Earth Day – Focus on Climate Change

Next Monday is Earth Day and we want to help spread awareness to fellow New Jerseyan’s so we can all do something to help save our planet.  Recycling and conserving resources are great, but we need to do more.

According to the New Jersey Climate Alliance, the changing climate and rising sea levels will have a devastating effect on New Jersey.   These changes will damage New Jersey’s economy, the state’s natural resources, the health of our residents, and the comprehensive infrastructure system which provides transportation services and energy and clean water to millions of residents.  The New Jersey Climate Alliance was formed to focus on climate change preparedness in crucial impacted sectors such as:  public health, watersheds, rivers and coastal communities, built infrastructure, agriculture, and natural resources. 

On November 29, 2011 the conference, “Preparing NJ for Climate Change: A Workshop for Decision-makers, was hosted by Rutgers University.  In this conference, the devastating impacts that climate change and rising sea levels will have on New Jersey were discussed.  The conference resulted in everyone agreeing that NJ needs to initiate aggressive climate change preparedness as the preventative to the coming impact.  Even if climate change could be stalled, the greatest outcome would be the reduction of global surface temperatures from 3-4 degrees F from the projected worst case scenario.   Even with the reduction of surface temperature, New Jersey, a densely populated coastal state with aging infrastructure and houses, will be extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance will be focusing on the following:

To conduct outreach and educate the general public and targeted sectoral leaders;

Develop recommendations for state and local actions by collaborating with policymakers at the state, federal and local levels;

Engage in demonstration and pilot projects in partnership with the private sector, local governments, non-governmental organizations, and others;

Identify science, research, and data needs;

Develop scope of implementation for preparedness measures and documentation of best practices.

The New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance is initiating the creation of a network of policymakers, practitioners, academics, non-governmental organization leaders, private sector leaders, and others.  The Alliance will have meetings at the university to allow for the exchange of ideas, projects, best practices, policy ideas, and outreach and education.  The Alliance is not an advocacy forum or a standalone organization.  The Alliance’s purpose is only to facilitate discussions about climate change adaptation issues, policies, science and strategies.

Anyone is welcome to actively participate in these climate change adaptation strategies.

Source: www.climatechange.rutgers.edu