Building resilience to climate hazards requires an intentional effort to connect at-risk communities to the resources and information they need to develop effective responses, Lauren Alexander Augustine told the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis last week. Augustine, the executive director of the Gulf Research Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, made her remarks at a hearing focused on federal strategies for equitable adaptation and resilience.

Climate change has disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities, she said. “Disasters magnify the inequities that exist in societies — race, income, language, mobility — such that those who are already at a disadvantage see their disadvantages compound when disasters strike.” Therefore, an effective strategy must find the right balance in managing three interconnected pieces that drive resilience: the environment, economy, and demographics.

Augustine argued resilience is like a zipper. “There are many pieces to it that, when undone, do not do anyone much good. But together, resilience connects distant ends into something useful, strong, and protective.” Resilience emerges when local communities can harness support from all levels of government — under a mix of policies and practices — to plan and prepare for, absorb, respond to, and recover from disasters and adapt to new conditions, she said, and federal efforts should focus on reducing barriers and silos that inhibit this kind of integration.

Emphasizing “the fierce urgency of now,” Augustine noted that the Gulf of Mexico region is particularly vulnerable to climate threats, with Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida accounting for more than 60% of federal disaster relief expenditures. “If we can find a workable balance in this region, we can find a solution for the country,” she said.

Read Augustine’s full testimony here and watch an archived video of the hearing here.