Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Reinventing Climate Change Adaptation: The Climate Resilience Early Warning System (CREWSnet)”.
When we think of climate change, there are two main issues: how do we mitigate climate change and how do we adapt to it if it’s going to happen anyway, The climate grand challenge process that MIT is going through right now is the perfect opportunity to really look At the different facets, at MIT and synthesize them together into a single, unified, initiative. CREWSnet is a capability that is empowering local communities to be resilient and proactively, adapt to climate change.. The specific challenge that the project is trying to address is to reinvent how we adapt to climate change in locations and within communities that are going to have to adapt to some level of climate change.. What we’re doing here is bringing regional climate, modeling and socioeconomic impact forecasting and working closely with partners on the ground adaptation strategies that are appropriate for the communities where people live and where local governments need to make decisions about resilience., I’m with MIT Lincoln laboratory.. So we’re an off-campus research laboratory., We create a system, you create a prototype of something that should exist and should be more widely used and you get it into the field. You get it into an environment where it can be used so that you can iterate on that and understand here’s our initial design. How can we make it better? My group specializes in developing regional climate models.
Models that are tailored and designed to be able to project impacts of climate change at regional and local scales.. We have a wonderful team that we’re working with our partner BRAC, which is an NGL. BRAC as an organization, has existed very nearly as long as the nation of Bangladesh has been independent.. They have a strong cultural connection to the country and to the people., When we were looking for organizations that MIT should partner with BRAC stood out as having such a close connection to the people.
They seemed like a natural fit.. I think the biggest benefits will be to people in the most climate, vulnerable regions of the world. Thinking about places like Bangladesh places like Africa. This capability is extensible and can be used anywhere once it’s developed to its full measure. Myself sitting here and the folks around me where we occupy a position of privilege where we have access to information.
But there are many folks around the world that don’t have access to the same resources.. I think it’s important that we find ways to share that information in an accessible way.. We think that it’s urgent to think of those groups to think of those communities and to help them prepare for a challenge, that’s going to impact them and impact them significantly..
This is very important to the MIT community to help disadvantaged communities adapt to climate change.. It is really gratifying to see the recognition of of the idea and how important it is and to have the institute behind it as as a broader institution and promoting it in this way. .