Ensuring a healthy U.S. democracy in the face of extreme weather events

Principles of resiliency and adaptation are just as important for the infrastructure of our democracy as they are for our built world. Democratic systems, processes, and institutions must be able to respond to shifting demands to address challenges created by durable changes to geography, population distribution, and economic centers caused by extreme weather events.  

The latest research indicates that average global temperatures are increasing faster than previously projected. And the United States is experiencing its impacts in the form of more frequent and more severe climate events—including floods, fire, and heat.  

Accelerating extreme weather events have inspired creative solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change on physical infrastructure: Copenhagen’s permeable tiled roads absorb stormwater, Timor-Leste’s vetiver grass plantings prevent landslides, and New York City’s reflective “cool roofs” reduce urban heat capture. Despite these efforts, there can be little doubt that climate change will profoundly alter physical geographies, disrupt access to natural resources, and force migration from vulnerable regions, all of which will redefine and reshape economic, political, and economic centers.  

These changes will have cascading effects for U.S. democratic systems—voting precincts, legislative and judicial districts, and other expressions of federal and regional power—which are organized geographically.  

Extreme weather events disrupt voting systems and exacerbate inequities 

Because U.S. democratic institutions tie voting systems and political power to fixed districts, managing highly mobile populations with rapidly shifting needs is challenging. So, when climate disasters strike, affected communities bear both the brunt of physical destruction and the long-term destabilization of their political agency. Regions devastated by climate disasters often see disruptions in voting patterns, organizing efforts, and resource distribution.  

And, as a result of historical segregation and redlining, both formal and informal, climate impacts disproportionately affect people of color and low-income people concentrated in high-climate-risk communities, exacerbating existing inequities.  

Although 91% of U.S. congressional districts include a county that has experienced a climate disaster in the last two decades, efforts to mitigate these challenges have received little attention. The short- and medium-term hurdles facing organizing groups, civic engagement organizations, and the democratic reform ecosystem have consumed organizers and leaders in these fields, leaving them frequently unable to address the long-term challenges presented by climate change.   

Identifying and funding civil society’s infrastructure needs 

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), The Partnership Funds, and Rebuild by Design have spearheaded a project that aims to address the critical gap between relevant needs identified by the field and philanthropic funding strategies in order to better support adaptation and resiliency efforts. How? By leveraging information from civic engagement organizations to reimagine resilience principles for social and political systems.  

A diverse group of funders, climate experts, and structural democracy reformers will identify resources, practices, and partnerships to support a national grassroots-driven design project that will guide philanthropy in funding the infrastructure and tools organizers, policy makers, and communities need to anticipate and cope with climate-related shocks. The early design work was supported by Schmidt Futures and U.S. Energy Foundation through Keecha Harris and Associates.   

In early 2025, the project will conduct its first pilot, including a philanthropic learning community in the Southeast, supported by Democracy Fund, Fetzer Institute, MacArthur Foundation, and RBF.  

How funders can help civil society prepare for climate-related shocks

Support organizing groups and build climate connectivity 

Just as voter data drives outreach efforts, climate data must become similarly accessible and meaningful. Organizers can develop operational knowledge of climate projections by establishing relationships with climate scientists and sustainability directors in local and municipal governments to align their strategies with emerging realities. A climate-resilient democracy will also require funding and resources for cross-cutting analysis of the impacts of climate change on political systems and the development of corresponding resilience planning, mitigation strategies, and emergency response.  

Integrate local learnings into strategy 

While philanthropy can identify problems in order to shape strong and meaningful solutions, funders must listen to civic engagement and organizing groups about the specific challenges they face at the intersection of climate and democracy. From that learning, a set of solutions defined by the organizations and residents who know their communities best can drive a well-funded infrastructure to support organizations advancing self-determinative, powerful communities, even in the face of persistent and enduring extreme weather events.  

Design resilient structures and systems

Adaptive political and organizing strategies alone cannot address democracy’s vulnerability to climate change. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we understand and express power within our form of representative democracy, with new policies and practical recommendations to create inclusive, pluralistic, and adaptable systems. These systems must be able to withstand frequent population and economic shifts and ensure representation in the face of geographic instability.  

Climate change and extreme weather events create fundamental challenges to how society is organized and governed. Enduring impacts from events like floods, wildfires, and droughts transcend static jurisdictional boundaries and political ideologies. 

“Climate change is scary,” Keya Chatterjee, former executive director of the U.S. Climate Action Network, said during a discussion. “But it is also hopeful. It gives us an unyielding deadline for righting some of the core wrongs in our society and to build a society where we all can thrive together.”  

By proactively addressing climate change’s impacts on democracy and following the leadership of organizations like Rebuild by Design, Organizing Resilience, The Guinier Project at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice, and others, we can reimagine the processes used to solve complex problems, and the U.S. can turn a looming threat into a catalyst for transformation.  

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund