EMGT 6023
Victoria Stewart
Climate change written assignment.
Our job as emergency managers is to plan for potential emergencies. Climate change is going to
create more intense or frequent emergencies. To be properly prepared we need to take climate
change into consideration, or our services won’t be able to handle the added stress. We might not
be able to reduce the exposure to the hazards climate change will bring. But we can prepare for
them by having thorough plans, policies, and have services in place for vulnerable populations. I
think its important that we look at the possible impact climate change can have and to have
recovery programs in place as well. If we get hit by a wind storm, flood, or something that
causes a lot of damage to people and infrastructure, we need to have something in place to help
people through it. The plans we have in place now might not be enough when climate change is
increasing the intensity of these events. As an emergency manager we can see where our
weaknesses already exist. We can then see how these weaknesses can be worsened through
climate change and can offer insight how best to prepare for them. Having these plans in place
will help us respond quickly to these situations. If emergency managers are prepared, they can
help others be prepared. Knowing what areas are affected by which type of hazard, they can
influence building or land-use. Letting other departments know what kind of risks they may run
into and what they could do to reduce those risks. Emergency managers could also encourage
building codes be brought to a standard to help reduce the impacts of climate change. If we don’t
take climate change into consideration, then it can end up costing peoples lives and costing more
financially to recover. The impact to infrastructure may be larger which would cost more to
repair and to clean up.