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Closing the gap between understanding climate change and fixing it

In an interview with Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman, Katharine Hayhoe The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist & Christian Braneon NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Columbia University Climate School discuss how to push action into the climate change space.

Video transcript

RICK NEWMAN: So why is there such a big gap between what the science is telling us and what's actually happening in the real world? And we're seeing this play out in Washington right now. I mean, Joe Biden took office, promising unprecedented efforts to address climate change. That is getting watered down as we speak.

A lot of climate activists are saying they're very disappointed in the direction that these bills in Congress are going, which are going to be the first big effort to do something about this. How do we close this gap? How do we get from getting people to understand the crisis to getting governments and individuals in their own lives to start doing something about this? I mean, like, tangible ways to close this gap.

KATHARINE HAYHOE: One of the biggest things we can do--

RICK NEWMAN: Katharine, go ahead.

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Oh, sure. One of the biggest things we can do is what we're not doing. And we are literally not talking about this issue. Only 14% of people have had a conversation about the issue in a week. 34% ever hear anybody else talk about it, occasionally let alone themselves. Why? Because we don't understand why it matters, and we don't know what to do to fix it. So ultimately, politicians respond to the will of the people ultimately.

But right now, as Christian referred to, we know that those who are bearing the brunt of the impacts of a changing climate are not those who are profiting from the fossil fuel emissions that are the primary cause of these changes. And so until people realize and mobilize and use their voice to advocate for action to say, this matters to every single one of us, no matter where we live. It's affecting us here today. That's what we need to get the will to fix this thing.

CHRISTIAN BRANEON: And I would add I think--

RICK NEWMAN: Christian, you've worked in a-- go ahead. Go ahead, Christian.

CHRISTIAN BRANEON: I was just going to say, you know, I'd add that, you know, we need to highlight the inequities in our current systems for distributing aid after extreme weather events. You know, right now, federal disaster aid tends to go to the most wealthy. It tends to go to people that identify as white. It's not necessarily going to the folks that need it most. And this is kind of affecting me firsthand, as I have family in New Orleans. And that's where I originally grew up in Houston, actually.

You know, a lot of this allocation of aid is based on cost benefit calculations that are meant to minimize taxpayer risk. But this can actually allow rich people to get richer and poor people to stay poor. And really low income folks are going to come back after disaster in a different way than wealthy folks. So I think we need to highlight some of these inequalities around wealth and equity. And I think that could bring more attention to climate action.

RICK NEWMAN: Let me ask you both this question. Christian, to you first, since you mentioned New Orleans. Do we need to get into a situation where we are forcing people to move? People just live in places that cannot be defended against climate change, such as some of the low lying areas in Southern Louisiana. And how do we even start that? Christian, go ahead.

CHRISTIAN BRANEON: Well, you know, I've been encouraging my family in New Orleans to move for many years. But like many people, they're attached to their communities. They're attached to their homes. They're really invested, you know, in staying where they are. And so I think we need to give people the opportunity to leave. I think we need to give them options and have community [INAUDIBLE] where we give both options over a period of time. And maybe in 10 years, they're not ready to move, but maybe in 20 years, they may be.

We do need to back away from the coast and-- overall. And I think what we need to do is actually proactively set up areas with affordable housing before the real estate market catches up and kind of fully understands the risk on the coast. Too many human beings live on the coast right now. We're exposed to just exorbitant amounts of climate risk. And so, yes, we do need to retreat, but we need to give communities options in terms of how that strategic relocation happens.

RICK NEWMAN: Katharine, what do you think about this idea of the cost of defending against climate change in communities where people have roots? Is it worth the cost?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, I think that Christian really pointed out that it is about communities. And we see many Native American tribes already today from Louisiana to Alaska looking at community managed retreats. So how can we relocate not a single home or a single family, but our entire community, because that is part of our identity, that is our home.

And that is increasingly an uncomfortable conversation that we are going to have to have more and more because around the world, 700 million people, including 2/3 of the world's largest cities, are in the low elevation coastal zone. And sea level now is rising twice as fast as it was 25 years ago. We are all at risk. And we know that cutting emissions is absolutely essential to avoid the even more dangerous impacts if we don't.