One item on tomorrow’s agenda for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is a 176-page document that identifies how the county and its residents will be affected by shifting weather patterns. The Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment looks ahead to how extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding may affect the area. There’s also the threat a changing climate will bring new pests that will affect crops. (read the document)
The assessment is a step toward developing a climate resilience plan.
“Some of the changes are unavoidable and even while we try to mitigate and reduce the severity of climate change, we also need to prepare for some of those impacts,” said Gabe Dayley, Albemarle’s climate protection coordinator.
Dayley said the climate action plan is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet regional goals to be carbon neutral and fossil free by 2050. He made his comments on the Let’s Talk podcast produced by Albemarle’s communications and public engagement department.
“Our vulnerability and risk assessment looks at the kinds of specific local weather changes that we can expect,” Dayley said. “Things like increasingly intense and long heat waves or sudden and more severe rainstorms that lead to flash flooding.”
Visit the county’s website to hear more.
The report was put together with support and work from the Piedmont Environmental Council. In disclosure, that group is a sponsor of the Week Ahead newsletter.
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