Congressional leaders across both parties are taking action to build climate resilience, and for good reason.
Natural disasters and extreme weather know no political affiliations or geographic boundaries, and are impacting all Americans with greater severity. Our country desperately needs investments in infrastructure that can withstand these disasters, while also increasing public safety, lowering the cost of disaster recovery, and spurring job and economic growth. Read More
Update, July 1, 2020: North Carolina’s Senate and House unanimously passed HB 1087. We thank Rep. Bell, Rep. McGrady and Sen. Newton for their leadership in advancing this important piece of legislation. Gov. Cooper signed HB 1087 on July 1, 2020. EDF staff will be working with Division of Mitigation Services staff and stakeholders to develop the program. Read our statement in response here.
Earlier this month, North Carolina released its first Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan to prepare for more intense rain events and flooding. In particular, the plan emphasizes natural infrastructure as a means to reduce flooding and provide other benefits.
On the heels of the plan’s release, North Carolina’s General Assembly is expected to pass a bill that contains a measure to create a faster, more efficient path for investing in projects that reduce flooding, protecting downstream communities while also empowering the private sector to employ more North Carolinians.
Once passed, HB 1087 will go to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature. If signed, the bill would not only help North Carolina implement natural infrastructure projects with greater urgency, but it would also create the nation’s first market for natural infrastructure projects to address flooding.
Earlier this year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented an ambitious challenge to the state Legislature: Pass a $3 billion bond to boost climate resilience and mitigate the impacts of sea level rise while preserving the state’s natural resources.
Last month, at the height of the coronavirus, the Legislature responded, passing a budget bill that included the Restore Mother Nature Bond Act.
The measure is expected to go to voters in the fall. If a majority approves the bond, it will put New York on a path to building lasting resilience, while also stimulating the economy, creating jobs and benefiting the state’s most vulnerable communities. Read More
By Keith Alverson, a sixth-generation grain farmer in Chester, South Dakota and an adviser to Environmental Defense Fund.
It goes without saying that 2019 was an extremely difficult year for farmers like me. Unprecedented amounts of snow and rain led to 3.9 million acres in our state that couldn’t be planted.
Lake County, South Dakota, were I live, received 32% more rainfall than in a normal year. For most farmers in the area, this record-setting wet spring meant that they could only plant about 50% of planned corn acres and 80% of planned soybean acres. Read More
Farmers have already been dealing with tough economic conditions exacerbated by a trade war, extreme weather and now the coronavirus. Unfortunately, the latest 2020 spring flood outlook shows that farmers in the Midwest could be facing yet another wet year.
Although projected to be less severe than 2019, the U.S. Spring Flood and Climate Outlook for 2020 predicts widespread flooding across 23 states with severe flooding in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. As a result of the 2019 floods, soils across the Midwest are full of moisture this spring, increasing the likelihood of flooding in 2020. Source: NOAA
Making American farmland resilient to growing weather shocks like flooding requires greater adoption of conservation practices such as no-till and cover cropping practices that improve water infiltration and reduce erosion and field runoff. Despite the financial benefits of these practices, adoption remains low across the country. In 2017, only 3.9% of U.S. farmland adopted cover crops.
How can we scale conservation practice adoption to reduce risk and boost resilience of the agricultural sector? Read More
Coastal states are turning to resilience planning to confront extreme weather and climate change. New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida have all hired chief resilience officers to oversee their states’ resilience strategies. Louisiana has been a leader in coastal resilience for more than a decade.
In 2007, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana embarked on its first of three Coastal Master Plans – science-based and publicly-informed coastal resilience plans. With each iteration, Louisiana improved the science, enriched public engagement and increased transparency in decision-making to build plans that were unanimously approved by the state legislature three times.
Based on this experience, here are six essential elements that states should include in their coastal resilience plans: Read More
Coauthored by Ann Hayden and Steve Cochran
It’s not often that communities in California and Louisiana face similar water challenges. California is better known for having too little water and Louisiana too much – both challenges exacerbated by climate change.
But record-setting wet winter weather led both states last week to release significant amounts of water from reservoirs and rivers to prevent flooding, underscoring the need for new approaches to build climate-resilient communities across the country. Read More
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has committed to a major increase in manure-to-energy projects. The company will invest in infrastructure and provide farmer incentives to install manure lagoon covers and digesters on 90 percent of its total hog finishing capacity, a standardized measurement that excludes sow and nursery farms, in North Carolina, Missouri and Utah over the next ten years.
This is a major step forward for the hog industry. Open lagoon and sprayfield systems of manure management are predominant in North Carolina and raise concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, odor and resilience to extreme rainfall.
There are currently only a few manure-to-energy projects in North Carolina. This commitment from Smithfield means they will become the new status quo.
The company’s largest source of greenhouse gases is methane emitted from open manure lagoons. Here’s how this commitment will turn that liability into an asset – and how we can ensure that it delivers the full potential benefits of the change. Read More
Hurricane Florence’s arrival so soon after Hurricane Matthew serves as an urgent reminder that new, effective and rapidly implementable solutions are required to meet the challenges of a new normal of extreme weather.
It’s time to invest in three proven approaches to flood preparedness and economic development so that our communities can bounce forward to a more prosperous, safe and resilient future. Read More
The California legislature has passed a budget bill that gives me great hope for the state and for the nation. That’s because the budget was not only passed with bipartisan support – it also proves that conservation has broad political appeal.
California has rebuked the Trump administration on a number of issues including healthcare, immigration and the environment, leading many Americans to see California as the ultimate resistance state. But when I take a closer look at this budget, I think it has less to do with resistance, and everything to do with resilience.
Resilient people, communities, institutions and, yes, environment. Read More
