Rogero educating herself for White House task force discussions

Rogero educating herself for White House task force discussions

By Tony Hernandez

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero — now a member of a White House task force on
climate change — was asked Friday which of the following strategies weighed heavier
with her: protect the environment from society or protect society from the environment?

It's a balance, she said.

"We've actively been involved in protecting the environment," the mayor said. "This is
what we're trying to do, protect our natural resources and make sure that we're leaving
a future for our grandkids and great-grandkids.

"We also know that with climate change — the severe weather events that we're
seeing — we have to protect people. We have to protect our city, our homes, our family
here. So really we have to do both."

Rogero will sit with 15 other mayors and county leaders, eight governors and two tribal
leaders on the State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness
and Resilience. The aim is to advise President Barack Obama's administration on how
to respond to the needs of local communities as they adjust to the impact of ongoing
climate change such as severe weather.

Since the Nov. 1 White House announcement, Rogero said she's been reached by
groups, such as engineering firms and landscape architecture groups at the University
of Tennessee, and is reaching out for more education on the local impact to global
climate change.

"We'll have a series of meetings talking to people so that when I go to Washington then
I can take that information and be in a position to make the recommendations as they
apply toward policy at our level or the federal level," Rogero said.

The implications of the impact to climate change on urban systems include
vulnerabilities in the country's infrastructure, such as buildings, roads, water,
wastewater and communication systems, especially when faced with severe weather,
according to an Aug. 2012 report by Oak Ridge National Laboratory to the U.S.
Department of Energy.

Cascading failure to interdependent systems will increase threats to health and local economies in urban areas, according to the report.

Improving those systems comes with a huge cost, said Bruce Tonn, a UT professor at the Department of Political Science. The federal government is in a deficit. States and local households also struggle because of various debts, he said.

"The challenge is to convince society, Congress, states and households to make investments when there's uncertainty of when it's going to happen," Tonn said.

His research include environmental and energy policy, futures studies, sustainability and methods of policy decision-making, according to his biography on UT's website.

"There are two types of impacts we're going to see. Exactly what they are, that's the science still unfolding as the reality of climate change starts to take place," said Erin Gill, Rogero's director of sustainability.

The two types of impact include sudden weather events, such as severe storms, and slower changes in weather patterns.

"From the city's role, we have to be looking at both those types of impacts and make sure that we're 100 percent able to handle that sudden impact and relieve the immediate damage that comes with those," she said, "but also looking ahead to say what are our risk and vulnerabilities to these slow impacts? And making sure we're able to help the community respond."

Climate change falls not only on elected officials, but leaders of other infrastructure companies such as power utilities, Tonn said.

"Mayors should be the focal point in trying to organize adaptation across the board," he said.

Rogero said she expects the task force to meet at least four time within 18 months. The first meeting is next month.

"I don't know a lot more than I do know, but that's part of this process," Rogero said. "Through not only ultimately advising the president and Congress, we will learn a lot ourselves and from each other about what we can do because not all solutions are at the federal level. A lot of the solutions are at our level."