Smithsonian the Latest Federal Establishment to Publish Climate Change Impact Report
Over 20 federal agencies have released their climate action plans in response to President Biden's executive order (EO) on climate change on January 27, 2021, which required plans outlining how the agencies plan to accomplish each climate change-related action, as well as how they can better adapt and increase resilience to climate change impacts through improvements to their facilities and operations – the Smithsonian Museums and Galleries is the most recent publisher of their plan.
At any given time, the Smithsonian exhibits about 2 percent of their 155 million artifacts. The remaining artifacts are placed in storage facilities, including in the basements of their 11 museums and galleries along the National Mall in Washington, DC. However, nearby waterways like the Tidal Basin and Potomac Rivers are known to cause flooding which could negatively impact the artifacts.
To ensure safe keeping of collections currently stored in flood-prone basements on the National Mall, reconstruction on the Suitland Collections Center – one of the institution’s storage facilities – will begin in fiscal year 2022. For enhanced resiliency against weather-related outages and climate change, the master plan recommends sustainable building practices like well-insulated, high-performance buildings, solar rooftops, and geothermal energy.
The current facility, whose buildings date back to the 1950s and 1960s, contains hazardous chemicals, and according to the Smithsonian's Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) master plan, heavy snow and an earthquake destroyed a building in 2011. Deferred maintenance projects, now valued at over $1 billion, hinder the Institution from weatherizing its facilities.
While the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has yet to review the new action plan, the office includes recommendations for ensuring climate resilience in Smithsonian facilities, as well as disclosing climate vulnerability in financial reporting and enterprise risk management procedures. The report also warns that leased buildings do not offer the same resilience as Smithsonian-owned buildings built to current standards. Climate disasters could further reduce the demand for leased space, the plan stated.
The Smithsonian also included workforce measures to reduce climate risk in its plan. Smithsonian's Chief Sustainability Officer will lead climate literacy enhancement efforts for the Institution's management, including training staff on how to manage weather emergencies after hours.
“We have established, starting in 2016, a training program that for preparedness and response in collections emergencies, and we have stood up an SI-wide team of professionals that actually would come in to any type of emergency, would come in to respond,” Facilities Director Nancy Bechtol stated, “That team is made up of our security workforce, our maintenance workforce, our operations cleaning workforce, as well as those collections managers.”
Along with the Smithsonian, other federal agencies have begun released climate action plans pursuant to the President’s January order.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prioritized integrating climate adaptation and consideration of climate impacts into its programs, policies, rulemaking processes, and enforcement activities. To accomplish this, the agency plans to provide its staff with training, decision-support tools, and technical assistance; and consult with state, tribal, and territorial governments, local governments, environmental justice groups, businesses, and other federal agencies to advance climate resilience goals. To improve their capacity for preparing for, coping with, and recovering from climate change impacts, the EPA intends to work especially with disadvantaged communities like tribal nations and communities of color.
For its part, the Interior Department intends to prioritize which lands, waters, and cultural resources will be most vulnerable, as well as prioritize mitigation strategies. Interior will focus on reducing human and ecosystem vulnerability to climate change using nature-based solutions to increase ecosystem resilience, sequester greenhouse gasses, and protect ecosystem services.
As part of its climate action plan, the Justice Department (DOJ) plans to study the possibility of electrifying its vehicles and to incorporate climate adaptation considerations into its strategic planning and risk profile processes. Future effects of climate-induced stressors could adversely impact DOJ's ability to fulfill its mission and manage critical assets. Developing a resilience plan to address climate change will improve DOJ's ability to identify and mitigate missions, programs, and operations that are critical to the country.
The Department of Defense (DOD) identifies climate change as a critical national security issue and threat multiplier, in addition to a top management challenge. The DOD estimates billions have been lost due to extreme weather events and states further problems will arise as climate change accelerates. Research on climate adaptation, improving construction codes, and developing tools for evaluating climate exposure on installations are among the department's plans.
"Climate change will continue to amplify operational demands on the force, degrade installations and infrastructure, increase health risks to our service members, and could require modifications to existing and planned equipment," DOD stated in its plan.
Through natural resources programs such as the Sentinel Landscapes REPI program, the DOD can leverage relationships to reduce pollution and its cumulative health impacts while investing in climate-ready infrastructure. This report does not address the findings of a Brown University study which found the US military to be one of the largest climate polluters in history, using more fuel and emitting more CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) than most countries.
“We need to start to take that science down to the engineering level and planning level. What would it look like in different scenarios, so that we can plan for it? The technology and science [are] there, I think we just need policies and the way that we design and construct things to meet that new challenge," stated Phetmano Phannavong, Senior Project Manager for North America in the Atkins (Design, Engineering and Project Management Consultancy) before the House Administration Committee.
