Boston Globe — Rhode Island must do more to get climate ready

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, center, with Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts, right, and Ben Cardin of Maryland, left, at the U.S. Center pavilion during the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference on Nov. 11, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. SEAN GALLUP/GETTY

Dec 2, 2022

By Curt Spalding — With so much of its population and economic activity concentrated in highly exposed coastal communities, Rhode Island should lead — not follow — on preparing for climate change.

Last month, government emissaries went to Egypt for the Climate Change Conference COP27 and confronted the almost certain scenario that the planet will warm by at least 1.0 to 2.0 C° by 2050. And as the planet warms, heavier rain deluges, hotter and longer heat waves, higher storm surges and ever bigger wildfires will more severely disrupt everything that makes communities across the world secure.

According to reporting in Scientific American’s E&E news, most scientists believe Earth has never warmed this fast. Warming that previously took hundreds if not thousands of years will occur in just decades.

Efforts to build resilient communities must not be limited by the usual political constraints that make bold action impossible. The threat that climate change poses for each and every community must be rigorously considered by quantitatively measuring how sensitive each community is to specific threats, like storm surge and extreme heat.

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