North Carolina has had a “front row seat when it comes to the effects of climate change,” Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said Sunday on “Meet the Press,” in the aftermath of one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the U.S.
Driving the news: The White House approved an emergency declaration for North Carolina after massive storm Ian, which hit Cuba, Puerto Rico, Florida and South Carolina earlier this week, ripped through the state late Friday and early Saturday.
Details: “We are making sure that we have become a clean energy safe haven and that we are paying attention to resiliency,” said Cooper, who added that the state has completed a climate risk assessment and resiliency plan.
- “We know that these areas are vulnerable so what we’re doing is making sure that we are using strategies like elevation and even buyouts.”
- “We’ve gone into local communities that have gotten hit several times and it has just become better to make sure that we create green space where homes and businesses used to be to soak up water that may come from a river flood and then to relocate people,” he added.
The big picture: Extreme weather trends seen with Ian and over the past several years point to a key role in human-caused climate change, Axios’ Andrew Freedman writes.
- Hurricanes are fueled by warm, tropical waters and the oceans are absorbing extra heat going into the climate system due to human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases.
- All landfalling storms now bring more dangerous coastal flooding due to human-caused sea level rise.
- These changes combined with warmer summers are causing climate scientists to forecast things to get worse.
