While climate change is typically one of the top ranked concerns of people when polls are taken, it often takes a backseat to worries that are more immediate like the economy and crime. Part of this is because climate change often feels like something that will happen in the future and not today.
But that’s not the case. Climate change has already impacted our world, nation and state and we are being forced to deal with its impacts right now.
On this edition of Oregon On the Record you’ll hear from experts who’ll illustrate how climate change has already changed our state and has already made things worse in terms of public health, the economy and society in general. From air quality hazards to never-before-seen mega fires, to our state’s loss of billions of dollars in climate related disasters, climate change doesn’t just belong to the future, but it’s our burden today.
This episode, we don’t talk about the theoretical challenges of climate change but instead talk about what we are already seeing and how our warming environment is already costing us in terms of money, health, and overall community.
From climate and social scientists who study the present impacts of fossil fuels, to public health experts who must grapple with these impacts, to an economist who sees billions of dollars going up in smoke, climate change isn’t a boogie man waiting for us in the future, but a threat that’s already here.
Our guests on the show included:
- David Lewis, a natural resource economist at Oregon State
- Elizabeth Marino, an associate professor at OSU-Cascades, and Erica Fleishman, an Oregon State professor and director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
- Julie Sifuentes from Oregon Health Authority
The chapter of the National Climate Assessment related to the Pacific Northwest can be found here.
