Hartford's smoke filled skies show costs of climate change - Hartford Courant
Hartford's smoke filled skies show costs of climate change
The pollution that recently covered our skies and filled our lungs served as reminder that the climate crisis is upon us. Now, all levels of government must act to protect the health and safety of our communities. We need to adapt, protect, and repair our communities in the face of this new climate reality. With significant costs looming over us, we need to know how much climate change is costing us.
Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. Scientists call it the ‘new abnormal’
Extreme heat and flooding disproportionately affect residents in our city centers. Hartford has higher temperatures than surrounding areas therefore, exacerbating the effects of heat waves and impacting those without air conditioning and dependent on public transportation; putting them at greater risk of suffering from heat related illnesses. Our neighbors and friends contacted the EPA, due to the ongoing incidents of flooding and sewage backups. The Asylum Hill, Upper Albany, Clay Arsenal, and Blue Hills neighborhoods have expressed concerns that there is a lack of action in the city, when addressing flooding.
From infrastructure needs, to record high temperatures, to wildfires, and the dangerous smoke they produce, our friends, family, and neighbors are facing increasing challenges, as a result of a climate change that has been backed by our reliance on fossil fuels. Corporations have known about the potentially catastrophic impact of fossil fuels for decades, while raking in billions of record profits. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we do everything we can to invest in sustainable forms of transportation and energy while addressing the source of climate change. It is vitally important we are prepared to withstand climate change.
For the third time this week, Earth sets an unofficial heat record. What’s behind those big numbers?
Climate change is already impacting the city’s budget: opening cooling centers to protect vulnerable residents from extreme heat, repairing and upgrading our stormwater systems in the face of more precipitation, or delay public works because of unsafe air pollution, that all comes with a price tag.
Some of these costs, like a proposed $33.5 million capital investment in flood control measures over several years, are already known and identified in future budgets, however, there is and will continue to be future costs, which have yet to be identified. That’s why earlier this year, with the support of other esteemed members of City Council, I introduced a resolution calling on the mayor’s office to initiate transparent tracking of the costs of climate adaptation, resilience, and recovery at the municipal level, in order to assist in the process of budgetary and emergency planning. I am happy to say this resolution was passed and is an important step in tackling climate change.
The city needs to evaluate all our existing and projected climate-related costs and expenditures. These could range from how our local businesses, transportation systems, and local agriculture are impacted by extreme weather events, to how much we are spending to protect public health and adapt infrastructure.
As the majority leader of Hartford’s City Council, I’m proud that myself and other elected officials have worked with Mayor Luke Bronin to enact a climate action plan and create an Office of Sustainability. We aim to work with: community partners, national, state, and city agencies to address any future concerns relating to our environment. It’s our duty to ensure that communities of color, who are often disproportionately affected by and impacted the most by climate change, have the resources they need. We have done a lot of important work. However, there is more to be done.
As a community, we are making tremendous strides towards a more sustainable future, by holding those who are predominately responsible for climate change accountable. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, has filed a potentially historic lawsuit against ExxonMobil, one of the biggest climate polluters in the world, whose early knowledge and longstanding efforts to mislead about climate change have been well documented. The attorney general’s lawsuit is one of several across the country seeking to make Exxon pay for the for the detrimental changes in climate we have all faced.
While state officials fight for accountability we, at the city level, must do everything in our power to better understand how much climate change is costing us, and what we can do to protect and advance the quality of life for everyone who calls our city home.
Thomas J. Clarke II is majority leader of Hartford’s City Council.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”