What we need to learn from climate-accelerated extreme weather events
I lived in Buffalo for four years as a graduate student, including during the 1977 snowstorm. The people of Western New York know how to deal with snow. In Buffalo, any snowfall below 6 inches is reported as “light snow.” (In Washington, D.C., anything larger than 3 inches is a “blizzard.”) However, a snowstorm that hit western New York in December killed more than 40 people in Erie County, where Buffalo is located. When the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the New York metro area in 2021, more than 40 people died, 13 of them in New York City—most of them in flooded basement apartments in Queens. There is no doubt that the United States is experiencing more and more extreme weather events, and these storms are worse than any of us can remember. A new field of climate science called “attribution science” tells us that while storms are normal and naturally occurring, they occur more intensely and more frequently as a result of warming oceans and a warming planet. It’s not news; everyone knows it because we’ve all experienced it firsthand. To quote Bob Dylan: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.”
Still, our communities, and even our highly capable first responders, continue to face unprecedented weather emergencies. In New York City, we were prepared for shoreline flooding, but Ida’s emergency was five inches of rain in an hour, and the greatest impact was farther along the shore. The ferocity and duration of December snowstorms in Buffalo are unprecedented. We need to learn from these experiences, because mitigating climate change will take decades, and reducing these types of impacts will take even longer.
Last week, I had the pleasure of teaching for a morning at the Fire Department Officer Management Academy, a partnership between FDNY and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. My topic is the impact of climate change on first responders. We discuss the causes of climate change and the impact of decarbonization on the urban natural environment. Today, New York City firefighters and EMS crews must maneuver around bike lanes and bike stops, and increasingly respond to fires caused by defective bike batteries. We then discuss the personal experiences these officials face as a result of climate change. One official spoke about the impact of a warming climate on winter sports such as skating and skiing. Another representative noted that air conditioning was more needed in summer than it had been decades ago.
We then delved into professional lessons learned from Hurricanes Sandy and Ida. FDNY gradually acquired new equipment and vehicles to help them save people and fight fires during floods. Training how to use the equipment has become routine. In addition, improved communication mechanisms have been established to ensure city-wide coordination in the event of an emergency. Fortunately, unlike the Russian military and more like the Ukrainian military, FDNY officers have the authority to make decisions when they cannot convey information to higher chains of command. FDNY includes New York Emergency Management Services (EMS), 14,500 people responsible for managing and responding to emergencies in New York City. When you call 911 for a health emergency, they usually respond in a New York City ambulance. These public servants are on call along with firefighters to respond to life-threatening emergencies.
As I reflect on the mornings I spent with fire and emergency medical services managers, I feel reassured that, at least in New York City, our first responders are working hard to improve their Ability to respond to emergencies in cities. They applied for and received new equipment and vehicles, and are working hard to get ready for the next Sandy or Ida. But when I look at some rural areas without large numbers of professional first responders and cities without the New York City tax base and FDNY organizational capacity, I worry about America’s ability to deal with this growing threat to our personal safety.
I know current politics is centered on ideological debates about policing, crime, and punishment, but we may well be focusing on the wrong threats to our security. Most of us (fortunately) have not been victims of crime. Almost all of us are (unfortunately) victims of extreme weather events. Our homes have been flooded, power has been cut, we’ve been stranded on flooded or icy highways, or seen our communities destroyed by hurricanes and tornadoes. A country as rich as ours has the resources to protect us from the worst; but do we have the wisdom to devote those resources to the people, training, and equipment first responders need to save lives?
In addition to responsiveness, I’ve written several times about the need for a more systematic and reliable rebuild process. We’ve all seen the news reports: A retired couple’s life savings and a lifetime of memories are wiped out in a storm that may only last a few minutes. With nowhere to go, they face a difficult and uncertain future. The irreducible function of government is to protect its citizens from harm. Maybe the destroyed house was too close to the forest or the coastline. But government regulations on zoning and building allow it. Sometimes, home is in a place that is considered safe from harm: but the harm comes anyway. On our more crowded and climate-challenged planet, more and more people are on the path to devastation from extreme weather events. There is no escape from extreme weather events – they can happen anywhere. These emergencies are becoming more and more common.
As I’ve said before, we need a national rebuilding insurance system that automatically provides financial resources when communities, families, and individuals suffer losses from extreme weather events. Each of us should contribute to the fund, distributed according to pre-set rules related to the extent of the damage and the cost of rebuilding. Unlike standard homeowners or flood insurance, everyone at work will contribute to the fund and pay victims within 30 days of a damaging event. Eligible events will include natural and man-made disasters.
What we need to understand is that the majority of us Americans are lucky enough to live safe lives free from violence and crime. Most of us – though far from all of us – have enough to eat, clothe and shelter. But we live in a world made smaller and more interconnected by technology, and more dangerous by the impact these technologies have on the planet and human behaviour. Government is needed to protect us from dangers that befall us through no fault of our own. But we need to invest some revenue to pay for this new form of protection.
Likewise, we need to add resources to existing national programs to fund and train first responders. Unfortunately, certain parts of this country are unprepared for our climate-challenged planet. Their leaders think climate change is a dirty word, refuse to raise taxes on anything, and see government as a problem, not a resource to solve it. Their voters, often victims of climate-accelerated extreme weather events, are less concerned with the causes of the disaster and more concerned with the solution to their suffering. These victims should not be held accountable for the short-sighted actions of their leaders. We need to learn from the emergencies we face because they will come back, and each time they do, they will retain their capacity for surprise. FDNY in New York City, including the Department’s EMS, is among the best in its class in drawing lessons from the past and building capacity to respond in the future. As a resident of New York City, I have full confidence in their abilities. We need to make sure all Americans treat their first responders the way I do.
