The Biden Administration has hit the ground running in addressing the climate crisis
From the January 2021 Cornerstone Network email
Yesterday, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis Here and Abroad. This order comes on the heels of others to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, to pull the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and a presidential memorandum that protects government scientists from political interference.
Earlier this week, the administration announced an effort to free up roughly $10 billion at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to protect against climate disasters.
It is most definitely a firehose of federal climate action, but a welcome one. Given the events of the past several weeks at the Capitol and across our nation, these aggressive and early moves to address the climate crisis are sweet music to our ears. Especially those of us who have been staring down the climate crisis without the support of our federal government for the past four years.
For the first time ever, the US is taking a “whole of government” approach. It is badly needed given the lateness of the hour and the transformational change required to meet the climate challenge.
We are hopeful and at the same time, recognize that we are in a major sprint.
How agencies deploy these resources will make all the difference. FEMA funding needs to focus on green infrastructure solutions in under-resourced communities. Meeting our commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement requires a nationwide system of climate resilience support services for local governments. And, our commitment to addressing the climate crisis needs to integrate across our economy and financial systems. We must align our resources to create the greatest climate gains.
Over the past several months, I’ve talked with partners in federal agencies, academic institutions, and for profit and non-profit organizations. These conversations focused on bringing existing resources together and filling the gaps so every community can take effective climate action.
We have less than 10 years to make real change, but now we have a clear pathway. And it feels good!
A colleague who works with local governments in the Mississippi River corridor wrote to me recently and said, “Tears dry faster in the sun and the clouds have parted for a time…I’m ready.”
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Michelle Lewis is a community engagement and outreach associate for the Heat Policy Innovation Hub. Before her work at the Nicholas Institute, she served as the Agent of Thriving for Climate and Environmental Justice at the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. She earned her doctoral degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Lewis holds a Master of Environmental Science from Yale School of the Environment and a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, along with a certificate from Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Arts. She studied film at Regent University, where she completed a Master of Arts in communication. Lewis has worked in both rural and urban contexts and has led community-based participatory research. Her research has focused on how faith communities connect with the environment through their existing cosmologies, the effects of green space on patient outcomes, and the environmental theologies of Black coastal communities.
Lauren Graham is a strategic ecosystems thinker and cross-pollinator who creates impact in the areas of climate and democracy by transforming how mission-driven organizations are designed, led, and evolved. She holds Master’s degrees from University of Pennsylvania in Nonprofit Leadership, Yale in Environmental Management, and Stanford University in Sociology and teaches Strategic Management and Leadership for Nonprofits among other courses at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Lauren is founder of Velvet Frame, a social impact strategy and communications consultancy for mission-driven organizations, and has extensive nonprofit experience including roles as Chief of Staff for Hunger Free America and Director of Innovation for Climate Access.
Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.