SNRE Professor Rosina M. Bierbaum spoke to the Associated Press about climate adaptation strategies in light of a proposal from New York City to keep that city ahead of future climate-related challenges.

"Climate change poses significant risks to New York City’s communities and infrastructure," according to a report released June 11, 2013, by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Hurricane Sandy has focused attention on the effects that extreme climate events have on New York City, reminding New Yorkers that the city is vulnerable to a range of climate hazards today and in the future.

In the coming decades, climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated. Those are some of the conclusions contained in the Midwest chapter of a draft report released last week by the federal government that assesses the key impacts of climate change on every region in the country and analyzes its likely effects on human health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, forests, ecosystems and biodiversity. Three University of Michigan researchers were lead convening authors of chapters in the 1,100-plus-page National Climate Assessment, which was written by a team of more than 240 scientists.

SNRE Professor Rosina M. Bierbaum was a featured speaker at the 2012 Investor Summit on Climate Risk and Energy Solutions, held last week at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Bierbaum's speech, "An Urgent Challenge: Economic Impacts of Climate Change and Resource Scarcity," linked the issues of climate change, development and economic prosperity. "Climate change has severe economic ramifications, affecting the availability and sustainability of financial capital and natural resource capital," she said. "It could easily exacerbate inequality in the world, as the poorest countries will experience the greatest impacts, yet have the least financial , technical and scientific resources to cope."

The federal government should launch a series of efforts to assess thoroughly the condition of U.S. ecosystems and the social and economic value of the services those ecosystems provide, according to a new report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.