It’s that time of year again! Earth Economics is once again participating in #GiveBIG, Washington State’s annual fundraising event for local nonprofits. GiveBIG by May 5th to help us meet our $50,000 matching funds and support our environmental justice work with an additional three community-based organizations tackling our most pressing climate issues.
The Board of Directors of Earth Economics is pleased to announce that Maya Kocian has accepted the position of Executive Director. Maya has been with Earth Economics for over a decade, serving in several roles, including Senior Economist, Senior Program Director, and Managing Director.
Project Director Olivia Molden joined the panel, Research to Empower and Transform: Towards a Just Recovery, at El Encuentro Anual: Hacia la Recuperación Justa (The Annual Summit: Towards a Just Recovery), presented by Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico. During the virtual event, Olivia presented early analysis findings on the relationship between disaster recovery, displacement, and economic insecurity.
Our 2020 update to Economic Analysis of Outdoor Recreation in Washington Statehas been expanded to include new benefits that were not previously valued in 2015, such as climate stability, disaster risk reduction, and soil retention. Every year, communities throughout Washington receive between $216 billion and $264 billion per year in environmental benefits from public outdoor recreation lands. It is clear that the outdoors are an attractive characteristic of living in the PNW - individuals find mental solitude, physical exercise, and many other types of fulfillment on Washington's public lands.
The damaging effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have left policy makers everywhere with the task to determine the best way to rebuild their economies. In an effort to provide information to assist in this decision making process ClimateXchange and Low Carbon Prosperity Institute partnered (along with several other contributors, including Earth Economics) to conduct an analysis of possible recovery plans.
Earth Economics attends ASFpm Annual National virtual Conference
Earth Economics attended the ASFPM Annual National Conference, which took place virtually this year for the first time due to COVID-19. During the 3-day event, floodplain managers and subject-matter experts presented on a wide-variety of topics.
The virtual event brought together over 5,000 attendees to learn about flood risk mitigation, modeling, and building resilience in the face of mounting flood hazards. Featuring presentations from state, local, and federal agencies, non-profits, and technical partners, the conference covered all things flooding, both coastal and riverine. Themes included understanding risk, planning for the future, strategies for minimizing impacts, and connecting mitigation projects to technical expertise and funding sources. Of particular interest to Earth Economics were the multiple presentations highlighting the environmental co-benefits offered by green infrastructure projects, and how green and gray infrastructure solutions work together to build more resilient communities.
Connect with Us to learn more about our service offerings and expertise in green infrastructure and nature-based solutions.
The benefits of green infrastructure to a community can be profound and critical to public health - from increased biodiversity, opportunity for recreation, and improved water and air quality. Urban heat island effect is devestating our neighborhoods, town, and cities and as global temperatures continue to rise so will the dangers of extreme heat. We have developed methods to model urban heat islands on the census block level across the U.S, which works to provide the ability to estimate health risk and the impact of green infrastructure interventions.
Earth Economics Report
Cited in Massive Science Article
“Louisiana is losing about a football field’s worth of wetlands every 100 minutes.”
The article, It will take over one billion dollars to protect one small Louisiana town from climate change, takes a deeper look at the increasing regularity of flood risk in Southeastern Louisiana and the threat it poses to homes and property.
“The land erodes away into open water because the levees preventing the Mississippi River from flooding its banks have also channeled all of the river’s sediment out into the Gulf of Mexico. Soil that used to fan out slowly over inland marshes and help build land in the delta during regular flooding is now spit out to sea in deeper channels. A 2010 report by Earth Economics found that these wetlands provide ecosystem services worth between $12 and $47 billion annually.”
The 2010 Earth Economics report, Gaining Ground: Wetlands, Hurricanes, and the Economy: The Value of Restoring the Mississippi River Delta is a comprehensive measure of the economic value of Mississippi River Delta natural systems.