FEMA ignores climate change in four-year plan

Even after a string of catastrophic storms in one of the hottest years on record, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided to remove references to climate change from its four-year strategic plan. In a newly released document, FEMA mentions cybersecurity and terrorism in a section on “emerging threats” but conspicuously leaves off the world’s biggest threat: global warming. In a section on building preparedness, the agency also mentions increased costs due to “rising natural disaster risk” but refuses to call the risk by its name. Other international organizations, like the World Economic Forum, acknowledge climate change as one of the planet's foremost threats. Brock Long, the agency’s director, was appointed by President Trump and has equivocated as to whether climate change is real. Meanwhile, another year of historic hurricanes, mudslides, floods, droughts, and fires will have very real consequences for the people FEMA is supposed to serve.