U.S. Cities Worst Prepared for Climate Change
What’s wrong with this country? While cities around the world are making plans to deal with climate change, cities in the United States are just sitting around like there’s no tomorrow. Which, at this rate, there won’t be.
Top of the list of cities actively working to be ready for what’s coming are those in Latin America. According to a new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, cities in regions most vulnerable to climate risks are forging ahead, especially in regions where natural disasters have been increasing and where there are already noticeable effects on the environment.
In Canada, 92 percent of major cities are planning for climate change; in Europe, 84 percent; in Africa 80 percent; and in Australia and New Zealand 86 percent. Asian cities are less active – 67 percent. And at the bottom of the list, American cities, where only 59 percent of our major cities are actively preparing for climate change, even though many cities are already being impacted by those changes.