MARIANA PANUNCIO OF THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND AND UA FACULTY MEMBERS MARGARET WILDER, KATHY JACOBS, AND GREGG GARFIN FIELD QUESTIONS AT THE CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS WITH HISPANIC LEADERS GATHERING HELD AT THE UA IN NOV. 2014. PHOTO CREDIT: NICKY SUNDT.
Helping Vulnerable Southwestern Communities Adapt to Climate Change The IE-based Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions (CCASS) launched an initiative in fall 2014 to help Hispanic and Native American communities in the U.S. Southwest understand and adapt to climate change. Climate Conversations is a series of discussions involving more than 75 community leaders to date. The conversations focus on how climate change will affect water resources, health, emergency management, agriculture, land management, and traditional practices in more vulnerable populations in southern Arizona and Mexico and how to best prepare for those impacts. “These conversations are guiding our efforts to engage these communities in discussions about preparing for climate change impacts,” said CCASS Director Kathy Jacobs. CCASS kicked off the initiative in November with Climate Conversations with Hispanic Leaders, a forum at the UA that was co-hosted by the World Wildlife Fund. Nationwide, nearly 40 million Americans speak Spanish at home, motivating the center to network with Hispanic leaders and provide online Spanish-language materials on adapting to climate change. In collaboration with the Haury Program’s Native Nations Climate Adaptation Program, the center expanded the dialog in March 2015 to include Native Nations, which share some of the concerns of Hispanics but also face other challenges. Impacts from climate change threaten Native peoples’ health and homelands as well as access to and viability of traditional foods and crops, which have provided sustenance as well as cultural, economic, and medicinal contributions for generations. Arizona’s population is 30 percent Hispanic and 5.3 percent Native American, according to the 2013
U.S. Census. In Pima County, Hispanics constitute 35 percent of the general population, and Native Americans make up 4.5 percent. Representatives from the Tucson City Council, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Tohono O’odham Nation, Pima County Community College, the Consulate of Mexico in Tucson, Pima County Health Department, Pima Association of Governments, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, Arizona Bilingual, the UA, and others attended one or both of the discussions. “Our meetings with leaders are helping us identify issues of most consequence to these communities so that we can target informational sessions and talks that will have the most relevance for the broader community,” Jacobs said. Drought has gripped the southwestern U.S. for more than a decade, and average temperatures are rising: four of Tucson’s six warmest years on record have happened in the past six years, with 2014 topping the list. Extreme heat particularly impacts those who work outdoors, forces others to stay indoors and limit their physical activity, reduces the efficiency of evaporative cooling, and raises electric bills and demands on the power grid. Other predicted effects of climate change include poorer air quality from increased dust and wildfire smoke, which exacerbates asthma; the spread of vector-borne diseases such as Dengue fever; and impacts to agricultural crops and rangeland practices. WWW.ENVIRONMENT.ARIZONA.EDU/NEWS/HELPING-VULNERABLESOUTHWESTERN-COMMUNITIES-ADAPT-CLIMATE-CHANGE
CCASS.ARIZONA.EDU INSTITUTE OF THE ENVIRONMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2014 –15
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