Tracy Mehan Speaks on Climate Change Adaptation for Water, Energy, People
(October 19, 2007) — The Cadmus Group, a Boston-based environmental and energy consulting firm with offices in Arlington, Virginia; Los Angeles, California; and Helena, Montana; hosted a climate change event at the Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. on October 18. Cadmus Principal G. Tracy Mehan, a former assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), presented, “Adapting to a Changing Climate: Water, Energy, People.”
The event drew an audience of over 80 people from a variety of organizations who share concerns about climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia Climate Initiative and Ducks Unlimited were among the many organizations represented.
Mr. Mehan noted in his address that society must to learn to adapt to climate change, whatever its causes. “Adaptation offers immediate, tangible, cost-effective, necessary, and, therefore, politically sustainable methods of coping with climate change,” said Mr. Mehan. “The focus must be on change to fit the new situation.”
“A shifting climate will drive us to alter the ways we manage ourselves, our natural resources, and our economy,” Mehan said. “It will surely require systemic economic and societal transformation amounting to cultural change, hopefully more evolutionary than revolutionary, avoiding severe impacts to our communities, our pocketbooks, and the ecosystems upon which we depend.”
Mehan said that water is one area in which the negative impacts of climate change manifest themselves already. Despite uncertainties in terms of drought, snow pack, and rainfall, he said, utility managers should undertake “planning for uncertainty,” which entails implementing precautionary, adaptive strategies designed to foster utility systems and operations which are robust, resilient, and flexible in anticipating alternative climate scenarios.
Mr. Mehan summarized that America will need a diverse portfolio of technologies, management systems, economic tools, and creativity to adapt to uncertain climate patterns and their impact on the water cycle. “Adapting to climate change requires that we attend to the many and varied aspects of water, energy, and people to cope with tremendous changes in the environment, the economy, and society as a whole,” he concluded.
The Cadmus Group is an active participant in climate initiatives. Cadmus supports the ENERGY STAR® program and other climate initiatives under EPA’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division. One such initiative, Climate Leaders, is a group of 100+ companies representing more than eight percent of the total U.S. Greenhouse Gas emissions, all of whom set ambitious goals for emissions reductions. According to Mr. Mehan, ‘Stakeholder activism, especially on the part of stockholders, is elevating climate change to the top of the agenda, eclipsing all other environmental issues.”
Under a joint project with EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water and the Climate Change Division, Cadmus also supports development of a proposed regulation to address injection of CO2 for the purposes of geologic sequestration, part of a portfolio of options to stabilize atmospheric CO2 levels and mitigate climate change. The proposed rule, which will be within the Underground Injection Control Program’s regulatory framework, will manage injection of CO2 in a manner that protects underground drinking water sources.
Next year will mark the 25th year that The Cadmus Group has been working with government agencies and other organizations to proactively address critical environmental and energy concerns like climate change.
About The Cadmus Group, Inc.
Founded in 1983, employee-owned Cadmus (https://cadmusgroup.com) helps government, nonprofit, and corporate clients address critical challenges in the environmental and energy sectors. We provide an array of research and analytical services in the United States and abroad, specializing in solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking. Among Cadmus’ major practice areas are Drinking Water and Water Quality, Communications and Social Marketing, Energy Services (including energy efficiency and renewable energy), Risk Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmentally Sound Design, and Environmental Management.
Our staff includes scientists; engineers; statisticians; economists; MBAs; marketing, public relations, and communications professionals; attorneys; information technology specialists; and public policy analysts. Many of our senior consultants are nationally recognized experts in their fields and several serve on high-level U.S. government science advisory board.
