News & Analysis
September 30, 2024
As climate change wreaks havoc on communities across the country, survivors of extreme weather are quickly becoming one of the fastest growing populations in the United States — and their voices and experiences must be a part of climate accountability conversations.
The Center for Climate Integrity recently participated in “Extreme Weather Survivors: The storytellers demanding accountability,” the first-ever Climate Week NYC event to center the personal stories of people who have lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods to extreme heat, floods, and hurricanes.
The conversation was co-sponsored by CCI, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Extreme Weather Survivors, a new nonprofit group that is building and activating a national network of people harmed by extreme weather events.
Amy Dishion told the story of how her husband died of extreme heat in Arizona just months after the birth of their daughter. “It’s important for me to say heat does kill,” Dishion said. “Even a young, fit person like Evan is not immune. Since then, heat-related deaths have increased in Phoenix by 50%. Our planet is warming and more deaths are coming.”
Shauntá Floyd talked about the disruption and danger she experienced living through Hurricane Beryl in Texas in 2024. Melissa Whitaker told the crowded room how severe and repeated flooding in Montpelier, Vermont, has devastated her and her husband’s restaurant business, and farmer and faith leader Reverend Richard Joyner discussed how his North Carolina farm has had to withstand increasing floods and droughts.
CCI President Richard Wiles closed the panel by discussing pathways to justice and accountability that officials and communities can pursue to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in intensifying extreme weather.
“We can attribute climate change and the impacts to … big oil and gas companies,” Wiles said during the panel. “They are really the problem. I don’t want anybody to think that you’re a part of the problem, because you’re not. You didn’t cause climate change, they did.”
Oil companies are facing dozens of lawsuits from across the county, including in the state of Vermont, for knowingly fueling the climate impacts extreme weather survivors are experiencing today.
