The signs are all around us – the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has declared July 2023 as the warmest on record, reaching 1.5C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Furthermore, 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest years since readings were first taken more than 170 years ago. Canada is also experiencing its worst-ever wildfire season, with more than 13 million acres of forest burned this year. The smoke from these fires has drifted south of the border, turning the skies of New York and the US Northeast an eerie shade of orange.
The rising temperatures also contribute to stronger hurricanes, as warmer air temperatures mean that there is more moisture in the air, leading to stronger storm winds and more intense rainfall. Last year’s Hurricane Ian was the deadliest to hit Florida since 1935, causing around 150 fatalities.
These are just some of the alarming signs of climate change and its effects that can be felt all over the world, as well as in the US. People must take protective action in the face of climate-influenced disasters such as hurricanes, heatwaves, and wildfires, as they become more frequent and more severe. As the global population continues to increase, the human cost of these disasters will rise. While earthquakes and tsunamis aren’t linked to a warming climate, growing population density in cities will also amplify the effect of these disasters. In 2015, a Pulitzer-winning article by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker alerted the public and the authorities to the previously unknown earthquake risk in the US Northwest. The following year, the White House hosted an Earthquake Resilience Summit to bring together the whole community, including scientists, engineers, public officials, nonprofits and businesses to improve resilience to earthquakes and other hazards.
According to John Lawson, executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, the worsening effects of climate change and natural disasters demonstrate the need for a more advanced emergency messaging and warning system that can reach as many Americans as possible, resulting in the saving of many lives. AWARN seeks to bring together emergency managers and broadcasters, both public and private, to adopt the ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV, transmission standard. To achieve this, the organization is conducting roundtables across the country with various stakeholders. By using this system, local stations will gain the ability to deliver geo-targeted multimedia alerts to various consumer devices.
Lawson agrees with what most leading climate scientists are saying – that climate change can no longer be stopped, and that we can only mitigate it by cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to its effects. Lawson says that one of the most important elements of resilience is building a better warning system. The US’ current Emergency Alert System is already outdated and inadequate, and it is completely voluntary for broadcasters. The only exception mandated by law is to carry a message from the President of the United States in case of a nuclear attack. The US also has the Wireless Emergency Alert System that sends text messages to smartphones for a variety of alerts, including AMBER alerts for missing children. However social scientists, including the late Dr. Dennis Mileti, have found that short text messages are not enough information to prompt people to take immediate protective action.
However, the technology to create a better and more advanced emergency messaging system already exists, and it has already been tested. Earlier this year, AWARN partnered with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and Sinclair Broadcast Group in a pilot application of the ATSC 3.0 technology in the Washington, D.C. area.
ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV is an over-the-air transmission standard that provides numerous advantages over the old emergency alert system, which dates back to the Cold War. Instead of using simple text scrolling across a TV screen, the technology can warn residents that a tornado or hurricane is approaching by showing messages in multiple languages and with multimedia elements, including weather images, evacuation routes, shelter locations, and flood levels.
Lawson says that one extremely important aspect of the technology is that it can be geo-targeted with high accuracy, so only people who are likely to be affected by the disaster will receive the notifications. He says that this is extremely important because people who often receive false alarms or emergency alerts irrelevant to them will learn to tune them out and ignore them, even in the face of a real emergency.
Additionally, because TV stations operate independently of the cellular network and have backup power, they can continue to distribute emergency messages, even when the cellular network or electric grids are down, allowing residents to receive the messages on battery-operated devices, such as smartphones. According to Lawson, residents can receive the alerts through set-top boxes connected to their TVs, as well as through home-based media server devices that monitor for emergency signals and broadcast the messages to all WiFi- and Bluetooth-connected devices in the home.
“There's a very high level of interest from emergency managers about adopting this technology, because it has excellent geo-targeting capabilities and can broadcast rich media. However, there is no national leadership that is carrying the flag for broadcasters to adopt ATSC 3.0 and NextGen. This is why we are engaging with stakeholders all over the country and working with local governments to trial this system and demonstrate its effectiveness in helping people mitigate the effects of climate change, which we are experiencing to a greater degree today,” Lawson says.
Media contact:
Name: John M. Lawson
Email: [email protected]
