A new Pew Research poll finds Americans are split on how to tackle climate change. In North Carolina, small Black-owned businesses say they're struggling with how to cope with extreme weather events, and they need help and resources - fast.

As Executive Director of the North Carolina Business Council, Vicki Lee Parker-High said she's seen more small businesses forced to close or temporarily suspend operations as a result of flooding, extreme heat, blackouts or severe storms.

She said losses and damages can cost owners tens of thousands of dollars.

"One in five North Carolina businesses - so, small businesses - have either laid off employees due to extreme weather events," said Parker-High. "So, that's about 21% of our companies that have been affected that way."

Parker-High said more research is needed to help these business owners better estimate financial risks and hedge their bets as seasons become increasingly unpredictable.

Jessica Rice Hawkins owns AIMHigh, a personal training gym in Henderson. She said extreme temperatures have strained her budget, and adds it's been a challenge to keep her building at a temperature comfortable for workouts during both winter and summer.

"So, I have these extremely high utility bills," said Rice Hawkins. "And now, you're faced with this choice of 'I cannot raise my prices because of where I am' - that's going to run me out of business. And then, I have to pay for the extremely high cost of utilities to operate the business."

According to Parker-High, abnormal weather patterns are increasingly affecting how small companies operate, and have triggered job cuts nationwide.

"So, a lot of these cuts are happening and occurring right in plain sight," said Parker-High. "But they're not being adequately accounted for, and adjusted for the risk that our businesses are being exposed to."

Seventy-one percent of Americans now say their community has experienced some form of extreme weather in past year - from flooding to lengthy heat waves, wildfires, droughts and water shortages, or rising seas that have eroded shorelines, according to the Pew survey.

Researchers have found the amount of land affected by saltwater intrusion on the Delmarva Peninsula has dramatically increased in recent years.

Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware and George Washington University used aerial and satellite imagery, and found between 2011 and 2017 visible salt patches almost doubled, and more than 20,000 acres of farmland had been converted to marsh. Researchers estimate the associated economic loss is between $39 million and $100 million.

Becky Epanchin-Niell, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland and the study's co-author, said farmers are responding to saltwater intrusion in different ways.

"Some farmers are continuing to crop and are going to just keep trying to farm for as long as they can. Others have tried switching to different crops," Epanchin-Niell outlined. "Certain crops are much more susceptible to the salinization and the inundation than others. Others have abandoned the cropland and others have actually engaged in different conservation programs."

The paper was published over the summer in the journal Nature Sustainability. Epanchin-Niell noted researchers are now using the study results to attempt to predict areas where saltwater intrusion will next occur.

While sea level rise hits low-lying coastal areas first, there are also impacts to groundwater as well as farmlands connected to the coast via drainage ditches. Epanchin-Niell pointed out the more northern portions of the Chesapeake Bay have lower salinity given the influence of rivers draining into the bay, so different areas will see differing levels of salinity even with a constant rise in sea level.

She added to prolong productivity of coastal farmlands, researchers are studying what kinds of crops are suitable.

"We also have a lot of work done looking at how different crops respond to saltwater intrusion and looking at how farmers have and can in the future adapt to saltwater intrusion," Epanchin-Niell emphasized.

Epanchin-Niell stressed researchers are also looking at developing methods to manage the transition with an eye toward the long term.

"If you abandon the farmland, and it became encroached with lots of invasive species, that's going to have fewer benefits than for example, if there's a more planned transition, where perhaps there's restoration with different wetland species that help with the inland migration of wetlands, which are also being impacted by sea level rise," Epanchin-Niell outlined.


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Elected officials in New York and across the country are urging state and local governments to use new funding available through the Environmental Protection Agency for local environmental projects to benefit their communities, particularly those left out of earlier development programs.

The group Elected Officials to Protect America is pointing toward a $27 billion fund created under the Inflation Reduction Act to award grants for greenhouse gas reduction programs.

Robin Reynolds Wilt, council member for the town of Brighton and an officer in the group's New York Leadership Council, said the projects will be built under a presidential order, in which 40% of the overall investments flow to disadvantaged communities marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

"This particular feature would allocate $27 billion to the EPA to make grants to fund entities that would effectively function as a national green bank," Wilt explained. "$20 billion of the fund is eligible only for nonprofits."

Wilt pointed out the projects will address climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, and affordable and sustainable housing. It will also fund the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution and the development of critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure. The deadline for applications is Oct. 12.

Wilt noted Elected Officials to Protect America is a network of current and former bipartisan elected officials who care about protecting the planet and democracy by working together to transition to a clean energy economy. She added the group educates and trains lawmakers through value-based storytelling and has national and state-based programs.

"These entities provide the funds toward clean-energy building, electrification projects," Wilt outlined. "Any scope of work that would impact greenhouse gas in a positive sense."

She stressed a national green bank would be the lending entity to finance projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in underserved communities. The funds could be used toward clean energy building electrification projects or any scope of work affecting greenhouse gas emissions.

If states like Minnesota are going to meet their climate goals, experts say younger workers will need to step into the roles to make it happen - like forest management. The Biden administration is reviving plans for that type of workforce. The White House has announced its American Climate Corps project, which involves hiring 20,000 people to be trained for these positions. Minnesota is among the states moving forward with their own, similar efforts.

Julia Nerbonne, executive director of Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, said the young adults being eyed for the work present an opportunity for cross-generational learning.

"Getting some of these young people into places where they can learn from elders in their community and folks who are out there getting the job done will be valuable," she explained. "But I also think that all of us have a lot to learn from the next generation."

The move comes as President Biden faces more pressure from youth climate activists, who want him to be more aggressive in pursuing mitigation efforts. An earlier larger-scale workforce model was scrapped during congressional negotiations. The plan has drawn comparisons to the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Danielle Hefferan, regional Minnesota education coordinator for Climate Generation, said students have shown great deal of concern about the need for environmental solutions, but added it is not enough to push schools to teach them about it - adding these state and federal initiatives give them clearer pathways for many different roles.

"There's communication folks, storytellers, farmers - so many different roles that could be a, quote, 'climate job' and help advance towards climate solutions," she continued.

Peter Nelson, vice president of impact and innovation for Serve Minnesota, which oversees AmeriCorps programs in the state, said these new efforts as enhancing their climate work, such as getting folks trained to recruit volunteers.

"We want to get people into these service programs, to get them employed, working in areas that they're passionate about. But it's also about getting the word out - engaging with our community, because it really is [an] all hands-on deck situation," he explained.


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