May 22, 2008
Video: King County hosts national climate change leaders
Watch the video in real media or windows media format. 
Narrator says:
King County is one of nine major metropolitan areas that over the course of the next three years will develop a model that can be used by communities around the world to build resiliency to irreversible climate change that will happen even with greenhouse gas reductions. Building resiliency is seen as the best protection for people, their homes and the economy in the next 50 years. Urban leaders from around the country met in King County to work on the first ever major initiative related to climate change and adaptation in the United States.
The effort is led by the Center for Clean Air Policy in Washington, D.C, and partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.
The Center for Clean Air Policy is an environmental think tank, and its founder Ned Helme says the adaptation initiative must address not only the causes of climate change, but offer solutions for the people who are impacted the most.
Ned Helme, founder of the Center for Clean Air Policy says:
When I'm talking about adaptation and mitigation, I've got to do both. I've got to cut the emissions and I've got to prepare for the impacts. And that's what so exciting about this project, we've got leaders like Ron Sims and the mayor of Chicago and others who have stepped up and said we see this, and we're not afraid to tell our publics that we have to deal with it. We have the job of managing our infrastructure, managing our footprint, managing our populations. We know as developing countries do that this is a big deal for poor people, who gets hurt the most? It's not the middle class or the Dutch who can build the higher dykes, it's Bangladesh, it's the poor in our inner cities, the poor in rural areas that really face the biggest hit here, so we really have a responsibility to tackle this in a big way.
Narrator says:
King County Executive Ron Sims says demonstrating how to build climate resiliancy will not only reduce the harm of climate change, but will generate major shifts in the way we look at our communities.
Ron Sims, King County Executive says:
Global warming allows us the most incredible opportunity to change social systems, environmental systems, how we do business, how we build, how we plan, wow I mean to be young again, and to have this incredible menu of challenges and to be able to weave them into an ideal community with a high quality of life. So I want to thank all of you for coming because I think before us stands the greatest opportunity ever it is too bad we have to wait for a crisis to trigger it but none the less it provides us an incredible opportunity to fundamentally change and improve the quality of our communities.
Narrator says:
The urban leaders toured several examples of actions in King County that will help mitigate the impacts of climate change. They visited a Brightwater wastewater treatment plant tunnel construction site in Bothell, where reclaimed water "purple" pipe will be incorporated for distribution of highly treated wastewater to customers in the Sammamish Valley for irrigation and industrial uses. An perfect example of how the county is making resources out of waste and adding flexibility for dealing with the expected water shortage impacts of climate change. They visited 60 acres park and Willows Run Golf Club, which are among sites expected to use reclaimed water for irrigation.
The urban leaders also visited the Briscoe Levee on the Green River near Kent. This is a levee that was damaged in recent years by higher water flows, but has been rebuilt to withstand more frequent and higher flows and protect the environmental and economic interests in the area. Climate change experts say our region could experience warmer, wetter weather with more intense seasonal rainfall, which makes King County's actions to strengthen its flood prevention systems all the more important.
Over the next three years, the urban leaders will collect more success stories from around the nation and put together information and strategies that will help communities duplicate those successes. They will also develop recommendations that advance national and state adaptation policies and implementation efforts.
Related information
- Climate Change At Home: A time to thrive, Seattle Post Intelligencer
- Video news release
(real media format) - Center for Clean Air Policy
- Rockefeller Foundation on Climate Change
- King County Climate Change Web site