While the climate crisis is a global one, the actions we take to adapt to our new reality will be local / regional by necessity. Communities around the globe have varying levels of adaptive capacity and generally only the largest have the financial resources, human capital and political will to respond fully. For most, feasible solutions are hard to find and evaluate, and the funds required to implement them are beyond reach. What those communities need is skilled people that can interpret climate data, decision-ready analytics, and available resources to help them take on-the-ground action--unfortunately that type of work doesn’t happen in any public repo or open data lake.

The White House is making addressing climate change equitably one of its highest priorities, as evidenced by the January 27th Executive Order (14008). In response, NOAA will be leading the charge to train a vast workforce to leverage existing climate data and tools--growing the community of resilience professionals to accelerate community action. In this session, I hope to challenge you to think about ways you can ally yourself with those closer to the action-- those making decisions about how to protect our people, property, and cultures for the next generation. The White House is calling for a government-wide response and encouraging everyone from all sectors to come to the table. I encourage you all to join them.