By Roger Stephenson
A small group of healthcare workers and professionals from NH Healthy Climate requested a meeting with Governor Ayotte this year to introduce the organization and to begin a discussion on resilience and climate adaptation in New Hampshire. Our meeting was intended to discuss state level resilience planning across multiple sectors – public health and safety; business continuity; agriculture; tourism; transportation. After one response offering a staff level meeting we accepted, but the staff person never responded again, and we lost our window.
The resilience discussion needs to be had; adaptation planning is fiscally prudent and will save lives. At this time it is appropriate to invite all candidates for governor to weigh in. What is your plan? What should the priorities be? How will the state steward its resources and assist its citizens and local communities?
The risks to New Hampshire are evident.
Using past economic and climate data over a twenty-year period, one study looked at the impact of warm slushy winters on local economies in New Hampshire’s ski country: 3,000 fewer jobs; a loss of 4 percent of North Country winter employment. Thirty-three percent fewer skiers visit New Hampshire in low versus high snow years.
Persistent tick populations, unhealthy ground level ozone levels and, most significantly, high heat days are all increasing and contribute to existing health burdens, not only with sensitive groups but also with outdoor workers. Several regional public health networks have developed adaptation plans but do not have the resources to properly implement and manage this work.
New Hampshire farmers say the challenges of extreme weather events, frequent and prolonged droughts, and pest pressures will increase in the future. New Hampshire conservation districts recently awarded $400,000 in grants to 49 New Hampshire farms to support energy improvements and resilience practices, made possible through private donors and a federal block grant.
Flooding is statewide. Roads and bridges are planned, but climate resilience as part of transportation planning is the exception, not the rule. Governor Ayotte’s predecessor together with his Executive Council approved construction of the new $107.5 million Hampton Harbor Bridge, scheduled to open this fall. Significantly, the bridge design they approved included the assumption of 4 feet of sea level rise over its intended 75 year lifespan, an assumption based on evidence and rigorous science. But there is no plan beyond this one bridge: what of the roads, small businesses, schools and neighborhoods found on either side of the bridge? Without a plan, New Hampshire will have a two-lane bridge to nowhere.
Tourism, public health, agriculture and transportation: we want the candidates for governor to include resilience planning in their policy proposals and their stump speeches. Climate change is placing measurable burdens on people across the state: on business owners, on parents and their children and on employees in both the private and public sectors. We want to see a commitment by the next governor to form a New Hampshire citizen advisory committee focused on resilience and preparation against a changing climate.
Climate impacts are occurring. We don’t need the advisory council to debate energy sources. The build-up of carbon pollution (CO2) over the past century ensures climate impacts will continue to occur for years even if carbon pollution is reduced dramatically today. So, the questions for gubernatorial candidates Ayotte, Fife, McClory, Warmington and Kiper are: (a) as governor will you establish a citizen advisory council on climate resilience; (b) if yes, what sectors in New Hampshire should be represented, and will you act on the advisory council recommendations?
Roger Stephenson of Stratham is a board member of NH Healthy Climate