Event - Surviving Climate Change with Natural Defenses (Teleconference Report Release)

This teleconference will take place on October 21, at 10am (ET). October 29th marks the second anniversary of suerstorm Sandy which touched 24 states. Since then, our climate has continued to warm, with April-September 2014 going down as Earth’s hottest six months on record. But at the same time, coastal and riverside development continues to grow, leaving many of our communities just as vulnerable to the effects of global warming as they were when Sandy came roaring ashore.

Questions that will be answered:

What lessons have we learned since Sandy about the best strategies to protect our communities, infrastructure and natural resources from more intense storms, sea level rise and flooding?
Will our elected officials begin making the necessary reforms and investments to prepare our communities to endure weather events rather than simply reacting with billions of dollars after a disaster hits?

Climate change impacts are hitting home faster than governments are adapting, but it’s not too late to protect our communities with cost-effective, nature-based approaches for risk reduction, according to Natural Defenses from Hurricanes and Floods: Protecting America’s Communities and Ecosystems in an Era of Extreme Weather.

The report calls on federal, state and local officials to substantially increase our investments in proactive risk reduction measures at a “Marshall Plan” scale that takes into consideration the growing risks from more intense storms, flooding and sea level rise, to reduce federal and state subsidies for development in the most high risk areas and to incentivize better pre-disaster land use planning, hazard mitigation.

This teleconference will unveil a report titled: Natural Defenses from Hurricanes and Floods: Protecting America’s Communities and Ecosystems in an Era of Extreme Weather. This new report was created by the National Wildlife Federation, Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG, and Earth Economics. It takes an in-depth look at the growing risks we face from these potentially-catastrophic natural hazards, the policy solutions that can safeguard people, property and wildlife habitats, and local case studies from across the country that point the way forward.

The speakers will be

Collin O’Mara, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Wildlife Federation
Wesley Dupont, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Allied World Assurance Company Holdings,
AG Mayor Don Ness, Duluth, Minnesota
Bill Nechamen, Chief, Floodplain Management Section, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; Chair, Association of State Floodplain Managers
Patty Glick, Senior Climate Change Specialist, National Wildlife Federation

To request an embargoed copy of the report, email Miles Grant at GrantM@NWF.org BACKGROUND

To access this teleconference dial 1-800-791-2345, 50528#