Mathy V. Stanislaus, a former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Land and Emergency Management and current vice provost and director of The Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University, delivered the morning lecture at 10:45 a.m. Thursday in the Amphitheater. His lecture touched on the climate aspect of transformation, aligning with Week One’s theme for the Chautauqua Lecture Series “Themes of Transformation: Forces Shaping Our Tomorrow.”
Stanislaus took the Amp stage to talk about ways in which communities can come together to face the climate crisis and be weather prepared.
Stanislaus was born in Sri Lanka, but his family immigrated to the United States when he was a child. In the United States, while Stanislaus was working in refugee assistance efforts, Sri Lanka broke into civil war; later, a gas leak in Bhopal, India, killed and wounded thousands in what is largely considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. He cited these two events as being transformative for his life’s work.
“I reflected on that moment and I basically said, ‘I’m going to apply human rights to environmental protection,’ ” Stanislaus said.
He went to law school to study environmental law, worked as a lawyer and then joined the nonprofit sector before eventually being asked to join the Obama Administration.
In that role, Stanislaus traveled across the country to communities that had experienced weather disasters in order to address their needs and provide assistance.
He recalled visiting scenes of disaster and feeling a deeply ingrained sense of mutual aid and community assistance that have continued to inspire his work.
“The thing that I reflected (on) at that moment is the spirit of mutual aid that arises in the worst moments of peoples’ lives: how people came together to protect each other, to restore each other,” said Stanislaus. “I want to challenge you to all work together in the spirit of mutual aid as we move forward.”
Stanislaus provided Chautauquans an overview of the damages done in the 27 extreme weather incidents — each resulting in more than $1 billion in damage — recorded last year.
During his time in the Obama Administration, the title of Stanislaus’ office was changed from emergency response to emergency management — an important change, according to Stanislaus, because it changed the mindset of how they responded to disasters.
“If we wait for the hurricane, it is too late. We have this moment to work together to protect against those instances,” he said.
In his lecture, Stanislaus focused on a particularly relevant issue: heatwaves. Heatwaves are deadly, but deaths are often attributed to causes like cardiovascular attacks, so they often go underreported. Demographics like older adults and low-income individuals can be disproportionately affected by the heat, and the danger posed by it is even further exacerbated by factors like increased air pollution, rampant wildfires and ineffective and inconsistent warning systems for extreme weather.
Between wildfires and hurricanes, insurance companies are pulling out of specific markets and raising rates for inhabitants of these at-risk geographic areas, according to Stanislaus. If actions aren’t taken to prevent insurance companies from doing this, wholesale market failure could occur.
Stanislaus noted that the unit of the Department of the Treasury, which made this prediction, no longer exists to collect data from insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is no longer reporting billion dollar incidents like the 27 extreme weather incidents he brought to light earlier in his lecture.
He pointed to a case study he conducted in a flood-prone community in which 93% of residents experienced flooding, but had little knowledge or resources regarding how or when to evacuate safely. By bringing together insurance companies, hospital officials, public health officials, local government officials and residents of the community, they were able to engage in solution-oriented dialogues about how to address the risk and work together.
They asked the many affected parties if they were aware of the risk and how they could work together to address the gaps in their disaster planning to be better prepared in the future.
“Addressing (extreme weather) is really going to take all of us to come together,” Stanislaus said. “(We need to) work with local governments, work with other community institutions, to really address this problem in a persistent, collaborative way.”
One way to address climate issues and extreme weather disasters is by enacting a “right to cooling” campaign similar to the “right to heating” obligation, which is common in many areas. This would require local governments to provide better, more comprehensive cooling infrastructure for residents, thus reducing heat-related injuries and deaths.
Stanislaus explained that not only do individuals need to be more aware of what to do in an extreme weather event or natural disaster, but there must also be more action at a community level to prepare preemptively to avoid these disastrous events.
“We all need to be at the table. In particular, we need to make sure the voices of the most vulnerable — the elderly, the handicapped and their particular issues of transportation, of medicine — we need to really reframe the table to solve the problem together,” he said.
Stanislaus concluded that there are concrete, actionable steps that can be taken to increase individuals’ abilities to respond to extreme weather and natural disasters. These steps range from providing accurate, timely and understandable notifications to communities about weather events through governmental coordination, to understanding how land-use policies directly impact the treatment of the land and long-term consequences.
In order to do this, there must be data, education, policy and — most importantly — a movement of committed individuals to addressing natural disasters.
“I come from the power of community,” Stanislaus said. “I believe at this moment we need to build community and partners to lead the identification and the problem-solving. This is where my heart has always been.”
“I will ask you: How can we come together to solve that problem?” asked Stanislaus.
He said he believes that there is power in individuals coming together as a collective to enact change and protect the most vulnerable, thereby protecting everyone else, too.
Stanislaus gave a call to action for Chautauquans: Advocate for positive change. He said that when individuals advocate for increased funding and resources for organizations equipped to address these pressing issues, change can be made and community trust and preparedness can be built, or rebuilt. According to Stanislaus, this trust and restrengthening of communities will allow them to navigate and grapple with the difficult, complex issues of a changing climate.
“My hope is that as we build and rebuild and strengthen communities at the local levels (and) communities that are connected nationally, we begin building that knowledge, building that trust to take on that dirty word called climate change,” said Stanislaus.
He ended on a note of hope not dissimilar to how he began: citing the power of community to come together to address pressing issues. Stanislaus challenged Chautauquans to think critically about how they might rise to meet the moment and build community amongst each other to find solutions and innovate together.
“How can we use this moment to build a community of purpose?” he said. “Wherever you live, my vision is that we build this national platform that shares knowledge and practices that empowers the construction of local communities to solve these problems.”
