Horowitz: Climate Adaptation Committee Disbanded by Trump Re-Forms to Fill the Gap
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Among the many ill-advised decisions on climate change made by President Trump was the disbanding of a 15- person Advisory Committee formed by the Obama Administration to be an ongoing scientific resource for cities and states to draw on for their climate change adaption efforts.
The group was charged with turning the findings of the National Climate Assessment produced by the federal government every 4 years into specific recommendations for local governments as they face the large, expensive and growing challenges created by a warming planet.
Recognizing the importance of this task in the face of the rising sea levels, increased droughts and more intense storms that are already resulting from global warming, the dedicated committee members refused "to go gently into that good night.” With the assistance of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and other funders, key members of the Committee supplemented by other experts, have kept this critical mission alive by re-forming as the Science for Climate Action Network.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCompleting the unfinished business of the Advisory Committee, The Science for Climate Action Network released their first report last week, asserting that many climate change adaptation initiatives across the nation are beginning to stall due to a lack of sufficient support and resources. “New types of support are needed to accelerate progress, including technical guidance on how to use climate science to customize adaptation and mitigation strategies,” write the report’s authors.
The report “makes three main recommendations: (1) Establish a nonfederal network to assess how to apply science in making and implementing decisions, (2) focus these assessments on the common problems and challenges that climate risk managers face, and (3) use new methods such as artificial intelligence to support climate risk management."
The reconstituted group will now work to implement these recommendations, helping to provide the guidance that local officials around the nation need. Like so many state and local governments and private businesses, these scientific experts are stepping up to meet the climate change challenge, enabling us to move forward despite the Trump Administration’s irresponsible and short-sighted attempts to sabotage any climate change progress and to curb the distribution of scientific facts that highlight the problem. Imagine all we can accomplish once a “Climate Denier in Chief” no longer occupies the White House.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
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