References “Climate Change” Removed from FEMA Documents

References “Climate Change” Removed from FEMA Documents

On March 15, 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published a new strategic plan in which all references to “climate change” and “global warming” have been removed.

According to a report in Bloomberg, whereas FEMA’s previous strategic plans had emphasized the threats posed by climate change, “the new document does not mention climate, global warming, sea-level rise, extreme weather, or any other terminology associated with scientific predictions of rising surface temperatures and their effects.” The document does refer to “natural hazards,” such as wildfires and hurricanes, the risk of which is said to be “rising.” It does not, however, identify climate change as a cause of the expected rise in natural hazard risk. That omission has been attributed to FEMA Director Brock Long who, according to the Bloomberg report, has equivocated on whether climate change is real and man-made. In an interview with Bloomberg last summer, he said “the term climate change has become such a political hot button that, I think, keeps us from having a real dialogue.”