In recent weeks, two devastating hurricanes hit the U.S. East Coast, causing billions of dollars in damages and the deaths of over 100 people. It's a stark reminder of how climate change is worsening storms and creating other extreme weather events.
Gov. Josh Green established a Climate Advisory Team this past May to promote resilience and recovery from future climate-related disasters. The volunteer team is looking at areas ripe for policy-making: environmental and infrastructure resilience, and physical and financial recovery.
HPR talked to team chair Chris Benjamin and member Robin Campaniano about advising the Green administration in preparation for the 2025 legislative session.
"The first thing that we want to emphasize is that the best way to reduce future losses and future costs, both loss of life and economic losses, is through resilience. The more resilient we can make our homes, our communities, the better we can manage land and the areas around our communities, the more we can reduce future losses," Benjamin said.
Benjamin said they also want to learn everything they can from the Fire Safety Research Institute's latest report about the Lahaina fire. The wildfire that killed at least 102 people on Maui last year erupted from an earlier brushfire, sparked by downed power lines, that firefighters believed they had extinguished, officials said earlier this month. He said he expects to incorporate a lot of the report's recommendations.
He said the team is exploring a program to retrofit some of Hawaiʻi's homes to increase resistance to hurricanes, wildfires, etc. — the first line of defense to keep people in their homes. The team is also talking about the coordination of relief services and safety measures to improve infrastructure.
"We have to recognize that our spending on climate preparation and readiness is woefully inadequate, and that statement is true for virtually every community in the country, maybe the world. That is not breaking news, but what we have to do is we have to get all of us, you know, it's not just the legislators, because the legislators are simply representing their constituents' goals, we all have to accept that we have to invest more in protecting ourselves from these things," Benjamin said.
The 2025 legislative session starts Jan. 15.
"Leading up to that, we obviously want to have formed recommendations and be socializing those with legislators, with the governor, and with a lot of the people that we've been talking to throughout the process," Benjamin said.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 21, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
