Transcripts For CSPAN Climate Change In The States 20240714

You will talk to winston sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Pbs science correspondent obrien joins state climatologists for a discussion on local, regional, and National Climate change in the iowa planetarium. This is one hour and 10 minutes. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] good evening. My name is Kathleen Richardson and i am the dean of the school of journalism and Mass Communication at Drake University. Welcome to the members of our audience here at the Science Center of iowa and des moines and those of you joining us by livestream. This year, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary at drake. We have been characterized by service to our community. We are proud to continue that tradition by cohosting the conversation tonight about Climate Change with experts who are on the front lines of this pressing public issue. This event is brought to you through a collaboration between Drake University and a philanthropic we funded free service for journalists based at the American Association for the advancement of science in washington, d. C. They connects reporters to scientists in order to promote more credible, accurate, researchbased news stories. We are just wrapping up a 2. 5 day boot camp at drake in which political journalists from around the country received briefings from experts on science issues that will be prominent in the president ial campaign. I would like to acknowledge and thank Drake Universitys academic leader in the front row, who is herself a scientist. Also, former Washington Post science reporter rick, and the entire team of scientists and science communicators who have worked so hard to organize this entire event. Finally, i want to remind folks here in the hall and watching remotely that they are welcome to ask questions using the hashtag, unitedstatesofclimate. For those in the hall, turn off ringers on your phone and do not use flash photography. With that, i am very pleased to introduce tonights moderator. Veteran science reporter, miles obrien. For those in the hall, turn off ringers on your phone and do not use flash photography. With that, i am very pleased to introduce tonights moderator. Veteran science reporter, miles obrien. Miles is an independent journalist who covers science, echnology and aerospace. He is a science correspondent for pbs newshour, a producer, director and writer for pbss nova series, and aviation analyst for cnn and a correspondent for the National Science foundations science nation series. Please join me in welcoming miles to the stage. [applause] miles thank you, kathleen. Good to be here. Thank you so much. T is great to see you all. Going to have our panelists get seated while im talking. It is good to be back in des moines. I was just reminded, my first trip to des moines was in 1988, following michael dukakis. That was my first taste of deepfried butter. [laughter] still remember it. I can conjure up whatever that was that happened after the deepfried butter. As you may recall, it didnt go so well for michael dukakis. He was at the fair and was suggesting to corn farmers that hey plant more endive. Massachusetts, they just dont get it. Interestingly, i was looking how many of you are familiar with the job of state climatologists . I would say probably about half. Here are two states in the nation that do not have a state climatologists. Tennessee and massachusetts. Boston is almost underwater now. We have three allstar estate climatologists here and we are going to ask them about what they do, what they hear, and the evidence they are seeing from the front lines. A lot of people think about Climate Change as this giant, monolithic, single problem, but it is a million little problems all fought in a local, specific way. There are big things you can go after, but there are a lot of ittle things you can do in and these guys are right in the trenches, dealing with the Little Things and addressing the concerns of their neighbors. Ultimately, the people that are listened to the most are the eople closest to the potential denialists and the skeptics, or the people who dont know what to do. Down on the end is martha. She drove three hours here. We dont know what her Carbon Footprint was for that drive. Well be doing the senate. It was worth it. I flew, so i am screwed. In between is our hometown favorite, the state climatologists for iowa. Beside me here is kathy, who is from North Carolina, but recently was in oregon, which is an interesting switch. Big move. Miles probably some similarities on the two states. Coastal. All that stuff. Just a mirror image. Without going too deep into the bureaucratic machinations of what a state climatologists does, lets run through, it is 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 just curious who you consider your clients to be. Why dont you start . Climate touches everything and everyone, so i found a job where i get to meddle in everybodys affairs. It is perfect to me, because i am so interested in learning about so many things. You become an expert quickly and things you never thought you would think about or things you didnt go to school for. Miles i am a history major, so i understand how this works. I work with a lot of what i call decisionmakers. Somebody who is making a decision that climate is going to be a factor in it. A lot of water managers, farmers and people in the public who just want to know what is going on. Miles good. Anything more you want to add . Is that pretty much it from your perspective . Being from iowa, or being the state climatologist of iowa, my clientele are stakeholders, farmers, i talk to farmers every day. Farmers are very intuitive. They have been on their land forever. Talking with them, they see what s happening. They see changes in the climate, they see changes in the weather, and it affects their crop yields. It affects what they do on a daytoday basis. Having the information for them, climate data, whether data, letting them know that there is a 40 chance that next month will be above average temperaturewise or precipitationwise just to give them guidance moving forward. It is somewhat reassuring, being in a very variable state weatherwise. Miles would you add anymore . What justin said, four hundred miles to the west, thats what i deal with. You never know who is going to call when you pick up the phone. One day, i showed a group of second graders to one of our weather stations then that afternoon gave in interview to Fuji Television about the flood of 2019 in nebraska. That gives you an idea of the range of people we communicate with on this complex topic of Climate Change. Miles i want to talk about that flood in a moment and wild weather and how that is impacting what you are hearing and who you are hearing from. It is interesting to me that the two ladies on the panel are academics inside academic institutions with all of the rotections that we associate with that for them to say whatever they want to say. Despite whatever the governor may think. This gentleman in the middle is a state employee. You are a little more vulnerable, i guess. First of all, when it comes to denialism, the governor of nebraska, problems, right . Is there much 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, maybe until tonight. [laughter] miles i just ruined that. Was this something i was not supposed to ask about . It is the deep fried butter. It confused me. People care at all levels, whether it is farmers and ranchers, cities across nebraska, Natural Resource districts that manage groundwater in nebraska. Everybody is talking about it and cares about it and wants to know what is going to happen. What are the solutions . I find that in my role, i do not feel any sort of pressure from above to speak a certain way. Miles good, so let it rip. Justin, you are a state employee. Our governor is very much into renewables, but not so much into believing that Climate Change has a human component. Does that affect in any way how you do your business . No. I am the weather archivist for the state. I have 147 years of observations, factbased bservations. Miles not alternative facts. Real facts. These are real facts and trends. To our stakeholders and legislators. Any level of the government and i dont feel impeded in my position. Miles glad to hear that. C has the benefit of a governor who was on the forefront of suggesting drastic action to fight Climate Change. What that is that been like for you . It has been four weeks. The honey moon has been awesome, huh . One of the reasons i took my job, we have great things going on in oregon, i was so encouraged by what was happening in the state. The state obviously is taking Climate Change seriously. We have the outer banks, coastal flooding. Huge hurricanes. It is undeniable. Being able to be a part of that was exciting for me. Miles was not a big part of the allure for you . Professionally, asking tough questions and trying to come up with solutions. Miles as long as we are on the dangerous political shoals here, lets keep going. Shall we . With the complete lack of leadership in washington that we have right now, going in the opposite direction, does that put more pressure, more responsibility on the states, on the localities to do something and is there evidence that that is happening . O ahead. Yeah, i think it does. Some of the best solutions are the local solutions. You know what is going on in your area and know how the solve it. Im just finishing a project across the fourstate region including three in nebraska, where they are incorporating climate projections into their planning documents. Hazard mitigation plans, emergency operating plans. They are looking at what is our water going to look like, what are temperatures going to look like . Do we need cooling shelters, snow removal equipment . All the things the city cares about their looking at Climate Change. Miles is that optional . Is that their decision or something they are forced to do . These are cities that chose to join this project to work handinhand to develop tools to enhance their decisionmaking. Miles when i saw what was happening at the epa, when the Trump Administration came in, i was trying to be optimistic. I thought maybe the grassroots will be better, because, to the extent that there is an absence of leadership in washington, it might mobilize people on the local level to do more. I thought maybe i was being poll yanna. What you say . Corn roots here. Miles that was pretty corny. I know. I will farmers are resilient. They dont rely on anybody but themselves. Being told what to do is not something that goes over. Iving discussions to various groups across the state, farmers, Elementary School kids, each has a different, unique idea or view on what is going on. Farmers, i talked to them often. They know. They know what to do, the solution that the department of agriculture puts out. Cover crops. Working for carbon sequestration. These are the solutions we can do on the state level that will start to impact moving forward and up. Miles it has to be pretty pragmatic when you are talking to a farmer, right . It can be stuff way down the road. It has to be something that will help them in the relative near term. That might be a bit of a problem for a climatologist who is thinking in much longer terms. Sure. We talk about weather a lot. Shortterm vary glation the tmosphere. Variations in the atmosphere. Farmers are very seasonly based, because that is their livelihood. During the growing season, they want to get planted and harvest. Looking forward seasonally gives them an idea of what they can expect yield wise. Moving out further onto a seasonal and yearly and multiyear gives them an idea of olutions solutions that would benefit them moving forward. What about you . Rahm emanuel said never waste a good crisis. Is there an opportunity to do something meaningful at the state level, in particular in North Carolina. After four weeks, what have you done . You dont have it solved yet . Even when the federal government is moving, it is not a nimble institution. Good point. When you think about large statesissues, it is the that start flipping and then we move towards the direction of addressing the issue. With Greenhouse Gas mitigation, absolutely, showing leadership standing up. California is leading, but other states are trying as well. The adaptation side of the house, preparing for the impacts of Climate Change are becoming more resilient, local and state solutions are the ones that will stick, because it is the people in the communities who need to come to the table. You mention briefly the 2019 floods. Lets talk about the floods or the fire that devastated aradise, a hurricane, whatever it is to what extent is it the weather changing, impacting the questions and for that atter the reception you give get when you talk to the public . Is it changing . My sense is that it is somehow. First of all, you can use it as a tool to explain the difference between whether and climate. How do you explain it . What do you say . I say, depending on the audience, i say weather is your atbat and climate is your batting average. Whether is your mood, climate is your personality. Go ahead. You use that as your gateway to talk to folks about Climate Change. The flood is a gateway drug for climate, right . Yes, it is what grabs peoples attention. We were talking earlier. I met a climate denier but never a weather denier. It is real, local impacts you cant question. For the floods, for example, we talk about the events leading up to it, which was a big factor in the flood. It wasnt just the storm. It was what happened leading up to that. You talk about how springs have gotten wetter overall and how that is going to continue and that is your tie into Climate Change. The problem i have discovered covering this for 25 years is there is the Scientific Method and scientists, they dont talk ike the rest of us, right . They are constrained by peer review, evidence, and all that stuff. What it does at times, they have historically been extremely reluctant to connect those dots, to say this tornado or hurricane has a climate link it has been hard to get out of scientists. Has that changed . You want to take that, justin . We were affected by the flood in 2019 also. Iowa at the second wettest year on record in the 1993 in the wettest. We were three inches short of breaking that record. Third wettest spring, seventh wettest spring, third wettest winter. All of that goes into the large scale circumstances that lead to historic flooding. In iowa, these three floods in 10 years yeah. [laughter] you have a stack of evidence that is hard to counter. Would you go along with that, kathy . Has it gotten to that point our scientists encumbered by some constraints they felt in the past to make these links . Attribution science, seeing the fingerprints of Climate Change on events has moved a lot the past few years. Just last week, our colleagues saying the european heat wave, saying Climate Change definitely. 10 years ago, a reporter would call up and we would say, we cant tied one of into Climate Change. We are past that. We are seeing heat waves, big fires, and Climate Change here. It is in our face. Just the opposite of journal itch. Jourmism. We go for the sexy lead. You do all the disclaimers, and at the bottom you say, by the way we are screwed. If you flip that around, that might be good. I am just saying. [laughter] when you pick up the phone, what are they asking you . There are people who call and ask about their daughters wedding. [laughter] of course. I hope you charge them extra. [laughter] it depends on my mood. But a lot of people, i find a lot of people just want to talk about it. They want somebody to talk to. I am on the other end of the line. They are worried, concerned, looking to buy a house in oregon or North Carolina, or it is somebody making a decision. They want to sit down and get to know each other and me to listen what they are working on and figure that out. There is a counseling component to this . A little bit. It is a Big Mental Health issue with farmers in the midwest, given what we have seen, the conditions from last year to this year, d1 drought to d3 drought, now moving into dryness, but in between, record wetness, so farmers, they call. I do a lot of event planning. They want some reassurance that, hell, is my crop going to come out right. They need somebody to. It weighs on you, but you are there as a service. Youre there trying to make things better with giving them the proper information. Martha, weddings and bar mitzvahs, too . Yes. The two primary questions are what is the forecast for the season. Seasonal feel, climate outlook. Primarily agricultural einterested people . Yes. There are baseball season were talking about. Are we going to be wetter, drier, warmer, colder, and timing of precipitation events. The other question increasingly is Climate Change, what will it mean for nebraska . What can we grow in nebraska. What will it mean for fish and wildlife. What will it mean for the cities . People want to know how will it impact me . What can i do about it . That is a long phone call. You get a question like that. It is not a simple answer. Climate impacts are intricate. There are lots of connections. You have to get to know the concerns, what are those interconnections, how does climate look for a particular area, and it is not an easy answer and it takes time building a relationship, and kind of working with somebody hand in hand. Is it hard to take a global problem, the ultimate macro problem, and make it microthat can fit for one guy in one county in nebraska . When it comes to people caring about Climate Change, and you dont show them on the polar bear on the ice flow if they live in spring valley, nebraska, so you talk about crops, changes in precipitation, and things that are local. Because Climate Change is here. It is affecting all of us. The sooner we act with the less risky. You talk about localized things, localized solutions. To the extent that people are affected now, you know, you have their attention. The concern is, ok, now it is getting late in the game. We have to move things along here. Do you feel that people are listening in a different way than they were when it was the r bear on the ice cube sure. The amount of evidence we have in the extreme nature of events recently in the u. S. And across the globe, we are starting to ut together a container of vidence that is irrefutable, but again, when youre talking as a state climatologist, people are worried about their land, their county, first and foremost, in general, and then you get into other interest groups. Elementary schools, they ask the best questions. Even in their short lives, and they have seen how our brain gauge works, but we have seen five inches of rainfall in three hours, like we had last year, so we are seeing showing people raphical ways of showing extreme events is a way of getting that information to them. Kathy, an important point, there is a real generational component to this, isnt there . Absolutely. I think back i am not that old, but i was in Elementary School at the time, where it was give a hoot dont pollute, and we were taught about recycling and being stewards of the earth. But that wasnt enough. We are seeing this youth uprising that i think is encouraging and they absolutely have a right to be completely pissed off about the earth that we brought them. They are the most effective communicators. They are the ones that have to deal with the problem. 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. What is 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. 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. 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 seeing 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 you get flash flooding. Do the farmers 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. There are not a lot of denialists on the farms . No, they see what is happening and we go from there. Best left unsaid. 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 that is a real 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 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 communities in some areas that have been 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 help improving. There are examples where we underestimated the trend. Arctic sea ice is a great example. That has been retreating faster than we thought. That tells us something, we do 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 and 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. 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 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 . I am thinking about those involving 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 an d 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 . Hardcore denialists, you just move on, but there are people in the middle here who recognize the 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. 2019, we ared in 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 the 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 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. What do they care about . You start from there and connect the dots. Here is a question. We have three state climatologists who know something about agriculture. Rose, i apologize if i mispronounce it, 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 . Are 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 of 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, high minimum temperatures come , nighttime lows are not getting down. We are not able to cool off, humans or animals. So, heat events would be one thing. Floods, Water Quality impacts goes 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 and little bit to see who is interested in joining the conversation. I think i see a couple of hands up. Lets go out to the audience phil donahue style. That is a carbon dating thing. Phil donahue back in the 1970s, 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 set. It is done through station observations, satellites brought together. We cant have station observations in the middle of the ocean. They both adhere to summit protocols. 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, right away, right there. I have a question, this gentleman. Kevin. I heard a lot about what the three of you said. These are the issues we are faced with. I did not hear a lot about how we begin to mitigate this. So what are one or two things you would say, here is how we mitigate that Climate Change locally, and second, 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. Good question. 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 talking about the candidates who will flood you in two days, but local elections matter, 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 big 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 change on the part of weatherman. Iowa has had tremendous coverage about floods in the infrastructure damage. You mentioned that june 30 flood last year, 6000 homes had damage. Never did i hear 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. 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, 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 contact with anybody might be considered a scientist would be there local weather person. 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 get your meteorological degree, they did not teach climate simultaneously, so there was a fundamental misunderstanding,. Hey were applying i think that is changing. 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 is this becoming an issue now . It has always been an issue. It is 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. 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, in the arctic circle, involved a polar bear and might happen in 20 or 30 years. Now it is 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. Thanks for answering my twitter question. Wait a minute, you are disqualified. [laughter] 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. How do you advise the average citizen who wants to learn more about this to decipher all of this 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 . 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. They are Getting Better and taking their summaries and making them readable. I study this 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 person. There are a few good aggregators of content. There is an editorial process, the environment to help news comes online, 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 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] 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, 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. 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, 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 . 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 can afford it . Go ahead, martha. 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 foster the relationship and start or continue dialogue or bring people to the table. 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, restaurants, infrastructure there. We like to build berms to mitigate flood impacts, but we are still building on floodplains. That is something climatologist 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 floodplain and bought them 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, so then we will not solve anything. 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 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. 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 not that fast. 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 of little bit . Yeah, and i think about when people point fingers. You flew here. 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 . 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. She is a 16yearold who changed the world, so give her credit for that. Speaking of young people, what is your name young man. 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 when youre trying to figure out how much honesty to give the kid, right . 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 . Have 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 this 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. 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, agricultural solutions. We have renewable fuels. 40 of our Power Generation is from wind turbines. Looking at the agricultural scope. 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 an increasing cover crops across iowa. That will make an impact, especially with runoff. Those are 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 in the 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 they are. 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 if 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 get to my point that science is a piece of this. People will say why on 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 would be more effective. Question . My question is technical. It seems to me that there has been an increase in intensity, 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 more vegetation that is slowing down wind speeds. 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, remember cow, cow . Go ahead. [laughter] i read an article about modernday agriculture and how the clubs are getting closer together, bigger them 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, and what can be done 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 the crops because of the effects of putting large amounts of water in the air. 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, that is how we get a lot of our rainfall during the summer months, so 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 wetlands 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. 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 come 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. 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 that 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 once 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 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] we have a few live events today on cspan to tell you about. Eastern, at 1 30 conference on combating illegal robo calls with a group of state attorneys general. At 2 40 five eastern, a discussion about childrens Online Privacy concerns. Later this afternoon, former Boston Celtics basketball player bob cousy receives the president ial medal of freedom at the white house. After that, a forum on Climate Change with president ial candidates tim ryan and john delaney. Thats live on cspan. Coming up tonight at 9 30 eastern, we will bring you an update on the future of campaign debates. How can main debates will be planned and why some candidates refuse take part. Here is a preview. Political debate has been an integral part of the american political process at all levels and yet, over the last decade, debates between candidates seeking Political Office has declined. This is not for lack of effort, as community and civic groups, including the city club, as well as television stations and other media organizations have organized debates, only to have candidates, often incumbents, turn down invitations, refusing to debate their opponents or designing highly choreographed debates in front of their supporters. In 2006, the city club claim famously uninvited two gubernatorial candidates after their refusal to participate in an unscripted debate. This debate over debate, so to speak, has gained momentum. The proliferation of social media, cable news, and other Online Platforms has given candidates opportunities to in wayswith audiences debates used to provide. Furthermore, when it comes to debates, there is no of agreedupon authority, no sense of what best practices are, and a clear consensus on what debate should look like or strive to accomplish. All things we have seen in recent bates among democratic ofdidates for the president the United States. In an effort to preserve political debates as part of our democratic process, several states have created debate commissions with the goal to convene highquality debates that play a substantive role in informing citizens about issues substantive role ine informing citizens about issues and candidates on the ballot. In 2018, the Ohio Debate Commission was formed, running indiana, utah, and washington as states with this kind of statewide collaboration. How are they working, and what should the future of debates look like . You can watch the entire forum on candidate debates from the city club of cleveland at 9 30 eastern, and as a reminder, you can follow all of our programs online at cspan. Org and listen with the free cspan radio app. Saturday on book tv at 7 00 p. M. Eastern, in her latest book , our women on the ground, this author looks at the challenges eastern Arabian Police face while enforcing. The officers were able to push through whatever barriers they had and write openly and honestly about their deepest struggles. Mind, it ises to a raw andcount honest account of grief and loss, and it reflects the state of the air of world the state of the arab world today. This is not an uplifting book. Professor on race, gender, and inequality in america. Is brief cent book a letter to our sons. Not only to arm them skills andof intellectual tools that allow them to flourish in school and ethics and values, but also a way to make sense of the hostility that they encounter every day from people at times whose responsibility is to treat them as community members. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwards, brent bozell on his book unmasked big medias war against trump. All modicums of decency have been cast aside, but