms than snow storms
• more extreme weather events, big rain with heavy runoff = flooding
• hotter summers, longer stretches of extreme heat
• overall drying (evapotranspiration,) more droughts
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FACE
PHYSICAL EFFECTS:
• milder, wetter winters, more ice storms than snow storms
• more extreme weather events, big rain with heavy runoff = flooding
• hotter summers, longer stretches of extreme heat
• overall drying (evapotranspiration,) more droughts
ECONOMIC EFFECTS:
• reduced funding from federal and state sources as money shifts to disaster
relief and mega projects
• some will gain as property values, business relocations and inmigration
rise in “safe” areas, others will lose (coastal and southern cities.)
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FACE
PHYSICAL EFFECTS:
• milder, wetter winters, more ice storms than snow storms • more extreme weather events, big
rain with heavy runoff = flooding • hotter summers, longer stretches of extreme heat
• overall drying (evapotranspiration,) more droughts
ECONOMIC EFFECTS:
• reduced funding from federal and state sources as money shifts to disaster relief, mega projects
• some will gain as property values, business relocations and inmigration rise in “safe” areas,
others will lose (coastal and southern cities.)
OPERATIONS:
• shifts in emphasis and demand for services
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FACE
PHYSICAL EFFECTS:
• milder, wetter winters, more ice storms than snow storms • more extreme weather events, big
rain with heavy runoff = flooding • hotter summers, longer stretches of extreme heat
• overall drying (evapotranspiration,) more droughts
ECONOMIC EFFECTS:
• reduced funding from federal and state sources as money shifts to disaster relief, mega projects
• some will gain as property values, business relocations and inmigration rise in “safe” areas,
others will lose (coastal and southern cities.)
OPERATIONS:
• shifts in emphasis and demand for services
CAPACITY:
• population shifts
• lower lake levels, drier surface & soil affects water availability
• more demand for emergency services, power backups, evacs
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
WHAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FACE
PHYSICAL EFFECTS:
• milder, wetter winters, more ice storms than snow storms • more extreme weather events, big
rain with heavy runoff = flooding • hotter summers, longer stretches of extreme heat
• overall drying (evapotranspiration,) more droughts
ECONOMIC EFFECTS:
• reduced funding from federal and state sources as money shifts to disaster relief, mega projects
• some will gain as property values, business relocations and inmigration rise in “safe” areas,
others will lose (coastal and southern cities.)
OPERATIONS:
• shifts in emphasis and demand for services
CAPACITY:
• population shifts
• lower lake levels, drier surface & soil affects water availability
• more demand for emergency services, power backups, evacs
PUBLIC PUSHBACK
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How (some) local governments think
The Kübler-Ross Model for Climate Change
1. Denial - It’s a hoax.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How (some) local governments think
The Kübler-Ross Model for Climate Change
1.
Denial - It’s a hoax.
2.
Anger - Okay, maybe it’s real but it’s not our fault. So who can we
blame?
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How (some) local governments think
The Kübler-Ross Model for Climate Change
1.
Denial - It’s a hoax.
2.
Anger - Okay, maybe it’s real but it’s not our fault. So who can we
blame?
3.
Bargaining - Okay, so maybe it’s partly our fault, we’ll need to
commission our own study just to be sure, and I promise, if we could
just have a little more time we’ll attend to it just as soon as we can.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How (some) local governments think
The Kübler-Ross Model for Climate Change
1.
Denial - It’s a hoax.
2.
Anger - Okay, maybe it’s real but it’s not our fault. So who can we
blame?
3.
Bargaining - Okay, so maybe it’s partly our fault, we’ll need to
commission our own study just to be sure, and I promise, if we could
just have a little more time we’ll attend to it just as soon as we can.
4.
Depression - Well, now it’s too late and too big to do anything about it.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How (some) local governments think
The Kübler-Ross Model for Climate Change
1.
Denial - It’s a hoax.
2.
Anger - Okay, maybe it’s real but it’s not our fault. So who can we
blame?
3.
Bargaining - Okay, so maybe it’s partly our fault, we’ll need to
commission our own study just to be sure, and I promise, if we could
just have a little more time we’ll attend to it just as soon as we can.
4.
Depression - Well, now it’s too late and too big to do anything about it.
5.
Acceptance - Oh, all right. I guess we’d better do something.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
How local governments SHOULD think
The Dick Cheney Model for Climate Change
“If there's a 1% chance (that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build
or develop a nuclear weapon), we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of
our response. It's not about our analysis ... It's about our response.”
Dick Cheney
Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine,
(New York Simon & Shuster, 2006.)
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
What local governments should do
3.
1.
Learn from history
2.
Plan with timelines.
Involve your stakeholders. All of them.
4.
Don’t make things any worse.
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
MITIGATION
• CONVERT to non-carbon sources of energy
• CONSERVE energy, water, soil and green space
• REDUCE greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration of carbon emitted
• PLAN LAND USE for previous three objectives, and to create a city that can operate as if it were
totally isolated from the world and in survival mode.
• IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS e.g. zero waste; closed-loop manufacturing; local
energy generation; water storage and quality; local food; reforestation for temperature
moderation
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
PREPARATION
“In New Orleans the resilience of the city to withstand winds and waves from Katrina
was reduced by the loss of wetlands and mangroves around the Gulf shores, and by
the inadequate infrastructure provided by the levees.
But the main human disaster came about because the transit system was so
inadequate that people who did not own a car (around a third of the population)
could not evacuate, and the freeways were at capacity due to the number of
individuals in cars. No plan for using school buses and other transit vehicles
was in place, so those resources were all washed away with the first floods.
The transport system was not resilient and it undermined the rest of the urban
system, which turned rapidly into social chaos.”
Newman, Beatley & Boyer, Resilient Cities, (Island Press, 2009.)
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
PREPARATION
• EDUCATION - decision makers and stakeholders
• REGIONAL or LOCAL?
• RESOURCE ASSESSMENT and PLANNING
• RISK ASSESSMENT and DISASTER PLANNING
• FUNDING
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
ADAPTATION
PHYSICAL
conservation • water • energy • building standards • storm water • transportation
ECONOMIC
growing sustainable businesses and green industries • collaborative procurement
interchangeable pieces, modular systems • local supply chains
OPERATIONAL
energy efficiency • KISS • flexible work schedules / telecommuting • reduce areas
needing to be maintained
CAPACITY
shelters for short term/small incidents and big disasters;
cooling centers • housing, schools and infrastructure that
are expandable or shrinkable • recreation
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
INFORMATION
COMMUNICATE
• Stakeholders
• Message
• Physical communication networks
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
INNOVATE
“The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.”
James Yorke, University of Maryland, defined the mathematical term “chaos.”
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
RESOURCES
RECOMMENDED READING
Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change,
Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley and Heather Boyer
Climatopolis: How our cities will thrive in the hotter future, Matthew E. Kahn
ONLINE RESOURCES
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability • www.iclei.org
ICLEI Canada - Changing Climate Guide & Workbook • www.iclei.org/index.php?id=11710
Chicago Climate Action Guide • www.chicagoclimateaction.org
Toronto Action Plan • www.toronto.ca/changeisintheair/
YOU CAN REACH JANE GOODMAN at: [email protected] or 216.241.2414 x610
Climate Change and City Hall: What local governments need to consider
FOCUS
The message to take to your local government:
You must not get caught up in small scale mitigation efforts like the planting of one
tree at city hall or the replacement of the light bulbs at the community center and
think that’s enough.
We must get to work, seriously and immediately, on adapting to the changes we’re
already seeing and on the ones most likely to occur over the coming decades.
Thank you.