In just over a week, several California cities have received over half their average annual rainfall causing widespread flooding. These cities include Oakland, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco among others. However, this large amount of precipitation does not alleviate the state's historic drought. In fact, droughts exacerbate flooding, by reducing the ground's ability to absorb the barrage of water. The flooding has caused death, loss of property, and damage to the state's infrastructure, disrupting lives with a yet-unknown cost of recovery.
Strong storms and unusually early tornadoes swept through swathes of Alabama and Georgia, also causing loss of lives and severe property damage. The warm, moist air necessary for tornado formation is increasing as temperatures rise worldwide.
These strong storms once again demonstrate that a warming climate is making storms stronger, more frequent, and more widespread.
We can no longer speak as if the climate crisis is coming. It is here and its negative effects will only increase over time. We as a field must take steps to minimize our impact and we can. We can greatly influence how cultural institutions condition their indoor climates, which often require huge energy expenditures, and is the source of our largest negative impact. The AIC Sustainability Committee encourages you to advocate to and work with your building's engineers to identify strategies to minimize energy usage.
To learn more about how the climate crisis is impacting cultural heritage, here are a few sources:
THROUGH STORM, FLOOD, AND FIRE: Protecting Cultural Heritage from Disaster
Floods and Their Impact on Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Southern and Eastern Serbia
VULNERABILITY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Promoting Disaster Resilient Cultural Heritage
To learn more about energy saving strategies, we recommend:
Ki Culture's Climate Conference
IPI Energy Strategies Resources
The following resources can help you to calculate your institution's energy usage:
Environment and Culture Partners Carbon Inventory Project
Gallery Climate Coalition Climate Calculator
Stay tuned for an upcoming SC virtual series "Conversations with Changemakers" where we'll speak with institutions in the US and abroad to share what strategies they are implementing and how these strategies minimize their greenhouse gas emissions while preserving their collections.
FAIC is working hard to respond, assist, and provide resources to address such disasters. To learn more about and Support FAIC's Emergency Fund, see below:
Disasters wreak havoc on our shared cultural heritage and cause water, mold, smoke, soot, and other destructive damage to our precious artifacts. Museums, libraries, archives, and other institutions can rely on the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) for volunteer expertise and resources to provide hands-on support, assessments, and training to aid in the recovery process, all at no cost. Year-round, FAIC delivers a breadth of vital emergency programs to collections care professionals about planning and preparedness, risk assessment and mitigation, and building a network of response partnerships. Recently, FAIC-trained National Heritage Responders returned from deployment in flood-impacted Appalachian Kentucky, where they helped salvage important cultural heritage. FAIC Emergency Programs Manager Elaina Gregg was deployed in Florida where she helped communities impacted by Hurricane Ian learn about how to protect treasured family heirlooms.
Please help FAIC continue with these emergency programs as well as respond to disasters like the recent flooding in California and the tornado in Alabama, by making a gift to FAIC's Emergency Fund. Your gift provides free support to institutions recovering from disasters and enables FAIC to continue delivering essential emergency preparedness programs nationwide.
Click here to make a secure donation to FAIC's Emergency Fund today.
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