Climate Change and Cities
On Wednesday April 12, 2023 the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest virtually hosted Dr. Karen Seto, Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science and the Director of the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology at Yale University, Dr. Andrew Needham, Professor of History at New York University, and Dr. Fiona Clare Williamson, Professor of Environmental History at Singapore Management University. The three panelists explored the impact of climate change in cities through a historical perspective. This panel was moderated by Dr. Caroline Murphy, Villanova University History Professor.
Esteemed panelists, Dr. Karen Seto, Dr. Andrew Needham, and Dr. Fiona Clare Williamson were invited by the Albert Lepage Center to consider how climate change has affected cities in the past and explore what this means for the future. At a time when climate change is threatening the lives of millions around the world, it is important to look at how past civilizations dealt with climate crises, specifically in metropolitan areas. Cities offer unparalleled access to resources and infrastructure; thus, the threat of climate change poses a risk to this infrastructure, as well as millions of inhabitants.
Dr. Karen Seto started the conversation by defining the framework of double exposure that applies to cities when discussing their vulnerability to climate induced change. The first exposure being the danger of overshooting a world increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. Dr. Seto explained that a warming of 1.5–2.0 degrees Celsius will put 80 million people at risk in coastal cities around the world through elevated water levels that will cause a loss of coastal land, as well as through geographic shifts in vector borne diseases, severe water stress, and the inability for agricultural use. These stressors that impact nourishment will affect 400 million people in the coming years. Focusing on the situation at hand, Dr. Seto defined the second vulnerability exposure as large-scale urban expansion, stating 2.5 billion people are expected to move to cities within the next 25 years due to health infrastructure and resources that are not offered in rural areas. Thus, with the equivalent of 20,000 American football fields becoming vertically and horizontally urban, characterized by concrete buildings and an increase of air conditioning units, daytime temperatures are anticipated to rise by nearly 5.6 degrees Celsius. Still, Dr. Seto asserted that there is still time to adapt to climate stressors because 60% of projected urban areas have not been built yet. Dr. Seto proposed shifting towards low carbon movements and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports (IPCC) to plan to minimize these threats.
Offering a historical standpoint on people’s adaptability to climate change, Dr. Andrew Needham explored the infrastructure of sustainability in the context of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the southeastern coast of the United States, specifically the city of New Orleans in 2005. This devastation demonstrated the susceptibility of communities to climate induced risks. Wrecking largely poor “black and brown” communities, Katrina provided insights into how impoverished areas lack resources to adapt to climate change. Conversely, Hurricane Sandy mainly impacted New York City and New Jersey in 2012, showcasing how changing weather can affect the center of finance and capitalism. Dr. Needham suggested that urban development should take avenues to mitigate climate change instead of contributing to it, as urban populations are clear victims of climate change. Thus, Dr. Needham referenced the period immediately following World War II, which saw an increase in atmospheric carbon due to the expansion of agriculture to sustain 19th century urban needs. This in turn led cities to begin relying on natural gas that came through pipelines from Texas and Mississippi, though cities continue to use coal-powered electricity to the present-day. This use of coal goes primarily unnoticed in New York City; therefore, Dr. Needham asserted that cities must be aware of how they contribute to climate change as well as suffering from its consequences.
Concentrating on how climate change unequally affects communities around the world, Dr. Fiona Clare Williamson investigated drought and El Niño events, which are patterns of the warming of surface waters in the Eastern Pacific that affect the strength of ocean currents, in Singapore between 1877–1911. Represented by a class rivalry between the Chinese and Malay ethnic groups within the British colony, Singapore experienced heightened socioeconomic tensions due to the increase in temperatures and subsequent drought during this time. Moreover, the El Niño and drought led to a cholera outbreak and exacerbated pre-existing water shortages. Points that Dr. Seto proposed would happen in the next decades due to climate change. Urbanization played a large role in the devastation that occurred in Singapore as water was used for domestic and commercial use and the fact that in 1880 the population had increased by 100,000 people, leading to overcrowding in 1911. The 97% of the population that were mostly indentured servants and refugees from China faced food and water scarcity with limited resources to adapt to these challenges, while the wealthy 3% of society had access to a greater supply of water and other resources. Thus, Dr. Williamson expressed that severe climate conditions affected lower socioeconomic classes more harshly, which is the current case with climate change today as stated by Dr. Seto and Dr. Needham.
Prompted by the question-and-answer session, the three panelists agreed that governmental regulations and climate and action plans must be put into place to combat the dangers of climate change. However, reports about climate change like those of the IPCC that Dr. Seto contributes to are only published every 5–7 years. Therefore, to see mitigation efforts on a global and local level, people, especially urban residents, must demand frequent conversations between federal governments and city planners. Moreover, Dr. Seto stated that historians, like Dr. Needham and Dr. Williamson, must be included in the conversation, since historians are best informed about how climate change impacted past urban communities and how these communities either failed or succeeded in adapting to and minimizing the stressors. As concentrated centers of population, resources, and the culture that combination creates, cities need to be vigilant of the changing climate and look to history to no longer be victims of this change.
