Climate Panel and Years of Living Dangerously

May 27, 2014

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By Olatomiwa Bifarin* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Enlightening and Shocking are apt words that describe the eighth episode of the Years of Living Dangerously that was screened on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 20. The event, hosted by the Senate Climate Action Task Force and the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) in the Capitol Visitor Center also included a panel of experts that examined how climate change threatens our health, security, and economy.
Years of Living Dangerously is a documentary television series that feature celebrities who travel around the globe as investigators, divulging the impacts of climate change by telling lucid, unsophisticated, indubitable human stories. The eighth episode dubbed “A dangerous future” features Michael Hall, Matt Damon and Thomas Friedman.

Increasing drought in Yemen continues to fuel political and communal crisis in the country Photo Credit NYTimes

“Can water finish in Yemen,” Friedman asked the Yemeni President during an interview in the series. “Yes, it can”, the president responded in a fairly confident and bleak tone. Drought in Yemen has not only affected food security, it has become a stout ‘catalyst’ in communal crises. In the episode, it was reported that in some parts of Yemen, villagers might have to dig up to an unspeakable 800 meters into the ground just to get water from a well, no wonder communal wars are almost routine in such areas.
In the same vein, one of the panel of experts, Sharon E. Burke, Senior Advisor, New America Foundation in her opening remarks stressed that when extreme weather emanates with water and food scarcity at our door steps, climate change becomes a security issue, which was patently substantiated by several Yemeni stories in the series. She continued by stating that climate change is also a direct security issue in the United States, as the Department of Defense has several coastal agencies which are at risks of coastal erosion, storm surge, inland flooding amongst others.

Bangladesh geographically a low-lying nation is among the most vulnerable countries to sea level rise in the world Photo Credit- NYTimes

Another chief highlight of the episode is the sea level rise in Bangladesh: 17% of the low-lying, South Asian country could be conceivably submerged by the end of the century. [1] Considering that Bangladeshis are only responsible for a meager 0.3 per cent of the emissions that evoke climate change, makes up an unjust case. [2] As Michael Halls travelled to Bangladesh, he investigated the percussions of sea level rise on migration which has engendered unprecedented population explosions in urban areas like Dhaka with a colossal repugnant socio-economic impact.
“Dhaka has a population of about 14.6 million people living in just 125 square miles (325 square kilometers). At more than 115,000 people per square mile which is nearly 75 percent denser than Hong Kong. The New York's core, Manhattan, is 40 percent less dense, and even the New York urban area does not reach 1/20th of Dhaka's density”. [4] Thanks to the sea level rise in the rural areas amongst others.
Also at the event, Sabrina McCormick, one of the producers of the series and an associate professor at George Washington University, elaborated on the public health impact of climate change. She stated that as we witness more climate austerity, several vector-borne diseases would be on the increase. In a specific example, research as shown that cases of West Nile, caused by a mosquito borne virus, would inflate as temperature increases and precipitation decreases. This is particularly important for the United States as a UCLA model experiment showed that “in California alone, for example, as temperature increases more than half of the state will see an increased probability of West Nile in the decades to come.” [3]
When the global health, security, and economy is at risk as a result of these austere climatic changes, human existence becomes threatened. Therefore, climate change mitigation is imperative for the continual and fecund existence of mankind. That is why Advanced Biofuels USA recognizes the expeditious adoption of advanced biofuels as a part of the solution to mitigate climate change. Providing energy security, enhancing military flexibility and revitalizing rural economies along the way.
The event also featured Thomas R. Armstrong, Executive Director, U.S. Global Change Research Program, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Ann Kelly, Director of Business for Innovative and Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP) and Director of Public Policy, Ceres.
Sources

READ MORE (The Hill) and MORE (Huffington Post) and MORE (US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works)
*Olatomiwa Bifarin is studying for his Masters degree in Biotechnology at The Catholic University of America. As an intern at Advanced Biofuels USA, he represents the organization and reports on events in Washington, DC, and nearby areas.