Re: Climate (2020.12)

This hasn't exactly been the best year ever.

By Kelly Watkinson August 14, 2020
Binoculars sitting on a ledge

Despite being a traditionally colder La Niña year, 2020 is on track to be the second hotteston record, just behind 2016. Moreover, this year's hurricane season will go down in history for its dominance of rapidly intensifying storms in the Atlantic Ocean, raising the question of whether this is the new normal. Climate scientists say "yes" — and that the $24 billion weather disasters in the United States have a clear link to the climate crisis.

But this year hasn't been without its redeeming value.

One silver lining is that 2020 has brought to light the many — and too often forgotten — inequities in our country and across the world. As just one example, a new study recently gave us the first national assessment of affordable housing facing coastal flood risks. The findings of this work add to a growing body of research showing the disproportionate impacts climate change has on lower-income, disadvantaged and minority communities across the country.

According to the study, the number of affordable units exposed in the United States is projected to more than triple over the next 30 years. The study also noted that nearly half of New Jersey's "large stock of exposed affordable housing units could flood at least four times per year" by 2050. The cities with the largest number of affordable housing units at risk of flooding induced by rising sea levels include New York City (4,774 units) and Boston (3,042 units). By percentage increase, the highest-risk cities are Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S.C., each of which could see a more than fivefold jump in at-risk affordable housing units by 2050.

Admittedly, this isn't the brightest of silver linings. But as we think about how to plan a better future, it's better to know our risks than not.

And we all have a role to play in addressing the climate crisis and the inequities which can hamper the ability of our communities and our lands to recover from such trauma. That's why we at the Land Trust Alliance will continue to promote the many ways land trusts can make a difference locally and collectively as we move on from this year.

Because, frankly, 2021 can't arrive soon enough.

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