the morning of august 25, 2017, started the way most rainy days often do. the night before, my brother and i monitored the weather for the next day, secretly hoping that classes would be canceled so i could avoid my dreaded physics presentation. the next morning, our phones buzzed with incessant flash flood warnings and an email from our head of school declared classes were canceled – here we go!

everything was routine, except something felt off. when the meteorologist spoke, he reported with urgency, panic, and a tinge of fear, sprinkling in words like “500-year flood” and “catastrophic rainfall.” quickly, the sounds of the tv faded away and were replaced by muffled sounds of panicked phone calls about knee-deep water and shrieks from friends floating in the bacteria-filled floods. our city was swallowed whole, and my mom muttered, “oh no.” within hours, houston was underwater, and i wished i was in class.

news flash: more storms like harvey are coming

hurricane harvey was a category 4 hurricane that made landfall in the greater houston area and the southern corridor on august 25, 2017, affecting more than 13 million people and forcing 39,000 people out of their homes. just east of houston, the rainfall totaled 60.58 inches (about the size of my 5-foot grandma) near nederland, texas, the highest amount in a single storm for any place in the continental united states. 

houston is no stranger to extreme rainfall. with its proximity to the gulf of mexico, a major source of moisture, the city is highly susceptible to flash floods. however, 2017 was a year of special devastation with exceedingly high multi-day rainfall. according to the fourth national climate assessment, harvey’s catastrophic rainfall was likely a result of warmer ocean surface temperatures feeding the tropical precipitation trajectories in texas due to human-induced climate change.

the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) predicts an above-average hurricane activity this year, marking 2022 as the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season. human-caused increases in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants have amplified atmospheric variability in the atlantic ocean, which scientists say has increased tropical cyclone activity since 1970. 

the new normal, a different meaning

when it rains, it pours, and hurricane intensity is only getting worse. due to sea level rise, tidal flooding has increased by 490% in some areas of texas since 2000. according to states at risk, by 2050, an additional 117,000 texans are projected to be at risk of coastal flooding. 

along with devastating physical damage, harvey brought with it $125 billion in damage, boasting the title of the second-most costly hurricane in u.s. history. in 2018, harris county voters passed a $2.5 billion bond to go toward flood-protection projects to address these impacts. city officials have worked with the harris county flood control district to modify channels, build stormwater detentions (basins), extend bridges, and construct levees in anticipation of future flooding. 

as the energy capital of the world and home to several oil and gas industries, houston has a special responsibility to lead the charge in sustainability. houston’s commitment to making the city carbon neutral by 2050 works in tandem with its first-ever climate action plan, a science-based, community-driven strategy founded in 2020 which outlines transformative solutions for building operations and transportation networks, as well as how residents can prepare for storms with emergency tool kits. 

“flash flood warning” holds a vastly different meaning to me now. a phrase of excitement and relief quickly turned to signals of fear and tragedy. there can only be so many warnings until it’s too late. 

i can recall when the floods occurred in kashmir in 2014. the damage was so severe that when i visited in 2016, you could still see the water seeping through the walls. more than 700 villages in just the city of srinigar were submerged in floodwater, and more than 300 people lost their lives, 53,082 people were sickened or injured, and 226,000 were evacuated, according to a report in the international journal of commerce and management.

in 2014 i was only 10 years old, so i did not particularly understand how large the predicament was for my family. when i was younger i would often visit kashmir once every other year. that year i hadn’t, but i remember that my other family members who were visiting were forced to scramble to get back home to the u.s. or find a safe place to evacuate to. power lines were down, so my mother had no clue what situation her parents or other family members were in, but in truth, this is a normal year for kashmir. 

whether it has to do with natural disasters or political uprisings (being that kashmir is right between pakistan and india, so there are many political tensions), there are often times when my family in the u.s. is cut off from communicating with my family in kashmir. floods are a frequent occurrence and when they happen in kashmir, they also affect surrounding areas, like pakistan. unfortunately, when these things happen, there is often a severe lack of western media coverage and aid to these eastern countries because these problems are not seen as relevant to the average person in the u.s. we are now seeing the same thing happen with the ongoing flooding in pakistan since june. 

with the growth of social media as a tool for advocacy, many people’s perceptions of international issues have changed. however, we still need to pay more attention to how developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change issues because of a lack of resources and frequently inept governments. 

what is happening in pakistan? 

as of september 2022, about one-third of pakistan’s area was still submerged in water due to constant flooding that began in june. given the geographic location of pakistan, it has always been susceptible to monsoons. however, a study mentioned in a 2022 article written by raymond zhong for the new york times found global warming likely worsened the amount of rainfall that pakistan received during its most recent monsoon season. the main issue is that since pakistan is a vulnerable area, small changes in climate make a big difference.

additionally, a study done by the world weather attribution found that climate change made rainfall 50 percent more intense in pakistan’s sindh and balochistan provinces. jacob kurtzer of the center for strategic & international studies stated that, on top of climate change, the devastating effects of the floods are largely due to the pakistani government “paying the price for years of delays in addressing the problem.”

this includes mismanagement of the country’s water resources, like illegally or poorly built structures that cannot withstand the forces of floods or rainfall. of course, this means that those on the bottom of the economic class will suffer the most, which is, unfortunately, most of pakistan’s population. as a result of the june 2022 disaster, as kurtzer reported, 4.2 million people have been affected, nearly 1,400 people have died, more than 1,600 are injured, half a million are displaced, and more than one million homes are damaged. authorities say the water could take up to six months to recede. the financial damage of the floods in pakistan has exceeded $30 billion, causing the united nations to “(launch) a flash appeal of $160 million to help flood victims,” according to a bloomberg article. the u.s. and other countries have also pledged to give large amounts of money, but donations cannot entirely fix all infrastructural and systemic problems.

why this is our problem

due to the fact that the global north is far more industrialized than many other parts of the world, we end up being responsible for a majority of carbon emissions and global pollution. these emissions lead to climate change that affects areas in the global south, like pakistan. corporate america ignores the consequences of their actions especially when it comes to environmental regulations for their own economic gain. many s&p 500 companies (the largest publicly traded companies in the u.s.) claim that they are “accelerating efforts to reduce the climate crisis,” but the new york times reports, marketing and investor presentations reveal they fail to take into account the largest source of carbon emissions, and if left ignored, these emissions could triple what they should be in 2050. 

pakistan is home to 2.6 percent of the world’s population, but, according to kurtzer’s report, the country is only responsible for 0.4 percent of global carbon emissions since 1959, while the u.s. has 4 percent of the world’s population and is responsible for 13 percent of global carbon emissions.

countries in the global north have exceeded their global emissions quotas by more than 90 percent with 100 companies responsible for 71 percent of emissions, according to a 2017 report. so while the monsoons in pakistan are a natural occurrence, the effects have clearly worsened due to climate change with pakistan seeing 190 percent more rain than the 30-year average, reuters reported. first world countries like the u.s. have accelerated the effects of climate change in other countries, which makes it our responsibility to stay informed and fix our own failed environmental regulations that are causing harm all over the globe. 

the bigger issue

it’s equally important to address that, because climate change primarily affects marginalized communities, it often seems that many people in the global north display a lack of care and empathy when reacting to these increasingly frequent disasters. the u.n. secretary-general antónio guterres himself has said that he “never [has] seen climate carnage” at this scale and has warned that tomorrow this (in reference to the floods) could be happening to your country. guterres has called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through this crisis and to be more aware of what is happening in pakistan, the associated press reported in september.

essentially, if this was happening to your country, or your people, you would care. however, since many in the u.s. lack an interest in the rest of the world and popular media tends to focus on domestic issues, it’s easy to stay blissfully ignorant of what’s happening elsewhere. western media and its people typically lack empathy for what is happening in pakistan because it’s an underdeveloped, non-white, and non-majority christian society, therefore people can immediately write it off as a place they can’t relate or connect to. and while pakistan has received a great deal of international humanitarian care, it pales in comparison to the response aid that some european countries have recently received.

how to help

i know i would have appreciated awareness and empathy when kashmir was hit with its disaster in 2014. so if you want to help aid in this crisis it’s likely that your school has a pakistani student association or other related south asian organizations where you can find fundraisers or places to donate. it will take time for governments globally to make systemic change and effectively lessen the effects of climate change, but you can make an impact by starting small. simply volunteering and working with your local organizers/politicians to enact policies that will aid vulnerable communities can make a big difference for the families that are affected. the intersections of race and class with climate change are important and complex issues, hence why they should never be ignored whenever we talk about the climate crisis.

if you don’t know much about the country, you certainly know what it looks like thanks to hollywood location scouts. most recently, “dune” intensifies jordan’s bare rocky landscapes and sprawling desert dunes to depict a water-deprived planet, but there are dozens of other well-known films that make use of the country’s remarkable scenery. jon stewart’s “rosewater” captures the capital’s urban sprawl, “lawrence of arabia” shows off its beaches, and films such as “star wars: rogue one,” “the martian,” “indiana jones and the last crusade,” and the 2019 adaptation of “aladdin” take advantage of its most famous features: the wadi rum desert and the city of petra. 

while most of my american friends’ first time camping took place in a wooded and stream-striped forest, i slept soundly in my sleeping bag beside a fire amongst beetles and scorpions. instead of tackling a shrubby and rocky hill, my first hike was up a seemingly unconquerable never-ending sand dune. even my first time at a dance party was during a fifth-grade class trip with traditional jordanian drumming prompting us to hold hands and rhythmically skip around our campfire’s flames. i grew up in the hollywood backdrop to alien and/or mystical societies and i feel an overwhelming sense of pride, nostalgia, and humor when i see it blown up and projected on the big screen. while hollywood continues to portray a familiar and timeless, dry jordanian landscape, i know from my annual visits and videos sent from my family that it now has an inconsistent and turbulent climate.

to assume that global warming makes the desert hotter and drier would be correct! the world bank confirms that jordan is at high risk for drought and research projects that jordan’s average temperatures will increase from about +2.5°c to +5°c by the end of the century. with a water-scarce country that houses ten million citizens and three million refugees, jordan’s leadership must implement water-conserving infrastructure immediately to save itself from future disasters. however, the cities continue to grow and urbanize amidst the warming climate, which creates more impermeable surfaces that flood with (rather than soak up) rainfall. since water scarcity has been a major environmental challenge for time immemorial, much of the public and leadership overlook flash floods as yet another risk of a warming climate despite them claiming the lives of local children and threatening unknowing tourists. these floods make the country’s projected climate instability even more precarious. 

before expanding on the issue of flooding, it’s important to note that the information available is limited due to a low number of meteorological stations, as well as some research papers being published only in arabic. dr. al-raggad, a jordanian hydrogeologist, said that only in 2016 the jordanian government began monitoring precipitation in real-time, “but the historical data will remain as they are.” regardless, basic climate science tells us that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and in a desert setting where temperatures drop as soon as the sun sets, that water is expected to condense and fall. another recently discovered phenomenon called an atmospheric river, may explain how warmer and wetter winds coming up from the african continent reach the dry levant. local researchers have concluded that in the “last two decades, the region has experienced a dramatic shift in its rainfall records patterns,” noting the series of floods that affected cities across the middle east and north africa over the past decade. in jordan specifically, flooding events in the early 2000s affected less than 200 people on average, but in the last four years, the average has been over 200,000.

when hollywood only comes to jordan to film in its undoubtedly breathtaking desert landscape, it not only fails to capture how places like petra now see destructive floods, but also how the country’s urban areas cannot keep up with the changing climate. these flash floods impact the cities as much as, if not more than, the desert. with growing refugee populations and limited funding, urban spaces grow larger with outdated flood systems and increased surface runoff. what can be done?

i was fortunate enough to travel to a nearby country to see how a driven group of urban foresters, theotherforest, adapted to their changing environment. during the summer of 2021, i visited lebanon and volunteered with theotherforest which works on introducing “miyawaki forests” to neglected pieces of land. these forests, developed by the late japanese botanist akira miyawaki, create green spaces that can absorb excess rain as well as provide shade for poorer and neglected communities. by planting native species’ saplings randomly and densely where there’s access to sun and water, within just three years of consistent maintenance the community will get a self-sufficient forest. it’s a process that brings back some of the greenery, biodiversity, and ecological services that a city typically erases.

as i walked through one of the young forests that had once been an abandoned lot, i couldn’t help but think about how i’d love to see this in jordan. the jordanian government is putting in more resources into anti-flooding measures, such as teaming up with the swiss government and the swiss agency for development and cooperation for risk mapping, but i wanted to know if this reforesting approach was taking root there. and i was thrilled to learn from the founder of theotherforest that a similar group had emerged in jordan called tayyun. to prevent future floods and restore biodiversity, tayyun found the powerful self-sustaining solution of urban foresting. these miyawaki forests serve as a green infrastructure method to 1. serve as a carbon sink where shrubs and trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air as part of photosynthesis, 2. create more habitats and encourage a return of biodiversity, and 3. restore degraded land and slow runoff from rain. 

looking through tayyun’s instagram page gave me the same giddy nostalgia as dune’s grand cinematography did, except the former was the documentation of real heroic work being done in the region. in face of the highly damaging and deadly flash floods of the last decade, local leaders have looked to nature-based solutions to soften the devastation of extreme weather. while it’s fun to go to the movies and recognize my home, i prefer to go home and learn how people there are setting an example for resilience for all of us to follow. 

• most buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here’s what will happen as global warming accelerates. climate change is drastically altering the environmental conditions in which our buildings were designed to function. but how exactly does climate change affect our building materials? 

• 5 ways to make buildings climate change resilient. building for resilience against heatwave, cyclones, coastal flooding, and extreme cold — what does the future of infrastructure look like?

• an architect with an eye on the environment. increasingly, architects, and builders are thinking about how their creations affect the health of the planet. meet kunlé adeyemi, a nigerian architect who has built his career around that question.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored on the final day of cop26 — and more good reads to keep you informed!

warm weather begins in march and lasts until late october in south carolina — and our summers are not for the faint of heart. my hometown of columbia, the capital city, once had the slogan of “famously hot” and still boasts the famously hot new year event and famously hot pride festival every year.

as sweaty and miserable as it can be, we think of the heat as a point of pride. if you can last through a blistering south carolina summer — packed with the thick humidity of the coastal lowcountry, 100-plus-degrees days, and mosquitos that latch to your skin — you can survive anything. the heat is part of the southern experience, and it comes with the territory. 

the weather is the reason that my mother moved to south carolina from indiana, after visiting in december and seeing people wearing shorts. it’s the reason that people visit the tourist hotspots of charleston, hilton head, and myrtle beach year round, which brings in more than $20 billion to the state’s economy. the environment is reason why the state was founded on plantation agriculture and small farming and why the coastal port of charleston became an economic hub for business and slave trade in the early 1800s.

the weather and the environment are deeply intertwined in the culture of south carolina and they cannot be divorced. in many ways, the cultural landscape of south carolina mirrors the physical landscape.

but like elsewhere, south carolina is feeling the impact of climate change. the weather gets hotter, the water level gets higher, and the hurricanes get fiercer. and yet the state government lacks a comprehensive plan to combat climate change, leaving local officials to grapple with flooding, heat, erosion, and drought in their communities. the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health and trust for america’s health found south carolina tied with louisiana, kentucky, and mississippi as the second most vulnerable state to climate change. of these four states, south carolina is the second least prepared to deal with negative health outcomes.

in 2015, south carolina faced a “thousand year flood” from record-breaking rainfall. the flood, exacerbated by outdated infrastructure and failing dams, hit columbia particularly hard, killing 19 people. in the six years since, four major hurricanes have pummeled the state, and “hurrications” away from school and work have become a new fall routine.

charleston—the coastal city that has topped travel + leisure’s “best cities in the u.s.” list for nine consecutive years—is one of the most vulnerable cities in the country to rising sea levels. the union of concerned scientists notes that charleston’s tidal flooding, or sunny day flooding, averaged six times a year in 1970 but by 2045 is projected to rise to 180 times per year. when my cousin started her freshman year at the college of charleston, she made sure to buy a new pair of rainboots so she could wade through the water that regularly inundated the downtown campus.

the warming, rising seas are killing wildlife and plant species, resulting in ghost forests where salt marshes once stood and fewer shrimp for trawlers off the coast.

and then there’s the heat. the hot, sticky south carolina summers seem to stretch longer and longer. while the heat has long been a point of pride, it is quickly becoming a source of discomfort and anxiety. extreme heat kills more than 700 americans each year; disproportionately people in low-income neighborhoods, of which there are many in the state. knowing that this is the future, i struggle to embrace the charm of the weather that i used to feel.

what happens when the “thousand year flood” comes every decade, or when the “unseasonably warm weather” becomes the new norm? 

we know that climate change will affect the physical and environmental conditions around us — although americans are still less concerned about the personal impact than people in other advanced economies — but we don’t think as much about how climate change will impact our culture. in south carolina, the weather and the landscape is the culture. it’s sweating at football games in the fall, kayaking the rivers, and smelling the salt air of the pluff mud marsh. the culture is cotton fields and their dark history, soon to go dry from heat and drought. the culture is the gullah/geechee communities in the sea islands, which are being swallowed by the ocean.

but culture, and the creativity associated with it, provides an opportunity for new solutions to climate change. and while there are practical solutions, there are also cultural and emotional adaptations that are necessary to confront the climate crisis. this means redefining historic preservation in charleston, where picturesque 150-year-old homes are being elevated to avoid the flooding that already comes more than 75 days a year. it means curbing our insatiable desire to build high-rises, beach houses, and businesses on top of salt marshes where they don’t belong. and it means listening to, learning from, and collaborating with communities that have ties to land that is being threatened. 

south carolinians have long defined their identity on the sunshine, beaches, mountains, rivers, farm fields, and heat of the state. if we care so deeply for that landscape, then we should care as deeply about the ways it’s being threatened, and how we work to find solutions.

we’re famously hot, but we’re only getting hotter. when will it be too much?

—

editor’s note: check back each day during cop26 for more pieces in planet forward’s climate hits home series.“

although farmer steve stierwalt grows crops in the tiny town of sadorus, illinois — with a population of barely 350 — the agricultural practices he employs have environmental implications that stretch from midwestern cornfields to central american seas. 

fertilizer-polluted waterways in champaign county, where stierwalt farms, converge into the mississippi river, emptying toxins into the gulf of mexico — where a 2,000-square-mile, pollutant-induced hypoxic zone makes aquatic life nearly impossible.   

one cause of deoxygenated water in the gulf? water that falls from the sky. 

“it’s pretty amazing the amount of energy each single raindrop has,” stierwalt said. “when it hits bare soil, it’s like a miniature explosion. it displaces soil particles. anytime that soil gets into surface water, it’s carrying nutrients with it. the nutrients, as we know, contribute to the hypoxic zone.” 

to reduce soil erosion that illinois rivers carry to the gulf, stierwalt has decreased fertilizer use and adopted conservation practices, like nutrient management tools that measure cost-effective and environmentally conscious amounts of nitrogen to apply to corn. 

sustainable agriculture practices — like rotating crops, planting cover crops, and eliminating tillage — allow stierwalt to adapt to heavy rainfall, a form of extreme weather intensifying in illinois. indeed, science confirms stierwalt’s observations: a major assessment released by the nature conservancy in april outlines how climate change will escalate periods of extreme heat, increased precipitation, and more intense storms in illinois. 

on farms, for instance, heavy rain and conventional tillage — ploughing, harrowing, and removing plant residue to prepare seedbeds — can trigger a chain reaction of climatic damage, contributing to soil erosion, and phosphate- and nitrate-infested run-off, resulting in pollution of the gulf. these processes are already transforming illinois, and no domain — from urban infrastructure to human health to plant biodiversity — will remain unaffected. 

the report drew on the expertise of 45 researchers, scientists, climatologists, and policy-makers in illinois, all of whom contributed to its stark findings.  

“climate change can seem like an overall threat that we don’t have any ability to change,” said michelle carr, illinois state director at the nature conservancy. “when we look at state-specific data, and how it affects different industries that are prominent in our state, it allows those players to do more, because they’re seeing the specificity to their own geography.”  

45 authors, one report

co-led by climatologist donald wuebbles, former illinois state climatologist james angel, climate change project manager at the nature conservancy karen petersen and director of conservation science at the nature conservancy maria lemke, the 197-page report contains contributions from 45 specialists and covers the impacts of climate change on illinois hydrology, agriculture, public health, and ecosystems. the statistics alone illustrate the projected scope of environmental transformation.

accompanied by longer growing seasons and less severe extreme cold, temperatures will likely warm by 4 to 9 degrees f under a lower scenario and 8 to 14 degrees f under a higher scenario by the end of the 21st century. longer growing seasons may sound like a bonus — but extremely long seasons can devastate, limiting crop diversity, encouraging invasive plant growth and straining water supplies. 

the report also projects more rainy days and fewer snowy days by the century’s end, trends on the heels of a 5% to 20% increase in mean precipitation over the past 120 years. according to projections, severe weather will contribute to short-term droughts, as well as intense rain and flooding. far from functioning as a minor inconvenience, flooding can delay planting, wash away fields of seedlings and destroy exposed crops. 

illinois residents can expect extreme heat by the century’s close, too. in southern illinois, for instance, scientists project the annual hottest 5-day maximum temperature to increase from 96 degrees to 100-107 degrees f under a lower scenario and 102 to 114 degrees f under a higher scenario.

“you see reports about fires in california or sea level rise in florida, and you think it’s more of a coastal problem,” petersen said. “we hope this report will help make some of those future impacts tangible, and for people to realize that climate change will have serious impacts in illinois, and we can still do something about it.”

wuebbles said land use and greenhouse gas emissions have remained the most significant contributors to climate change since the mid-1900s. heavy emissions, he added, are unsustainable: the report projects that continued fossil fuel use will produce the most dramatic transformations, while a switch to renewable energy will net less extreme changes. a third scenario — which wuebbles called “negative emissions” — will require scientists to harness technology to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. 

regardless of the scenario, human activity will drive transformations in northern, central, and southern illinois, said wuebbles, a university of illinois at urbana-champaign professor who has contributed to several united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change reports.

“illinois’ climate is expected to continue to change over the century, with significant impacts on urban and rural communities and sectors,” he said.

from farming to flooding 

consistent with the report’s predictions, stierwalt has observed — and adapted to — extreme weather events. to protect soil, waterways, and farmland, stierwalt practices no-till, strip-till, and cover crop farming — practices that sequester carbon in his soil while reducing nutrient pollution and soil erosion. 

currently the president of the association of illinois soil and water conservation districts, stierwalt also serves on the steering committee for s.t.a.r., a nationwide program dedicated to “saving tomorrow’s agriculture resources” by helping farmers adopt conservation-based practices. 

“healthy soils are more armored against these extreme weather events,” stierwalt said. “(without adapting), the danger is losing this asset that we can’t afford to lose. we lose that soil for future generations.”  

in conventional tillage, farmers use an implement to turn over soil, passing over the field multiple times and leaving barren soil behind. in no-till farming, farmers use planters or drills to cut a v-slot in the remains of previous crops, planting seeds within. benefits of no-till include increased infiltration and soil fertility, and decreased labor costs and soil erosion. 

adopting sustainable agricultural practices, like no-till and drought-resistant crops, will determine the extent to which “future generations” of farmers face smaller crop yields, increased livestock illnesses, and increased crop diseases. bill miller, a northwestern university engineering professor who contributed to the report, said “natural climate solutions” present promising ways to mitigate extreme weather. cover crops, for instance, prevent soil erosion while strengthening soil’s biological properties. “it can help build up the richness of the soil,” miller said. 

farming, though, is far from the only affected sector. changing precipitation patterns are causing flooding events in the majority of illinois’ gaged rivers and streams, exacerbating stress on urban drainage systems and increasing the incidence of combined sewer outflows. northwestern engineering professor aaron packman, who also serves as director of northwestern’s center for water research, worked on the report’s hydrology team. 

packman said chicago’s low-lying inland areas, particularly neighborhoods on the south and southwest side, are especially flood-prone. there, stormwater damage and inadequate infrastructure deplete property values, and chronic flooding carries waterborne illnesses. across the city, extreme weather exacerbates geographical inequalities.  

“the loop has more than a hundred years of engineering to keep everything from flooding,” packman said. “the lower-lying areas were settled later because they’re naturally more flood-prone, and they’re not as well protected by that centralized infrastructure.” 

the metropolitan water reclamation district of greater chicago treats wastewater and provides stormwater management for 5.25 million people in cook county, as well as a commercial and industrial equivalent of 4.5 million people. to mitigate the impacts of urban flooding and stormwater damage, mwrd has crafted stormwater management regulations for new developments, partnered with communities to better manage water and supported local green infrastructure projects. 

still, “policies, planning, tunnels and reservoirs cannot eliminate flooding alone,” mwrd public affairs staffer patrick thomas said. the report presents similar conclusions: packman said a combination of sustainable water management in agricultural sectors, flood-control measures in municipalities, state-wide policies and consistent data collection might mitigate the harm climate change poses to illinois’ water resources. 

no turning back 

prominent report contributors, including wuebbles, participated in a may 17 panel to discuss the report’s results. during the panel, elena grossman, the program manager of illinois’ building resilience against climate effects program, reminded audiences that projected extreme weather will significantly harm our physical and mental health. 

contaminated drinking water, tick- and mosquito-borne diseases and respiratory illnesses will all increase amid intensifying weather — so, too, will psychological and financial challenges.  

in the case of flooding, “there’s both the trauma of watching your home being flooded, of losing personal items, and then the financial stress of having to rebuild it or fix it,” grossman said. 

at its core, she added, the report is “about humans.” 

in the month since the report’s release, miller said authors have begun to discuss writing analyses that specifically address mitigation measures. as climate change continues to create extreme weather conditions in illinois, reimagining the state’s infrastructure, policies and economic practices becomes increasingly urgent, packman added. 

“climate change is a long-term process,” packman said. “but in the last four years, we’ve seen unprecedented things, things that historically never happened. so it’s not something far off in the future. it’s something happening now.”

***

q&a: farmer joe rothermel talks soil health, sustainability 

joe rothermel is a farmer who grew up in broadlands, illinois. he farms corn and soybeans on 1,000-acres in champaign county. in 1992, his father, also a farmer, switched from conventional tillage to conservation-driven no-till farming. 

conventional tillage requires farmers use an implement to turn over soil, leaving barren soil behind. in no-till farming, farmers use planters or drills to cut a v-slot in the remains of previous crops, planting seeds within. rothermel adopted no-till in 1995, and began supplementing this practice with cover crops in 2010. 

q: what are some of the advantages of farming with no-till and cover crops like alfalfa, rye, and clovers? 

a: one of the reasons we plant cover crops is to help increase our soil health. one of the things you’ll notice is soil structure is improved. the ground is firmer. you can drive on it sooner. we have a lot of heavy equipment nowadays, and in a conventional program it’s easy to compact the soil. conservation practices lend themselves to improving soil structure and holding up equipment so we don’t have as much compaction. 

one of the main reasons to plant cover crops or to no-till is to reduce soil erosion. through tillage, we’ve already lost half the organic matter that was originally in the prairie. other potential benefits are nutrient recycling. the more biological activity we have, the more nutrient recycling. the idea is to use less synthetic fertilizer, less inputs. if we can maintain the same output with reduced inputs, that’s more efficient for the farmer. 

and then the big thing is carbon sequestration. by not tilling the soil and using cover crops, through photosynthesis that will put carbon into the soil. hopefully someday, that’ll be a source of revenue for farmers to help offset some of the costs of these conservation practices.

q: how have extreme weather events impacted soil erosion and health?

a: it seems to rain a lot. we used to get a half inch [in a single rainfall]. now, if we’re unlucky, we can get a two- or three-inch rain in a couple hours. i think we’ve cut down on some erosion; we still get some gullies. but compared to some of the other fields in the area, it’s significantly less. some of the other conventionally tilled fields will have a cascade of soil coming off the field into the ditch. we don’t have that anymore. 

it’s not perfect — but it does reduce erosion, especially if you have covers growing. we want the water to go down into the ground instead of running off, because when it runs off it takes topsoil with it. and then it takes nutrients with it. and then we have the hypoxia issue in the gulf of mexico. and so that’s another issue. another reason to reduce tillage and grow covers.

q: what percentage of illinois farmers are practicing conservation agriculture? 

a: in illinois, less than 6% of farmers are growing cover crops, so there’s a long way to go. 

farmers are very independent. older populations don’t like change. there’s peer pressure. there’s a risk of failure. there’s a whole host of reasons, but i’d say the number one is economics. 

q: how can conservation farming become more economically viable? 

a: conservation is not free. initially, somebody’s got to pay for it, and i’m not sure it should all be on the farmer. if we would get paid for carbon sequestration that would certainly help.

but until then, there’s cost share programs from places like the (u.s. department of agriculture) and (natural resources conservation service). there’s several other places that will offer cost share. a lot of the big food companies now are getting on board, because they want to be able to tell their customers that their food supply is grown sustainably, so they’re offering some incentives to farmers. 

so there are some sources of revenue, but it’s not a huge amount of money. over the long run, i think this way of farming will eventually be self-sufficient. in other words, the benefits will outweigh the costs, and there won’t be a cost to it. hopefully, it will become the mainstream way of farming.

flooding causes the most damage in the u.s. as compared to other natural disasters – about $5 billion each year – according to the national severe storms laboratory.

even during a pandemic, the ellicott city community is working hard to protect from even more damage than what it has already endured.

ellicott city has always been prone to major flooding, with the earliest recorded major flood in 1868, according to the baltimore sun archives.

more floods came throughout the years, and just when the city thought it was finally recovering, it faced one of the worst ones yet in 2016.

and another in 2018.

i remember checking my phone and suddenly seeing photographs and videos of the place i visited the week before now completely underwater.

in a matter of seconds, my family and friends were on high alert, calling their loved ones to make sure they weren’t out at the bars that night. i marked myself “safe from the ellicott city floods” on facebook.

i was shocked, mostly because i had never witnessed a flood this close to home––literally––before. i had also never paid too much attention to ellicott city’s geographical aspects and why it is so prone to flooding.

the city is located in a valley, and during storms, water is funneled down and drained into streams at the bottom of the slope. the most recent two floods were too much for the city’s old drainage system to handle and differed from past floods because instead of slowly rising up, water rushed downwards, putting main street underwater at a faster rate.

i asked myself if the city could ever recover.

hopefully, with the help of the ellicott city watershed master plan, this will be possible in the near future.

the plan outlines both structural and nonstructural flood mitigation measures, mostly all large-scale.

these developments include removing/replacing trees to prevent debris buildup and relocating outdoor storage containers to remove potential obstructions, as well as the bigger construction plans of four dry flood mitigation facilities within the stream channel and a tunnel to divert water from parking lots directly to the patapsco river.

an interactive map of howard county allows the public to view the details and status of each project in the area.

howard county is also creating “high ground access points,” an updated emergency public alert system, and detailed relocation/migration plans to aid the community when another flood strikes, the plan adds.

i didn’t see these floods firsthand, and i can’t imagine what it was like for someone who did.

human-driven global warming worsens the environmental factors that contribute to flooding, leading to heavier precipitation, more frequent hurricanes, and stronger storms, according to the nrdc.

knowing that something this devastating could happen as close as it did to my home urges me more than ever to do my part.

on leap day, the winter-scrubbed sand stood only a few feet wide on some areas of the beach. the lake sparkled under the late winter sun and snow mounded on the shoreline. norris guessed that lee street beach is about a third of its original size.

“the lakefront is the most important thing in evanston,” she said, sitting on a bench near the beach and holding her dog with a leash. “it’s already destroyed and i can’t imagine it’s going to get any better.”

norris predicts that lee street beach will be cramped this summer with the beach space so diminished.

“it’s going to be so crowded,” she said. “i don’t know where people are going to go.”

lake michigan and lake huron’s average lake level for february reached a record height this year, according to the u.s. army corps of engineers. the high level and pounding waves are eroding beaches in chicago and other cities hugging the great lakes.

some 768 miles southeast of evanston, the area surrounding beaufort, south carolina, is also in a battle with shrinking beachfronts as the atlantic ocean rises.

governments in beaufort and evanston are making plans to deal with the rising waters and other impacts of climate change. global warming due to fossil fuel emissions is making the ocean expand and melting ice sheets and glaciers are causing sea level rise, according to noaa. lake michigan’s water level will continue to rise and fall. but the maximum lake level will increase and the minimum lake level will decrease, according to kumar jensen, chief sustainability and resilience officer for the city of evanston.

the two cities are experiencing earth’s warming in different ways, as beaufort will have to deal with atlantic ocean hurricanes, while evanston will weather severe rainfall. both areas are considering how to combat beach erosion and planning to fix strained storm water systems.

fighting beach erosion or letting it be

evanston’s lee street beach is one of many in the chicago area that has decreased in size. evanston’s dog beach went under water a few years ago and has stayed there.

“even things like our dog beach and places along the chicago shoreline have not dealt well with just the lake levels being higher,” jensen said. “a lot of infrastructure is hidden or has been submerged.”

he said the lake level along the evanston shore has about a six-foot range, but the range will become more extreme in the future. lake levels reached record lows only a few years ago in 2013, suggesting unpredictable swings at a time when suburbs inland from the lake shore are running out of well water and would like to put a straw in the lake.

jensen said there is “not a ton” the city can do to expand the beaches, except if it were able to move them inward — an option the city is not considering. sidewalks and roads lie near evanston’s beaches, offering little room for expansion. evanston has added sand to the beaches in the past, he said, but not because of rising lake levels. the city has replaced sand that eroded, carried away by the currents to indiana and michigan — a process that occurs even when the water level is low. but the massive scale of submerging shore is something new.

lara biggs, the engineering and capital planning bureau chief for the city of evanston, told the city council in february that rock walls on beaches in evanston have lost height, as rocks slip into the lake. evanston was considering hiring a coastal engineering firm to assess the shoreline problems, she said. kimberly kull, division chief of emergency management and logistics for the evanston fire department, said at the city council meeting that it would take an estimated $5.78 million to fix the rock walls.

south carolina’s beaches are shrinking quickly as well. hunting island state park beach, 14 miles from beaufort, loses about 15 feet of sand a year on average because of erosion, according to park manager j.w. weatherford. he said wind and jet streams cause the erosion, along with storms. hunting island is a barrier island, which means that it sits next to the ocean and shields inland areas from storms.

the park adds more sand to its beach every 10 years, a process called beach renourishment. it costs the park $8 million each time. the new sand dunes prevent the island’s bathrooms and parking lots from flooding, according to weatherford. in mid-february, the sand was almost as tall as a person, as the park was raising the beach level.

weatherford said the park “renourishes” the beach so south carolina residents and tourists can still access it. beaches contribute to the local economy, as beach visitors stay at hotels, for example.

“the entire county is built off of the economy of the beaches,” weatherford said.

preparing stormwater systems for increased rain

it’s not only beaches that are seeing the effects of climate change. beaufort’s mossy oaks neighborhood occupies an 800-acre floodplain, said billy keyserling, the city’s mayor. many houses have sprung up in the neighborhood over the years, and the stormwater system cannot accommodate all of the buildings.

“they never anticipated that kind of number of houses,” keyserling said.

the city is experiencing higher tides and more frequent rain events, said rikki parker, the former south coast office director and legal analyst for the coastal conservation league. when there is both a high tide and rain in mossy oaks, water floods out of the neighborhood’s drainage ditches and ponds, and enters streets and people’s homes.

“mossy oaks … has suffered significantly over the past four years,” she said. “we have homes that have been repeat-flooded four or five times over the past four years.”

the city is conducting an approximately $6 million engineering project in mossy oaks, according to matt st. clair, public projects and facilities director for the city of beaufort. in the first phase of the project, the city cleaned out a canal — holding dirt, shopping carts and other items — so it could hold more water. st. clair said in the second phase, which will start this year, they will enlarge drainage pipes and repair roads that are affected by the pipe work. they will also construct five flood gates in the neighborhood.

the flood gates will separate catch basins, which are similar to ponds. before a high rain event, the city will lower the amount of water in the catch basins, st. clair said. they will also close the flood gates, which will prevent tidal water from entering the basins. only rainwater will enter the ponds.

“with the installation of the flood gates, we’ll be able to control … that tidal water trying to come in, as well as allow the water to come out,” st. clair explained.

jensen said evanston also faces more extreme storms in the future. the chicago area is confronting them already with swollen rivers flooding homes and roads. richard b. rood, a professor in the university of michigan’s department of climate and space sciences and engineering, said winter storms in illinois will likely be “much, much wetter,” and severe summer storms might bring “very extraordinary precipitation.”

rood said a larger percentage of yearly rain will occur during extreme rain events. climate change will warm the air, and warm air can store more water vapor. the ground will also warm and more of its water will evaporate. the increasing water vapor in the air will lead to rain — lots of rain.

hal sprague, president of citizens’ greener evanston, said flooding from rain is one of the main issues that evanston will have to face when building resilience to climate change. he said that some pipes in the city were built a century ago. evanston has both a combined sewer system, which holds both sewage and stormwater, and a newer, separate stormwater system.

during heavy rain events, sewage and rainwater used to backup into some residents’ basements, sprague said. in response, the city spent about $210 million updating its sewer system from 1991 to 2008, which included constructing a relief sewer system, according to the city of evanston. the system sends excess water to a network of artificial rivers called the deep tunnel, constructed beneath the entire chicago metropolitan area.

in 2018, evanston passed a climate action and resilience plan, and one element of the plan is to improve storm water systems. jensen said the city hired a consultant to conduct a stormwater utility analysis, in which they’ll learn where water ends up in the city during rain events and how much rain different stormwater systems can take. evanston can then determine which infrastructure needs to be upgraded, he said.

some cities and university campuses aim to stop using fossil fuels by mid-century, which would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions and help prevent further sea level rise. sprague said it will be hard for evanston to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, however.

“if we’re going to have almost an impossible job here when we are trying our hardest to do it, and the other, you know, a million cities aren’t even trying, how are we going to solve climate change?” he asked.

he said the federal government could help solve climate change.

“if we were to have a federal government that would take it seriously, tell everybody that it’s a problem and start … changing the laws and giving incentives to people to make the behavioral change, it would go a lot faster,” he said.

maura turcotte contributed reporting to this article. 

this episode introduces a short series of interviews about the flooding issue in the basin.

while the florida keys government and environmental groups are bracing for sea level rise, what do residents think? this podcast episode examines residents’ opinions on sea level rise and the most concerning environmental issues facing the keys.

most people i spoke to acknowledge that sea level rise is an issue, but it isn’t their main concern. instead, they are most worried about protecting the reefs and reducing consumption of single-use plastics. one man says he doesn’t believe oceans are rising.

younger generations will likely be more directly affected by changes due to sea level rise. high school senior jillian duclo says she is already noticing the effects of rising oceans. hear from her and others in this final episode.

the first podcast episode in this series covers what sea level rise looks like in the keys. in the second episode, hear about the economic impacts of sea level rise in the keys.