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Region 7 Update September 20th, 2024
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Sep

16

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National Preparedness Month and Climate Change

Posted by on September 16th, 2024 Posted in: Blog


September is National Preparedness Month (Mes de Preparación Nacional), which makes it a great time to talk about climate related preparedness. How does climate change affect extreme weather? And how is preparedness part of climate adaptation?

Top: light green background, dark green text National Preparedness Month Take Steps to prepare with your family and the ready.gov logo.

Bottom: Picture of a multiracial family (Black/Asian) laying on the ground in a house smiling, parents on the ends, two kids in the middle.

How are climate change and preparedness related?

Past blog posts have covered climate change and extreme weather and climate change and extreme heat as part of a series on climate change and data. And what we see from data is that climate change is causing larger storms (ex: bigger hurricanes more often) and more concentrated storms (ex: storms that lead to more flooding).

A statistic that shows this well is that in the last 20 years, the pay outs from the National Flood Insurance Program has been 660% higher than the previous 20-year period.

How is preparedness part of climate change adaptation?

When we talk about climate change and interventions, there are two main areas-Mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation: Programs and interventions designed to reduce climate change

Mitigation strategies include:

  • Reducing greenhouse gases by using renewable energy.
  • Enhancing “sinks” that capture and store greenhouse gases.

Adaptation: Programs and interventions designed to adapt to life in a changing climate. Climate change is coming and/or here, what do we do?

Adaptation interventions include upgrades to infrastructure (resilient design) and updated disaster management planning for communities and individuals to address the extremes caused by climate change.

Resources for Personal Preparedness

MedlinePlus:

NNLM Emergency Preparedness Guide-Find links to resources including FEMA regional resources, preparedness for specific demographic groups and more.

Past R7 blog posts focused on Emergency Preparedness Resource.

NNLM Reading Club Disasters and Emergencies-Find books and resources to use with patrons during September and beyond.

Ready.gov (Listo, ready.gov en español) for information on specific emergencies, natural and man-made, and resources for making plans for your household including resources such as:

Other Resources from federal partners:

To Do:

Image of the author ABOUT Sarah Levin-Lederer


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NNLM Region 7
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
55 Lake Avenue North
Worcester, MA 01655
(508) 856-5985

This has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, under cooperative agreement number UG4LM012347 with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

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